Creating a successful Facebook Ads campaign can be an art form in itself. The right audience, timing and message takes precision to nail down, especially when it comes to using online ads as a way to boost ticket sales. The 919 Beer team, a craft beer promotions company based in North Carolina, approached Rockhouse Partners three weeks before the Beericana Craft Beer and Music Festival to launch a Facebook Ads campaign to bring more beer enthusiasts to the event.
The Challenge
Beericana, featuring over 60 different North Carolina breweries and drawing 3,000 beer fans annually, takes place the second weekend of September in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The 919 Beer team needed a quick and inexpensive way to sell more tickets, grow their email database, and raise general awareness for the festival. Facebook ads was the ideal way to hit all three of these goals.[divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][image_with_animation image_url=”29714″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_target=”_blank” img_link=”https://triangleexplorer.com/2015/10/02/a-look-back-at-the-2015-beericana-craft-beer-festival-in-holly-springs/”]
What We Did
Developed an action plan to capture new customer data and drive ticket sales
Our first goal was to grow the Beericana email list. The 919 Beer team created a special giveaway prize package and we created a Facebook Ad content strategy that targeted email data collection. Our plan was to let the giveaway, a simple email and phone number capture contest, run for 12 days and then send targeted emails promoting the festival to entrants.
Created an Audience in Facebook
A Facebook Ad is only as successful as the audience it reaches. Our first instinct was to create an audience for the ad that included past ticket buyers and utilized Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences feature.
- First, we created a custom audience by uploading the Beericana email database and having Facebook match the emails to their users.
- Next, we took that audience and created a Lookalike Audience. Facebook creates Lookalike Audiences by taking the data of the users in your custom audience and finding other users with similar online behavior and interests.
- Then we filtered the audience by location, using several of the cities 919 Beer regularly has business in.
Designed and ran the Ad
For the Facebook Ad, we used a highlight video from the previous year’s Beericana instead of a static graphic promoting the prize package. We’ve found that Facebook videos have a higher conversion rate than photos, and wanted to let the audience visualize the experience. We kept the text simple and included two links: the first to enter the contest and the second to buy tickets.
Monitored the results of the Ad and adjusted as needed
Facebook Ads require close monitoring and adjustment to get the most out of an ad budget. After two days of tracking the contest entry page, we weren’t seeing the results we wanted and decided to change our targeting. This is is not uncommon for an online campaign, as each online campaign performs differently. We decided to use a Saved Audience, which is built solely using Facebook’s data. We targeted highly relevant interests to craft beer, local breweries, and beer festival events and scaled our location to a 50-mile radius of Holly Springs. The results from this new audience produced immediate positive results.
[image_with_animation image_url=”29713″ alignment=”center” max-width=”200px” animation=”Fade In”]
The Results
-
45,000 Facebook Ad impressions in 12 days.
-
500+ email and mobile number captures
-
25x return on Facebook Ads campaign spend
-
Over $5,000 in ticket sales
Creating a successful Facebook Ads campaign can be an art form in itself. The right audience, timing and message takes precision to nail down, especially when it comes to using online ads as a way to boost ticket sales. The 919 Beer team, a craft beer promotions company based in North Carolina, approached Rockhouse Partners three weeks before the Beericana Craft Beer and Music Festival to launch a Facebook Ads campaign to bring more beer enthusiasts to the event.
The Challenge
Beericana, featuring over 60 different North Carolina breweries and drawing 3,000 beer fans annually, takes place the second weekend of September in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The 919 Beer team needed a quick and inexpensive way to sell more tickets, grow their email database, and raise general awareness for the festival. Facebook ads was the ideal way to hit all three of these goals.[divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][image_with_animation image_url=”29714″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_target=”_blank” img_link=”https://triangleexplorer.com/2015/10/02/a-look-back-at-the-2015-beericana-craft-beer-festival-in-holly-springs/”]
What We Did
Developed an action plan to capture new customer data and drive ticket sales
Our first goal was to grow the Beericana email list. The 919 Beer team created a special giveaway prize package and we created a Facebook Ad content strategy that targeted email data collection. Our plan was to let the giveaway, a simple email and phone number capture contest, run for 12 days and then send targeted emails promoting the festival to entrants.
Created an Audience in Facebook
A Facebook Ad is only as successful as the audience it reaches. Our first instinct was to create an audience for the ad that included past ticket buyers and utilized Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences feature.
- First, we created a custom audience by uploading the Beericana email database and having Facebook match the emails to their users.
- Next, we took that audience and created a Lookalike Audience. Facebook creates Lookalike Audiences by taking the data of the users in your custom audience and finding other users with similar online behavior and interests.
- Then we filtered the audience by location, using several of the cities 919 Beer regularly has business in.
Designed and ran the Ad
For the Facebook Ad, we used a highlight video from the previous year’s Beericana instead of a static graphic promoting the prize package. We’ve found that Facebook videos have a higher conversion rate than photos, and wanted to let the audience visualize the experience. We kept the text simple and included two links: the first to enter the contest and the second to buy tickets.
Monitored the results of the Ad and adjusted as needed
Facebook Ads require close monitoring and adjustment to get the most out of an ad budget. After two days of tracking the contest entry page, we weren’t seeing the results we wanted and decided to change our targeting. This is is not uncommon for an online campaign, as each online campaign performs differently. We decided to use a Saved Audience, which is built solely using Facebook’s data. We targeted highly relevant interests to craft beer, local breweries, and beer festival events and scaled our location to a 50-mile radius of Holly Springs. The results from this new audience produced immediate positive results.
[image_with_animation image_url=”29713″ alignment=”center” max-width=”200px” animation=”Fade In”]
The Results
-
45,000 Facebook Ad impressions in 12 days.
-
500+ email and mobile number captures
-
25x return on Facebook Ads campaign spend
-
Over $5,000 in ticket sales
