Sold Out? Reach Fans with Digital Ads for SeatGeek Sales & Game Details

Announcing a sold-out game is the ultimate high-five. But for us in digital advertising? The job isn't quite done. When the official call comes to turn off the ads, we always say, "it's a good problem to have!" So how do we pivot our strategy to move secondary seats and guarantee those fans actually show up? We're diving into digital ad examples from your peers for what to do after the sellout announcement, so you can score big on every single seat.

PAC Digital Ads for your SeatGeek Events

Our first move, and the biggest win this football season, has been pivoting paid digital spend toward SeatGeek. Our PAC Digital team identified a massive trend and utilizing the SeatGeek partnership allows us to seamlessly set up an effective secondary market campaign. Because we can easily integrate conversion tracking directly on your SeatGeek inventory, we’re seeing undeniable results. How undeniable? We’ve recorded an average Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of $19:$1 across 16 campaigns since August—that's 4X more campaigns since last season! While the examples here mostly feature highly visual Meta ads, remember that this strategy is flexible; we can deploy these high-impact campaigns across any media channel that aligns with your timeline and budget.

BYU Cougars pushed their sellout game against TCU with ads leading to the SeatGeek event page. The image-centric ad not only aligns with creative trends for the seasons, but it also plays to the fan experience, evoking FOMO for the game. They used a broad targeting strategy to find fans of football, the NFL, tailgating and more.

Northwestern Wildcats pushed tickets on SeatGeek for their sold out homecoming game with an image stating, "SOLD OUT Tickets Available on SeatGeek." While also calling this out in the ad copy as verified resale tickets. The sold out message creates urgency to get tickets and reassures that the resale tickets are verified with the team.

UNC Tar Heels used a unique targeting approach with their "sold out" carousel ads. They focused on inner-market and outer-market locations for awareness campaigns aimed to get clicks to the ticket page. Thus fueling a larger retargeting audience in the sales campaign from multiple locations.

NC State Wolfpack proves again that the Sold Out messaging works! For their sold out game against Georgia Tech, the creative focused on the SOLD OUT message with a clear reference that you can still get seats on SeatGeek, with the SeatGeek logo in the creative and the message in the copy, "...your seat is waiting on SeatGeek."

Get Your Fans to the Game

Our second key strategy after a sellout announcement is the "Butts-in-Seats" Campaign. While this is always a priority, the game changes once your tickets are sold out. That suddenly freed-up digital budget is a massive opportunity to pivot your focus entirely toward Game Day Activation. We stop worrying about selling seats and start laser-focusing on ensuring every single ticket buyer gets to the stadium and has a truly unforgettable experience. This is where we maximize attendance and build fan loyalty for next season.

Michigan Wolverines did a great job of this with their Maize Out campaign focused on the awareness of the Maize out stadium experience. They focused on a specific target audience of ticket purchasers for the game to make sure impressions were directed to the fans with tickets - informing them on what gear to wear and creating excitement for the big day. This creates a constant reminder with consistent ad impressions leading up to the game, enhancing that email message they might have read in their inbox.

Now that we're shifting into basketball season, don't let these strategies gather dust! Keep this digital playbook locked and loaded in your back pocket for your next potential sellout announcement. The job doesn't end when the tickets are gone—it's just time for the next winning play. Ready to deploy the $19:$1 ROAS strategy? Contact your PAC Digital rep today and let's start prepping for success!