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Facebook events are a staple in the event marketing toolkit. Once set up, we create awareness with adverts targeting our audience by location, interests and behaviours. 

This is all great stuff, but the introduction of Facebook's new custom audience engagement option which focuses on events, allows us to delve even deeper. We are now able to create stronger and more carefully targeted marketing campaigns for our events.

So, what's new?

For a while now you've been able to either include or exclude people who have responded to your event via your Facebook Ads Manager but this has been limited to any type of interaction with the event. Also, this option was only available on current/upcoming events, there was no option to target those who responded to past events.

The new custom audience engagement feature allows you to target those who interacted with both past and/or current events. You can also filter by interaction in the following ways:

  • People who responded Going or Interested
  • People who have responded Going
  • People who have responded Interested

There's the option to drill-down even further by filtering the above options by a given time period in which they took that action e.g. people who responded interested in the last 10 days.

You can do all of this across multiple events too!

How can I use this to help promote my event?

With this new feature, you're able to use more tailored messaging and refine your campaigns. This, in turn, will deliver more bang for your Facebook advertising buck. Here are our thoughts on how to put custom audience engagement into action for your events:

Engage your advocates
A campaign targeted at those who have already marked they are going to your event can certainly reap rewards! Share exclusive content with them which not only keeps your event top-of-mind but also incentivises your event-goers to spread the word amongst their circles. If you've just launched a new event, why not target those who attended previously? They clearly have a vested interest in your event and a higher likelihood to attend again!

Topple those fence-sitters
Create a campaign for those who have marked 'interested' in your event to get them to commit to attending. Think of this as a remarketing tool. If they're interested in your current event, share reasons why it shouldn't be missed. For those interested in previous events, highlight what a success that event was, giving them the sense that they don't want to miss out again!

Complete the circle
Your marketing shouldn't stop just because the event is over. A post-event campaign is invaluable to any event series. Reach out to attendees with surveys, drive them to your page, lead them to write a review, share photos etc. Oh, and of course get them to sign-up to the next event!

Finally, how do I set this up?

Here are the steps you need to take to find this new feature:

  1. Log into your Facebook Ads Manager account
  2. Begin creating your advert as normal
  3. Once in the audience section, you will see 'custom audiences' - this is the selection you want
  4. You will be presented with a 'create a custom audience' menu - select 'Engagement'
  5. You will then be provided with more options - click 'Event' which is the last option on the list
  6. Here you will be able to pick your event(s) and the way you wish to target 
  7. Once you've selected the targeting you want, click 'create audience' and carry on setting up the rest of your campaign in the usual way

So there you have it! A great step forward in ensuring attendance at your next event.

If you need help setting up your campaign or would like us to manage it for you, do get in touch!