Selling event tickets isn’t just about filling seats; it’s a crucial step in the event management process that can make or break your event. This blog article will look at the best ways to sell tickets to your event, especially for small to medium-event organizers.
From generating revenue to validating event viability and fostering audience engagement, ticket sales are hugely significant.
Relying solely on one online ticket sales channel, even if you pass on the high fees, will limit your reach and sales potential. Whether you’re organizing a concert, conference, gig, or an online event, understanding your ticketing options will help you maximize the event experience and minimize ticket-selling fees.
Ways to sell tickets to your event
Thanks to digital platforms, the event ticket market is growing. With online ticket sales, your event is effectively open for ticket purchases 24/7. Attendees can buy tickets using their smartphones, whether on the move or from the comfort of their homes.
We list five ways event planners and organizers can maximize ticket sales success. You can use one or more of these strategies, creating multiple touchpoints for potential ticket to interact with. Let's get started!
No matter the size or type of event, ticket sales are the lifeblood of any event.
1. Sell tickets from your website
Selling event tickets on your website usually means directly integrating a ticket sales solution into your existing website or on a landing page (event page). This may involve using a plugin or embedding a piece of code.
These are the benefits of selling on your site:
- Increase traffic to your own website
- Give you full ownership over analytics and customer data
- Ability to sell tickets on landing pages and sales funnels
- Lets you customize the customer experience
- Save you and ticket buyers from paying high ticketing fees
💡 Pro tip: You can sell event tickets from both your website and on ticketing platforms! (see FAQ below)
Event pages (event landing page)
An event page is the source of truth for potential attendees to get to know about your event and buy tickets. While ticketing platforms will auto-generate an event page for you on their site, this section refers to customizable event pages you create on your website, Content Management System (CMS), or landing page builder.
What you can use event pages for:
- Create buzz around your event by sharing it on social media
- Embed a checkout for ticket sales and add-ons
- Send the link to potential attendees so they can buy tickets online
- Use email marketing to drive ticket sales (especially for seasonal or recurring events)
- Provide updates before and after the event
- Upsell, cross-sell or sell merchandise
Related article: 10 high-converting event landing page examples (& why they convert)
Most auto-created event pages tend to have limited design and customization options.
Example event page with full design control and no platform branding:
Learn how to add Checkout Page to your website to create an event page: WordPress | Webflow | Framer | Squarespace | Wix | Unbounce | ActiveCampaign | ClickFunnels | Instapage
Related article: How to create an event registration form (+ payment)
2. Online ticketing platforms
Ticketing apps like Eventbrite are online ticketing platforms that allow event organizers to plan, promote, and sell event tickets. They’re essentially a one-stop shop for managing and selling tickets for all sorts of events, from small workshops to large concerts or conferences.
Pros:
- Seamlessly manage the whole event ticketing process
- Advanced ticketing features like seat selection or on-site check-in
- Some offer event promotion and marketing features for visibility
- Integrations with other apps
Cons:
- Platforms charge per-ticket or revenue-based fees
- You might not be able to remove platform branding
- You are paying for all features, used or unused
- Payout schedules vary, often taking a week or longer
Related articles:
10 event ticketing platforms with the lowest fees [2024]
10 Eventbrite alternatives in 2024
3. Facebook & social media
Use social media channels to reach your ideal attendees and sell more tickets. With the exception of Facebook, most other social media platforms require a sizable number of existing followers to be effective. Independent and small events will find selling event tickets on Facebook a bit of a shortcut—even if you don’t have many followers yet.
Sell tickets on Facebook Events
Facebook Events is a feature within Facebook that’s made just for individuals and event planners to create, share, and promote events. It’s a popular feature used by 700+ million people each month to market their events (source). While it is free, it has limited customization options, and you’ll still need a way to collect payments if it’s a paid event.
Types of events:
- Virtual or online
- In-person
- Video chat room events
- Facebook Live (video streaming)
How to create an event on Facebook for individuals:
- Create a new event with your personal Facebook account
- Fill in details
- Upload event cover image
- If your event is virtual/online, you can choose to add an external link to direct attendees to when the event starts (e.g. a Zoom link)
- Share and promote the link with your friends and family!
How to create an event on Facebook for businesses:
- Create a new event with a Business Facebook account
- Fill in event details
- Upload event cover image
- Add a link to purchase tickets (or integrate with selected ticketing platforms)
- Optional: Buy Facebook ads to promote your event
Resources: Create a Facebook Event (Facebook for Businesses)
⚠️ Do note that if you use a third-party ticketing platform to sell paid tickets, you will be charged the respective platform and payment processing fees.
Sell event tickets on Facebook Marketplace
Another option for sharing events on social media is using Facebook Marketplace. It’s completely free to use, and while it has similarities to Craigslist, these are the key differences:
- Facebook has over 2.989 billion monthly active users (April 2023, DataReportal)
- More rules and less anonymity compared to Craigslist
- User profiles are viewable by organizers
- Messenger provides a convenient communication channel
The downsides of using Facebook Marketplace to promote events are:
- It’s mainly for individuals to buy and sell items
- The categories are not for events
- Difficult to stand out from other posts
- The high volume of new posts created each day
While it is possible to list your event on Facebook Marketplace, we recommend individuals and businesses stick to using Facebook Events as the main way of selling tickets on Facebook.
4. Advertising (paid ads)
Leveraging advertising and partnerships is essential to maximizing ticket sales. We’ve listed this as the final featured strategy, as you need to have an event page, some social media presence, or a way for customers to view and make ticket purchases first.
