Solved: Need help attracting new attendees to B2B events

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I saw your post and thought I'd give you some initial thoughts and guidance. It's a common problem, scaling up events, especially when you've already got a good thing going. It sounds like you're brilliant at delivering a quality event – a high NPS is something to be proud of and tells me the 'product' is solid. The challenge, as you've rightly pointed out, is getting in front of new faces.

You've hit a growth ceiling because your current strategy, relying on retargeting and word of mouth, is essentially a closed loop. You're marketing to people who already know you. To get from 500 to 800+ attendees, you absolutly need a proactive strategy for new customer acquisition. It's not about doing more of the same, but about opening up completely new channels to reach people who've never heard of your events before.

I'm happy to outline what that could look like. This is based on my experience running campaigns for other B2B clients who faced similar hurdles in growing their audience. It's a tough nut to crack, but definatly doable with the right approach.

Let's talk about finding new attendees...

The first step isn't just "doing more marketing," it's about a fundamental shift in mindset. Your email marketing and retargeting are great for nurturing your existing community and getting repeat business, but they are MoFu/BoFu (Middle and Bottom of Funnel) activities. To scale, you need a powerful ToFu (Top of Funnel) engine that consistently brings new, relevant people into your world.

This is where an outside group or agency can really make a difference. You're an expert in running events; a good agency is an expert in targeted audience acquisition. They bring a fresh perspective and, more importantly, the specialist skills to build and manage campaigns designed purely for growth. You mentioned this is for a test run for one event, which is a brilliant way to go about it. You can measure the impact directly and see the ROI before committing to a larger partnership.

The core propblem is that your ideal attendees – people with a specific job title across the US – aren't just going to stumble across your event. You need to go to them. And that means paid advertising on the right platforms.

I'd say you need to figure out where these people are hiding...

For B2B events targeting a specific job title, your number one platform is, without a doubt, LinkedIn. It's built for this exact purpose. While other platforms can work, LinkedIn allows you to get incredibly granular with your targeting in a way that Facebook or Instagram just can't match for professional roles.

-> LinkedIn Ads: This should be your primary focus. You can target users directly by their "Job Title". You can layer this with other firmographics like company size (to target employees at companies that are a good fit), industry (to focus on the most relevant sectors), and seniority. This means you can build an audience that consists almost entirely of your ideal attendee persona. You're not wasting money showing ads to irrelevant people. I remember one campaign we ran for a B2B software client where we targeted decision-makers on LinkedIn and achieved a cost per lead of around $22.

-> Google Search Ads: This is your second port of call. Think about what your ideal attendee might search for when they need continuing education or want to network. They might be looking for things like:

• "[Job Title] conference 2024"
• "Continuing education for [Job Title] in [City]"
• "Best [Industry] networking events US"

-> Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): I would be cautious here for cold acquisition. The B2B targeting options are much broader (e.g., "small business owners"). While we have made it work for some B2B clients, it's very difficult to reliably target a *specific* job title. Where Meta is incredibly powerful, however, is for retargeting. Anyone who visits your website from a LinkedIn or Google ad can then be shown follow-up ads on Facebook and Instagram, keeping your event top-of-mind. This multi-channel approach is very powerful.

You probably should build a solid LinkedIn campaign...

Okay, so let's assume LinkedIn is your main engine for growth. Just turning on ads isn't enough. You need a proper strategy. Here's how I would approach it.

First, we'd nail down the targeting. You have the job title, which is a huge advantage. We'd then build several seperate ad sets to test different audience combinations:

• Audience 1 (The Core): Target the specific job title directly, layered with US-wide geography.
• Audience 2 (Industry Focus): Target the job title, but only within the top 3-5 industries that your best attendees come from. This might give you a higher quality of attendee.
• Audience 3 (Company Size): Target the job title, but only at companies of a certain size (e.g., 50-500 employees) if you find attendees from mid-size businesses are more valuable.
• Audience 4 (Account-Based): This is a more advanced tactic. We could work with you to create a list of 100-200 'dream companies' you want attendees from. We can then upload this list to LinkedIn and exclusively target people with the right job title at those specific companies.

