A common question among marketers: how far in advance should I advertise an in-person event? When should I start using my PPC advertising budget? At GoViral we’re committed to learning from experience, so let’s take a look at the numbers from three recent events.

When Should I Start Advertising an In-Person Event?

Over the past few years we’ve helped one of our clients, a global leader in business and consumer electronics, advertise their presence at in-person industry events. 

When our client attends these events, they want the best bang for their buck. Their end goal is leads. Getting face time with existing and potential customers is invaluable.

But even priceless marketing activities are limited by budget. Regardless of your budget’s size, you need to think carefully about how and when to spend it. So let’s take a look at lead time. How far in advance of an event do we see results for booking in-person meetings?

Our Results from Three Recent Events

For each of our three most recent events, we launched our PPC campaign at a different point in advance of the event date. One campaign started 17 weeks before, one 4 weeks, and one just 3 weeks before the start of the event.

Keeping in mind that we define a lead as someone who schedules a meeting with our client during the event, here are the results of total number of leads acquired by campaigns of varying lengths.

As you can see, we acquired more leads with a shorter timeline ahead of the event. In other words, more time did not translate to more leads.

Furthermore, the Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) decreased as the lead time decreased. How much did we spend to acquire each lead? Considerably more when we started earlier.

Takeaways for Advertising Events with a PPC Campaign

Our overall takeaway? Don’t assume advertising an in-person event earlier means your results will be better.

There are other factors besides the timeline to consider, of course. But one thing is clear from our results: most of our leads for in-person events were acquired in the three weeks immediately before the event.

Our experience has shown that PPC campaigns for in-person events can find success even when limited to the month leading up to the event, and in fact we have had most success acquiring leads during that time.

Further Considerations 

As with all marketing advice, your mileage may vary. Consider your specific situation and make strategic decisions accordingly.

Maybe your event requires early registration, or maybe there’s a competing event in a different city on the same dates. In those cases, you might want to start earlier.

Remember that a marketing campaign requires careful planning, including consideration of the buyer’s journey and other factors specific to your business.

However, if you find yourself starting your advertising efforts just a few weeks before your event, don’t despair! There’s still time to get results.


Looking to advertise an in-person event? Let us help you! Tell us more about your project and request a proposal.