Despite these fundamentals, your event’s success may not be guaranteed—you need to actively promote and market to new people to increase ticket sales.
Advertising your event
If you have a clear idea of your target audience, it will be easier to figure out where to find them. Online advertising can be cheap and broadly target a wide range of people, or it can be extremely expensive and highly targeted towards the people most likely to want to attend your event.
Event organizers commonly use Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, and community advertising (buying ads on interest or hobby groups and forums) to find the right audience.
A few points to ensure that you spend your ad money wisely:
- Use high-quality, compelling images and copy
- Know who you want to target (by demographics, interests, online behaviors, etc)
- Set an ad budget to avoid overspending
- Use advertisements alongside other promotional tactics for the best results
5. Partnerships & Sponsorships
Collaborating with local businesses will make lots of sense for certain types of events - for example, events that use equipment or supplies (e.g. yoga mats), are localized (need a venue), are a hobby, interest, or sport, require a physical location (in-person events).
Approaching these related businesses to be partners for your event to help cross-promote, sell tickets, or lend their brand name will help with ticket sales efforts.
Seeking sponsors
Sponsorship requires more commitment and involvement from sponsors and can be mutually beneficial for both parties. Similar to partnerships, consider companies or organizations that align with your event’s theme or target audience when seeking sponsors.
Sponsorship can be simple (monetary) or complex (you tap into their resources and help) and anything in between (co-branded content, exclusive offers). On your part, there will be obligations to fulfill too, so make sure you are prepared to take your event to a new level of professionalism.
Tips to sell more tickets to your event
- Own your audience: Create a dedicated event page on your website for maximum control over branding, customer data, and potential sales even after the event.
- Build strategic partnerships: Collaborate with complementary local businesses for cross-promotions or discounts. It's a win-win when you both can reach a wider, overlapping audience.
- Leverage the power of influence: Consider reaching out to influencers or micro-influencers with a specific niche following and offer them a custom discount code or commissions on ticket sales.
- Make it a group experience: Offer group discounts to incentivize attendees to spread the word and bring their friends, family, or colleagues along.
Related article: How to make more money from events: 14 ways to increase event revenue
Summary
When it comes to selling tickets, it’s important to remember that the work doesn’t end after deciding on a ticket distribution strategy. Understanding your ticket buyers, budgeting, pricing, and logistics is essential for a successful event.
We advise you to start with a dedicated event landing page on your website that includes a checkout form. Always share this link back to your site, no matter what ticket systems you use. This will make it simple and consistent for your visitors.
This way, you can direct traffic to your brand/event long after the event has ended and continue to build relationships with website visitors.
Remember that you can collect leads, offer more freebies, upsell/cross-sell, and optimize your sales funnel for conversions—things you can’t do on the standard-issue pages you get with ticketing platforms!
FAQs
What is an event page?
An event page is a standalone, specific page on a website that provides detailed information about a particular event and event ticketing. Sometimes known as an event registration form or event landing page, it typically also includes a way for visitors to purchase tickets, RSVP, or sign up for the event directly from the page.
💡 Event pages are automatically created when you set up an event on ticketing platforms, or you can build them as custom pages on your website.
When should I start selling tickets for an event?
Timing is crucial when it comes to selling tickets for an event. The decision of when to start selling tickets depends on various factors, including the popularity of the event, target audience, and marketing strategy.
Recommended lead time:
- It’s advisable to start planning several months in advance for larger or high-demand events. A few months or even weeks of preparation could be sufficient for smaller-scale or niche events.
Depending on the popularity of your event, the general rule is: the higher the demand, the earlier you start selling tickets (true story—a particularly popular surf retreat sells out tickets 6 to 8 months in advance!).
Can I list my event on multiple websites?
Yes, you have the option to list your event on multiple websites and ticketing software. You’d choose to do so if you want to leverage event discovery features offered by some platforms for increased visibility and reach.
However, managing your ticket inventory effectively across all platforms is important to avoid overselling and potential penalties. Events with fixed seating may not lend well to such ticket sales arrangements.
How do I sell tickets online for free?
Here are some free online ticketing options:
For paid events: You can use online interest groups, forums, subreddits on Reddit, online marketplaces, Facebook Events, or your own social media accounts to sell tickets online for free. If you have an email list or subscriber base, reaching out to them doesn’t cost you extra to sell any tickets.
For free events: everything above and the additional option of using certain popular ticketing platforms that do not charge fees for free events.
To avoid paying a payment processing fee, you can consider accepting other payment methods, such as cash or bank transfers (which come with their own risks and hassle).
When will I receive payouts?
Ticketing platforms
The timing of payouts for event ticket sales depends on the platform or ticketing service you choose. Platforms hold onto the revenue for ticket sales for a fixed amount of time for reasons like risk management, handling cancellations, and refund requests. You can expect to receive payouts 3 to 8 days after each transaction, but there are a few platforms that do daily payouts, too (e.g., TicketSpice).
Event registration or checkout form on your website
For transactions completed with Checkout Page’s checkout form, you will receive the funds directly from Stripe between 48 to 72 hours.
I’m not a business. Can I create a Stripe account to collect event payments online?
Absolutely! One of the options we mention in this article is using your website to sell event tickets. For that, you’ll need a way to collect and receive payments, and Checkout Page integrates with Stripe (a popular online payment processor).
Stripe allows individuals and businesses to create accounts and collect event payments online. It’s free and simple. With a Stripe account, you can securely process online payments for your event tickets.
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