Solved: Is Using Outside B2B Marketing Groups Right for Us?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. I've had a look at your situation with the B2B events and I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and a bit of guidance based on what we've seen work for other clients. It's a very common challenge, that jump from a successful, medium-sized event of around 500 people to a much larger one of 800+. It almost always means you've maxed out your current audience and need a proper strategy to find completely new attendees, which is exactly where an outside group can help.

You've built a solid foundation with high NPS scores and word-of-mouth, which is fantastic. But to get that next level of growth, you'll need to move beyond just retargeting and your existing email list. It’s all about proactive acquisition now.

I'd say you first need a solid acquisition strategy...

Relying on retargeting and word-of-mouth is great for loyalty and filling a certain number of seats with people who already know you, but it's a closed loop. To scale, you have to break out of that loop and systematically reach people and companies who have never heard of your events before. An agency's main job here should be to build and run this acquisition engine for you.

Generally, there are two main pools of potential new attendees you need to target with seperate strategies:

1. The Active Seekers: These are people from companies who are actively aware they have a need. The decision-makers with your target job title are typing things into Google like "continuing education for [Job Title] in [City]" or "[Industry] conference Texas". They are looking for a solution right now. This is your lowest hanging fruit for new attendees, and you need to be there when they search.

2. The Passive Prospects: This is a much, much larger group. These are the people with the exact job title you need, working in the right companies, in the right cities. They aren't actively searching for an event, but they would absolutely benefit from attending. They're the ones who'd see an ad and think, "Oh, that looks interesting, I should check that out". You can't wait for them to find you; you have to find them. This is where you get real scale.

A good agency won't just suggest one or the other. They'll propose a blended approach to capture both types of prospects. Your current challenge of gaining new attendees through email suggests you're not reaching this 'passive prospect' group effectively, which is a massive untapped opportunity.

We'll need to look at the right ad platforms...

To reach those two groups, you need to use the right tools. Based on your goal—targeting a specific job title for B2B events—here's how I'd think about the main ad platforms. This is likely what any competent agency would reccomend.

LinkedIn Ads: Your Primary Weapon
This is the most obvious and powerful platform for you. Why? Because the targeting is incredibly precise for B2B. You can literally tell LinkedIn: "Show my ads to people with the job title '[Your Target Job Title]' who work in the '[Your Target Industry]' sector, are located in '[Event City]', and work at companies with 50-200 employees". It's tailor-made for what you're trying to do.

-> Targeting Example: Let's say your event is in Dallas for 'Senior Marketing Managers'. You could build an audience of Senior Marketing Managers, Marketing Directors, and VPs of Marketing, at tech companies between 100-500 employees, within a 50-mile radius of Dallas. You can get that specific.

-> Ad Formats: You'd likely run Sponsored Content ads (the ones that appear in the main feed) with a strong image or a short, persuasive video. We've seen a good video really get the lead costs down. You can send them to a landing page to register, or you could test LinkedIn's Lead Gen Forms. These are pop-up forms pre-filled with the user's LinkedIn data, which makes signing up incredibly easy. I remember one B2B software client where we used these to get decision-maker leads. We managed to achieve a cost per lead of just $22, which is a great result on LinkedIn. It proves you can get quality contacts without breaking the bank.

Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): For Broader Reach
While not as precise as LinkedIn for B2B targeting, Meta can be very effective for generating volume at a lower cost, especialy for events. The key is smart targeting. You can't just target by job title here. Instead, you'd build audiences based on interests like:

-> Following industry publications or influencers.
-> Liking pages of competitor events or major industry associations.
-> Layering interests with demographic data like 'Business Page Admins'.

The goal here is to find proxies for your ideal attendee. We've had a lot of sucess with this for B2B registration campaigns. I recall working on a campaign for a B2B software client where we got over 4,600 registrations at just $2.38 each using Meta. It shows that if the offer is compelling, you can drive a huge number of sign-ups very efficiently.

Google Search Ads: To Capture Intent
This is for the 'Active Seekers' I mentioned. It's less about finding new people and more about being found by them. You'd bid on keywords that people with high intent to attend an event would search for. A proffesional agency would do deep keyword research, but some obvious examples would be:

-> "[Job Title] conference 2024"
-> "continuing education credits for [Job Title] [State]"
-> "best B2B networking events in [City]"

The traffic from these ads is often highly qualified because they are literally asking for what you provide. The volume might be lower than social media, but the conversion rate is typically much higher.

You probably should rethink your offer and landing page...

Getting someone to click an ad is only half the battle. Once they land on your page, you have to convince them to hand over their details and money. Just sending ad traffic to your standard homepage or a generic event page is a recipe for wasted ad spend. You need a dedicated landing page built for one thing: conversions.

A few things a good agency would insist on:

-> Persuasive Copywriting: Your page needs to sell the *transformation*, not the schedule. Don't just list the speakers and sessions. Talk about the benefits. Will attendees learn a skill that gets them a promotion? Will they make connections that lead to major deals? Will they solve a critical problem their company is facing? This makes a huge diference.

-> Overwhelming Social Proof: You have a high NPS score - you need to shout about this! Use it everywhere. Include video testimonials from past attendees. Show logos of well-known companies whose employees have attended. This builds immense trust and reduces friction for a new visitor.

-> A Clear, Compelling Offer: Just "buy a ticket" isn't always enough. You need to create urgency. An 'Early Bird Discount' is standard, but you could also test a 'Team Discount' for 3+ attendees from one company, or a limited-time bonus like a free workshop for the first 100 registrants. This encourages immediate action.

-> Simplicity: The landing page should have no distractions. No navigation bar leading to other parts of your site. Just a clear headline, the benefits, the social proof, and one big, obvious "Register Now" button.

You'll need to look for the right kind of partner...

Now, to your direct question: how to pick a third-party group. This is where you need to be careful.

First, look for proven, relevant experience. Don't be wowed by a slick presentation. Ask to see case studies. They don't have to be for an identical event, but they should be in B2B lead generation or, ideally, event marketing. I recall one project where we helped an events app achieve over 45,000 signups. This shows an understanding of the registration model. Ask them: "Show me a campaign where you had to target specific decision-makers and get them to register for something." If they can't, they are not for you.

Second, on your initial call with them, they should be asking *you* lots of questions. They should want to know about your ideal attendee, your event's unique value, your past marketing efforts, your cost-per-attendee goals. If they just start promising you 800+ attendees without understanding your business, that's a massive red flag. You can't promise results in paid advertising, you can only promise a proffesional process to work towards a goal.

Finally, avoid anyone focused on vanity metrics. You don't care about clicks or impressions. You care about one thing: qualified registrations at an acceptable cost. Their entire strategy and reporting should be focused on that single metric.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Scaling an event like yours is absolutely possible, but it requires a very deliberate and professionally executed paid advertising strategy. It's a lot to manage, from audience research and creative testing to landing page optimisation and budget management across multiple platforms. This is where working with specialists can make all the difference, helping you to implement this complex process correctly from the start and avoid wasting time and money on tactics that won't work.

If you'd like to discuss this further and have us take a more detailed look at your specific event and goals, we offer a free initial consultation to map out a potential strategy. Feel free to get in touch if that sounds helpful.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh