How to Grow Event Revenue: Tips from Successful Organizers

Are you leaving thousands of dollars on the table at your event? If you don’t plan your event strategically, use creative marketing, and maximize your resources, you might be.

But rest assured — there’s no shortage of ways to maximize revenue. 

In this article, we’ll share proven tips from successful event organizers who’ve used cutting-edge tools and techniques to achieve revenue gains. From targeted ads to AI-powered marketing and verified ticket resale, these real-world Eventbrite organizer case studies provide actionable insights for every type of event. 

Discover how to attract more attendees, bring more attention, and cultivate a loyal community to unlock lasting revenue potential.

Grow event revenue with better event ads

Advertising can be a game-changer for event organizers looking to maximize revenue. With the right ads, you can fill seats, reach new audiences, and stretch your marketing budget further than ever. Here’s how top event organizers use targeted ads to drive success:

1. Maximize visibility with targeted event ads

Targeted event ads raise awareness and attract your target audience. Just look at Riot Comedy Club’s example: By allocating just $45 over a four-day campaign, they positioned their event listing at the top of Eventbrite’s search results, generating over 1,100 impressions at a cost of $0.24 per impression. 

This clever strategy got their event more attention and packed the house. By keeping their campaign focused and efficient, the Riot Comedy Club proved that even small budgets can make a big impact. 

2. Use social media ads to reach wider audiences

Social media advertising is a powerful tool for reaching broader audiences and raising event attendance. BeerFest Australia is a great example of this in how they leverage platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote their festivals. 

By running targeted ads featuring event details and engaging visuals, they achieved a 5.9x return on ad spend  (ROAS), reaching over 51,000 people and selling more tickets.

Sure, this strategy brought in ticket sales, but more importantly, they reached a whole new audience. BeerFest Australia’s success shows how smart social media ads can make your event the talk of the town (or even the globe).

3. Optimize return on ad spend

Maximizing your ROAS is key to driving event revenue. The Butterfly Club in Melbourne nailed it. Using Eventbrite, they achieved an impressive 5.4x ROAS with a budget of just A$50 over 11 days. By focusing their ads on audiences interested in LGBTQIA+ entertainment, they successfully promoted their show “Bottom” during the Midsumma Festival. 

This approach led to A$270 in ticket sales from the ads. It shows that precise budgeting and targeting can boost marketing efficiency and profits. With Facebook Ads getting more expensive every year, every cent counts. 

4. Drive revenue with targeted same-day ad campaigns

Need to fill seats fast? Same-day ad campaigns are another effective tool for driving last-minute ticket sales. Take Something Dope for the People as an example — they used Eventbrite’s email marketing tools to send a same-day reminder for their open mic event at The Bourbon Room in Hollywood. 

The results? A whopping 67% open rate and 21 additional ticket purchases, accounting for 9% of total sales. This timely, targeted strategy not only filled the room but also brought in more revenue. It’s proof that a well-timed nudge can make all the difference in event success. 

5. Achieve higher return on investment with platform-specific ads

Using platform-specific advertising can be a great way to improve your return on investment (ROI) for event promotions. Aykut Events, a San Francisco-based organizer, leveraged Eventbrite Ads to spotlight their New Year’s Eve event at the W Hotel. 

Focusing on driving traffic to their event listing through a single platform gave them platform-specific expertise and achieved a 488% return on ad spend (ROAS), earning $4.88 for every dollar spent. Focusing on one platform simplified their strategy and gave them real-time insights to ensure every dollar worked as hard as possible. Talk about maximizing bang for your buck!

How to bring in more attendees

The most straightforward way to grow your event revenue is by getting more people through the door. More attendees means more ticket sales, more merchandise purchases, and more opportunities to create a vibrant and engaging experience. 

But bringing in larger crowds isn’t just about casting a wider net — it also means using smart strategies to target the right people at the right time with the right message.

Here’s how successful event planners are raising both growth and attendance.

6. Increase ticket sales with last-minute reminders and promotions

Last-minute event reminders and promotions can raise your ticket sales — whether for in-person or virtual events. Salt Lake Power Yoga used Eventbrite’s email marketing tools to promote its “State of Mind: Yoga at the Capitol” event. 

By sending an email announcement the day before, they achieved a 36.8% open rate, resulting in 226 ticket sales. This filled the remaining spots and maximized their revenue. That’s the impact of timely, targeted communications in driving attendance. 

7. Simplify marketing with AI-powered copy and targeting tools

Using AI-powered marketing tools can streamline event promotion and let you focus on other revenue-raising areas. Duck Club, a Boise-based concert producer, used Eventbrite’s AI text generator to put together compelling event listings and advertisements quickly. 

This tool lets organizers like them launch ad campaigns 30% faster, targeting audiences and ticket sales while letting them focus on other areas of event production. That time savings gives them and other event organizers the opportunity to organize more events and add more features to the events they put together, ultimately raising revenue growth.

8. Create specialized campaigns to reach new customer segments

When you tailor your marketing to specific audience segments, you can increase attendance rates — the people who see your campaigns are more likely to be interested.

From the Vine to Wine, a Portsmouth-based wine education business, promoted their food and wine pairings workshop with Eventbrite’s email marketing tools to reach people who might not have otherwise attended.