Next, the ad format and creative. You need to grab their attention. An event is a visual and energetic thing, so your ads should reflect that. We'd test different formats against each other:

-> Single Image Ads: Clean, professional, with a strong headline and a clear call-to-action (CTA). Great for announcing key speakers or "Early Bird" deadlines.

-> Video Ads: A 30-60 second highlight reel from a previous event is gold. Showcasing smiling faces, engaged networking, and top-tier speakers can convey the value far better than text alone.

-> Carousel Ads: Perfect for highlighting multiple aspects of the event in one ad. For instance, slide 1 could be the keynote speaker, slide 2 about the networking opportunities, and slide 3 on the continuing education credits.

-> Lead Gen Form Ads: This is a really powerful tool for event registrations. When a user clicks the ad, a form pre-filled with their LinkedIn profile information (name, email, job title) pops up. They can register in two clicks without ever leaving the platform. This massively reduces friction and can slash your cost per registration. The trade-off is sometimes lower intent, but for an event, it's often a huge win.

To give you an idea, here’s some sample ad copy angles we might test:

You'll need a proper funnel to convert this new traffic...

Getting the click is only half the battle. Once a potential attendee clicks your ad, their experience needs to be seamless. Sending them to your main homepage is a common mistake. It's often cluttered with too much information and no clear path to registration. They'll get lost and leave.

You need a dedicated landing page for your ad campaigns. This page should have one goal, and one goal only: to get them to register for the event. This means:

• Message Matching: The headline on the landing page should match the headline from the ad they just clicked.
• No Distractions: Remove the main site navigation, footers, and any other links that could take them away from the registration button.
- Persuasive Copy: Clearly outline the benefits. Who is this event for? What problems does it solve for them? What will they learn? Why should they attend *this* event over any other?
• Social Proof: This is huge. Include testimonials from past attendees, logos of companies that have attended, and your high NPS score!
• A Clear CTA: A big, bold button that says "Register Now" or "Secure My Early Bird Ticket".

And what about the people who visit this page but don't register? That's where retargeting comes back in, but in a smarter way. We'd set up a campaign that shows follow-up ads across LinkedIn, Google, and Meta to these specific users, reminding them about the event, showing them testimonials, or warning them about an upcoming deadline. This multi-touch approach is how you convert people who are interested but not quite ready to commit on the first visit.

We'll need to look at what this might actually cost...

This is the big question. It's important to set realistic expactations. B2B advertising, especially on LinkedIn, is more expensive than B2C. You are paying a premium to reach a very specific, high-value audience. But it's about the return, not the cost.

Based on our experience, a cost-per-lead (in this case, a registration) on LinkedIn could range from $25 to over $100, depending heavily on the industry, the ticket price, and how well the campaign is optimised. If your event ticket is $500, paying $75 to acquire a new attendee is a fantastic return. The key is to look at the Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

For a test campaign for one event, I'd suggest starting with an ad spend budget of at least $3,000-$5,000. This is enough to gather meaningful data, test different audiences and creatives, and get a clear picture of what your actual Cost Per Attendee will be. From there, you have a predictable model you can use to scale up for your other events across the US.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in. The reality is that building and managing a scalable acquisition engine like this is complex and time-consuming. It involves constant testing, optimisation, and deep platform knowledge to avoid wasting money and to get the best possible results.

This is where working with a specialist can be a significant advantage. An experienced partner can implement this entire framework for you, navigating the complexities and accelerating your path to 800+ attendees. We've built these kinds of growth engines for many B2B clients, and the goal is always to create a predictable, repeatable system that fills your events year after year.

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail and see how we could apply this strategy specifically to your upcoming event, I'd be happy to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. We can take a closer look at your goals and map out a concrete plan of action.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh