MPG’s recent roundtable discussion brought together senior event marketers to talk about PPC (pay-per-click) and paid media strategies.

Here are 5 important things we all took away from this session…

#1 Lead time, planning, preparation & an evolving approach are all essential ingredients for a strong ROI

A good lead time, strong planning and thorough preparation is essential for successful digital advertising. Starting around 25 weeks before the event is ideal, although beginning earlier can also lend advantages. The right lead time depends on the size and nature of your event, budget available and your objectives. Your ad approach should evolve as the event does, providing richer information as the product develops. Starting early and using the best available content and messaging is always important.

Talk to Team MPG about how we approach planning for the PPC/Paid Media campaigns we manage for organisers of conferences and exhibitions. Get in touch >>

#2 Retargeting and geofencing are smart ways to hit the right people at the right time

Bringing back web visitors who have previously engaged with your event marketing and website is a smart way to nurture your funnel. And focusing your campaigns and spend on specific geographic areas when you know your ideal customers will be there (e.g. when a competitor event is running) is also an intelligent way to hit ‘the right people at the right time’.

What to know more about geofencing and results achieved by MPG using this method? We’d love to chat. Contact us today >>

#3 Measuring and benchmarking conversions: don’t invest in PPC or paid social without this in place!

It is tragically common to see event organisers pouring money into digital advertising without any idea of the true ROI. Why is this disastrous? 2 reasons…

1. PPC and paid social are the most measurable marketing activities you can invest in. Metrics you focus on will depend on campaign objectives, should be benchmarked on a regular basis (ideally weekly), and should appear in regular reports. The most important metric, when tying performance directly to revenue, is your average cost for generating leads and registrants i.e. CPA (cost per acquisition).
2. Digital agencies have managed to persuade the events industry to spend millions on campaigns and then report ‘performance’ using the largely meaningless metrics of CPC (cost per click) and volume of traffic to the website. 

Money wasted on PPC/Paid Media because agencies or internal specialists are not being held accountable with proper performance reporting needs to stop. At a time when marketing budgets are already squeezed and marketing ROI is more important than ever, wasting money on poorly measured and therefore poorly optimised campaigns is tragic.

MPG’s unique suite of marketing measurement dashboards include one specifically focused on PPC/Paid Media. Ask for a demo >>

#4 Ongoing knowledge sharing and collaboration is needed to make platforms work for events businesses

Committed digital advertising specialists, including those in Team MPG, will work hard every day to make sure they understand how ad platforms algorithms are working and changing over time. Bringing experts together as we did at our recent roundtable is an example of the kind of knowledge sharing and collaboration that is needed to get ahead. These kinds of meetings and discussions should be happening frequently within businesses and between event organisers and their PPC agencies.

Do you want to be invited to a future marketing knowledge sharing and collaboration roundtable? We do these in-person and online – covering a variety of topics focused on achieving strong, visible performance from your event marketing efforts. Contact us to request invitations to future MPG roundtables >>

#5 Educating stakeholders about PPC is essential

This empowers them to understand the value it brings and how to best leverage it for optimal results. PPC is very powerful and effective when it is well done. But it is not a ‘quick fix’. Gaining the advantage with well-managed PPC requires a strategic mindset, good organisation, forward planning and consistent effort.

Event marketers need to ensure easy-to-understand performance dashboards are in place and visible to all stakeholders. Results need to be communicated well, consistently and meaningfully. If senior stakeholders and budget owners can see how PPC is performing and be confident in its power to drive growth and create value – they’ll want to invest.

If you want a complimentary 1 hour consultation from Team MPG on how to ensure your marketing efforts and results are well communicated to your senior stakeholders, let us know. Or maybe you’re a senior stakeholder or budget owner who wants better visibility of your marketing ROI? Get in touch and we’ll schedule a call with you >>

Overall, the roundtable discussion reinforced the inherent complexity of managing PPC and paid social, and how easy it is to waste a lot of money on this channel if the experts being trusted are not doing what they need to do.

At the same time, there is a growing and burning need for this channel to work well for event organisers, especially when email deliverability has become much more problematic in recent months.

We all have to get on this digital marketing train, whether we like it or not. And we need to make sure those we’ve entrusted with the controls really know what they’re doing!

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