“I was trying to find a way to market my events outside of my audience on Instagram or my newsletter or my blog,” she says. “I’ve found Eventbrite to be the best way to expand my reach. And it’s quite quick and simple to use”, says Anne Richter Arnold, workshop leader.

Arnold sent personalized emails to nearly 50 people. An incredible 87.2% of those people opened those emails, and 14.9% of recipients took the next step to click through to the Food and Wine Pairings Workshop invitation.

And this is no surprise. Events promoted with email marketing campaigns sell an average of four times more tickets than those that aren’t. By sending personalized emails, From the Vine to Wine made their event accessible to a new crowd of people who weren’t following them on other channels.

9. Drive ticket sales with event discovery pages

Raising your event’s discoverability means higher visibility, which ultimately leads to higher attendance. MAMA’s Nightmarket, a Los Angeles-based event celebrating multicultural cuisine, made their events more discoverable by optimizing their event pages and getting them in front of more people with Eventbrite Ads.

But ads aren’t the only secret here. Making the event discoverable and searchable on Eventbrite and including event specifics such as the date, time, and event venue, made it easier to find. In fact, 28% of tickets sold on Eventbrite come from people searching directly through the platform.

10. Increase discoverability with SEO-optimized event listings

Building event discoverability through search engine optimization (SEO) is another great way to attract new attendees. The Vermont Hollywood, a 13,000-square-foot entertainment venue, put their events in front of more people by optimizing their event pages on Eventbrite. 

Eventbrite’s event page templates are created to place events front and center, making it easier for listings to appear at the top of the search results. Add to that the Eventbrite site’s reputation on search engines, and pretty soon, their events showed up in the top three Google search results for Los Angeles events. This improvement in search rankings led to more people visiting their event page and buying tickets. 

11. Use multi-channel marketing

Multi-channel marketing involves combining multiple marketing avenues. It helps broaden your event’s reach and engage more people. 

For example, Founders Village combined Eventbrite Ads with email marketing and social media promotions to drive attendance for their Tech Weekend events. By diversifying their approach, they ensured their message reached potential attendees across multiple touchpoints, increasing the likelihood of people buying tickets. 

Their combination of email campaigns, targeted ads, and engaging social event content resulted in highly effective event marketing. This multi-channel strategy sold more tickets and strengthened their brand presence.

12. Use analytics to refine campaigns and improve revenue

Regularly analyzing event data is another good way to refine your marketing strategy and increase revenue. 

Harpoon Brewery is a great example of this approach. By closely monitoring ticket sales patterns, they observed that sales often surge in the 48 hours leading up to an event. 

Armed with this insight, they implemented targeted email campaigns and promotions during this critical period, resulting in increased attendance and revenue. This data-driven strategy allowed Harpoon Brewery to optimize its marketing efforts and allocate resources efficiently to maximize event success. 

Additional revenue streams through events

Expanding event revenue streams beyond ticket sales can make you more profitable and make your events even more memorable. By using these, organizers can create new income avenues and provide added value to participants.

13. Use your event to market other products or services

Events serve as excellent platforms to showcase and promote other products or services

The Hayes Law Firm, specializing in estate planning and probate law, educated attendees on complex legal topics with their webinar series.

By offering free sessions on relevant subjects, they helped people out and positioned their legal services to potential clients. This approach transformed attendees into clients, generating revenue beyond the event itself.

14. Upsell premium packages

Offering premium attendee experiences can also bring in more event revenue. 

For instance, the band Leprous consistently sells VIP tickets on Eventbrite. These special ticket types include exclusive experiences like meet-and-greets, early entry, and special merchandise. This allows them to increase ticket prices and brings in more revenue per attendee, helping them make their events more profitable. 

Attendees are often willing to pay a premium for enhanced experiences, making VIP access a lucrative addition to standard ticket offerings. 

15. Sell exclusive merchandise

Exclusive merchandise creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity among attendees. Britteny Floyd-Mayo, known as Trap Yoga Bae, successfully did this by offering unique merchandise bundles alongside her events. 

Using Eventbrite’s “add-ons” feature, she gave attendees the option to purchase items like branded apparel and yoga accessories during the ticket-buying process. 

Remember, event merchandise can bring almost as much revenue as event tickets. It’s a great way to create an even more meaningful event and open a profitable revenue stream at the same time.

16. Add verified resale to limit refunds

A verified ticket resale platform can lower the number of times customers ask for refunds and prevent ticket fraud. 

Linganore Winecellars used Eventbrite with Tixel so attendees could resell their tickets securely. This allowed attendees who couldn’t come to resell their tickets safely, and genuine buyers could get legitimate tickets. 

By providing a trusted resale avenue, Linganore Winecellars minimized refund requests and maintained event attendance levels.

Use the right tools to boost your event revenue

All the examples above have one thing in common: Their revenue growth was supported by using the right tools. In all of these cases, the tools these organizers relied on was… (you guessed it) Eventbrite.

That’s because Eventbrite is full of ways to help you make your events more profitable. Whether that’s by optimizing your ads for ROI, expanding your audience, or just making regular tasks easier so you can focus elsewhere, we’re here to help.