5 top sports advertising tips for boosting ticket sales

by Kevin Weber , Account Executive for Leagues & Teams at Genius Sports

Ticket sales are a vital component of revenue generation for sports leagues and teams, with 17% of the NFL’s revenue comes from ticket sales, 26% for the NBA, and 31% for MLB (Sportico).

Meanwhile, in the world of football, match-day revenues have grown 11% year-on-year, accounting for 18% of all revenue and making it the fastest growing revenue stream for the highest earning clubs (Deloitte).

With ticket revenue being such a crucial piece of the marketing puzzle for leagues and teams, getting your paid strategy right is key.

Genius Sports has 20+ years of experience growing ticket revenue for sports events, and we've compiled our top 5 tips for boosting sales.

?

1. Tap into first-party audience data

Engage sports fans beyond your mailing list by accessing first-party fan data. Genius Sports can help you target fans based on key demographics like location and age, as well as their sport preferences like favourite team or player so you can focus in on the fans that will convert.

Using an ID solution to follow fans across devices will also help you better understand your attribution and allow you to make informed campaign optimisations.

?

2. Understand your fans’ behaviour

Getting a grasp on what messages resonate and which advertising channels are bringing you results is key.

Test and learn with an omni-channel approach across programmatic display, social, CTV and more, and you'll quickly be able to access which channels are most effective and scale your ad spend accordingly.

Having a strong reporting tool that measures content preferences and team loyalty, like our FANHub media activation platform, gives you all the insight you need to make your ticket sales campaign a success.

?

3. Personalise your ads with dynamic content

Take your ads to the next level with dynamic creative. Drive urgency and click-throughs with real-time sports data like kick-off countdowns and live offers and cut through the advertising noise with personalised creative and messaging.

In a recent campaign for the iconic Indy 500, we ran a programmatic media strategy for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with dynamic ad creative featuring live countdown clocks to evoke urgency and the feeling of not wanting to miss out.

The engaging video ads were served to racing enthusiasts in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, resulting in 5.9x ROAS and 19.5m impressions.

4. Pace around the sporting calendar

A surefire way to optimise your ad spend for ticket sales is to pace your budget around key moments in the season, whether that’s a crucial playoff game or local rivalry. This ensures you spend efficiently and effectively while serving contextually relevant content at times when your fans are most engaged.

FANHub uses live sports data to automatically pace ad spend against the pre-determined triggers and thresholds you set.

?

5. Track and Optimise ROAS in real-time

It's important to be reactive and agile in improving your ads to maximize results. Our AI-powered Creative Intelligence tool analyses your ad content for memorability, eye-gaze tracking, logo placement, and more to determine improvements you can make. When you launch your campaign, you're set up for success from the start.

Post-launch, our real-time reporting allows you to react quickly with your optimisations, helping you serve the perfect ad every time.

?

Learn more about how sport-specific media activation platform; FANHub can help you achieve your advertising goals this season.