Solved: Is a Outside B2B Marketing Group Right for Us?

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I've had a look over the situation you described about your B2B events. Hitting a growth ceiling like that, where you've got a great core audience but struggle to find new faces, is a really common problem. It's a good sign that your NPS is high, it means the product is solid, but scaling beyond your existing network needs a different approach.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what we've seen work for other businesses, including those in the events space. This is all just my perspective from running these kinds of campaigns, of course.

First off, you'll need to break out of your current audience...

You mentioned that you're struggling to gain new attendees and mainly rely on retargeting and word of mouth. That right there is the crux of the issue. You've essentially maxed out your warm audience. Retargeting is great for converting people who already know you, and word of mouth is fantastic, but neither is a proactive strategy for scalable growth. You're waiting for people to find you or be refered.

To get from 500 attendees to over 800, you need a predictable system for reaching cold audiences – people who fit your ideal attendee profile but have never heard of your events before. This is where paid advertising, when done properly, becomes an engine for growth rather than just a cost. It allows you to precisely target new people based on their professional profile and then guide them towards registration. Your email marketing struggles with new acquisition because, by its nature, it's for people already on your list. Paid ads let you build that list with fresh, relevant contacts.

We'll need to look at the right platforms to find these people...

The main question is, where do these potential attendees hang out online? For B2B, especially when you're targeting a specific job title in the US, there are two main platforms to consider. You have to go where your audience is.

LinkedIn Ads

This is the most obvious and likely the most powerful platform for you. Its targeting capabilities are built for B2B. You can go beyond broad interests and target people based on their actual, self-reported professional data. For your event, this is ideal. We could build campaigns that target:

• -> Job Title: The exact job title you're after. No guesswork.
• -> Industry: The specific industries these professionals work in.
• -> Company Size: If you find you get better attendees from companies of a certain size.
• -> Geography: We can draw a radius around each event city to ensure we're only showing ads to people who can realistically attend.

This level of precision means you're not wasting money showing ads to irrelevant people. It's more expensive per click than other platforms, but the quality of the lead is usually much higher. I remember running a campaign on LinkedIn Ads for a software client, where we focused on targeting specific decision-makers, and we achieved a cost per lead of around $22. The focus here is on quality over quantity.

Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram)

Don't write this one off for B2B. While the targeting isn't as surgically precise as LinkedIn, the cost to reach people is significantly lower and the scale is enormous. It can work very well for event promotion, especially for building awareness and driving lower-cost registrations. I recall helping a B2B software client generate over 4,622 registrations at a cost of $2.38 per registration using Meta Ads. For another client in the events and education space, we helped them get over 45,000 signups using a mix of platforms including Meta, TikTok, Apple and Google Ads.

The strategy here would be different. We could target broader interests related to their profession, or we could use one of Meta's most powerful tools: Lookalike Audiences. We could take your existing list of past attendees and ask Meta to find millions of users across the US who share similar characteristics. This has proven to be a very effective way to find new, relevant audiences at scale. It would be a numbers game, but a very effective one if we get the messaging right.

I'd say you need a proper funnel, not just ads...

Just running ads pointing to a registration page often doesnt work, especially for a B2B event that requires a time and money commitment. You need to build a journey for potential attendees. We call this a funnel.

Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Awareness: This is where we use LinkedIn and Meta to find new people. The ads here aren't about a hard sell. They're about introducing the event and its value. The goal is to pique their interest enough to click through to a dedicated landing page to learn more. The creative would focus on the key benefits – the quality of the continuing education, the high-caliber networking opportunities, a big-name speaker etc.

Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Consideration: This is where your current retargeting lives, but we can make it smarter. Anyone who visits the landing page from our ToFu ads but doesn't register gets added to a retargeting audience. We'd then show them a different set of ads over the next few weeks. These ads are designed to build trust and overcome objections. We could show them:

• -> Video testimonials from past attendees.
• -> Highlights of specific, high-value sessions.
• -> An ad focusing on the networking aspect and the caliber of companies that attend.

The goal is to stay top-of-mind and give them more reasons to believe this event is a worthwhile investment for their career.

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Conversion: This is for the hottest leads. People who started the registration process but got distracted and didn't finish. We can retarget them with a very direct message like "Finish your registration" or even offer a small, time-sensitive 'early bird' discount to nudge them over the finish line. This is about recovering potentially lost revenue.

You probably should rethink your ad creative...

Your high NPS tells me you have a great event. We need to translate that quality into the ads. Generic stock photos and boring copy won't cut it. To capture the attention of busy profesional people, your ads need to be compelling and varied.

I'd suggest testing a few formats:

• -> High-Quality Image Ads: Clean, professional design that highlights one key benefit or a keynote speaker. The headline should speak directly to a pain point or desire of your target audience.
• -> Video Ads: This is probably your biggest opportunity. A 30-60 second "sizzle reel" from a past event, showing packed rooms, engaged audiences, and people networking can be incredibly powerful. It sells the experience and energy far better than a static image ever could. Even professionally shot interviews with past paticipants would be brilliant.
• -> Carousel Ads: These are great on both LinkedIn and Meta. Each card in the carousel can showcase a different speaker, a different event track, or a different key benefit (e.g., Card 1: Earn CE Credits, Card 2: Network with Industry Leaders, Card 3: See the Agenda).

The messaging is just as important. Instead of just saying "B2B Event in X City", the copy should answer the question "What's in it for me?". For example: "Struggling to keep up with industry changes? Join 800+ of your peers at [Event Name] and get the continuing education you need to advance your career." It's about selling the outcome, not the features.

You'll need a clear action plan...

This all sounds like a lot, and it is. The key is to approach it systematically. When we take on a project like this, we don't just turn everything on at once. We'd start with your proposal of testing one event and build from there. This is the main advice I have for you:

A systematic approach like this is what will get you to that 800+ attendee goal. It moves you from relying on hope and your existing network to a predictable, data-driven growth model. An external agency or consultant can bring the expertise to build and manage this entire process for you, avoiding costly mistakes and speeding up the learning curve.

This is exactly the kind of strategic work we specialise in. We handle everything from the initial strategy and platform selection to the audience building, ad creation, and daily optimisation required to make campaigns like this a success.

If you'd like to discuss your specific event in more detail, I'd be happy to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation call. We can go over your goals for the test event and see if we might be a good fit to help you finally break that growth ceiling.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh