Own Opening Night Searches: Paid Ads That Drive Theater Attendance

Do Americans have more digital entertainment than ever before competing for their attention? Absolutely. Does this replace their desire to attend live events? Turns out — no, it doesn’t! One recent survey showed that working Americans are attending more events than they did pre-pandemic, with Gen Z attending almost twice as many as older adults. 

The desire to attend live events is there. Leveraging paid advertising online is one of the best ways to get your theater, touring group, comedy club, music venue, or other live event in front of this highly interested group of internet users. 

So, which advertising method gives you the best ROI for promoting your events to an always-online audience? We’ll explain how pay-per-click ads and targeted display advertising work alongside your organic marketing strategy to sell more tickets. 

PPC Management Services for Theaters

Pay-per-click advertising delivers immediate leads to your theater’s website by promoting a link to your website at the top of a search engine results page for certain predetermined keywords. Your ad account is only charged when your ad is clicked, hence the name pay-per-click. 

This is a highly effective way to increase ticket sales and even event visibility for free community events. The key is to align your ads — called your “bid” — to keywords that indicate a high intent on the searcher’s part, like:

• “things to do in city_name this weekend”
• “live music near me”
• “things to do with kids tonight”
• “movie theaters near me”

Search phrases like this indicate that the person searching is strongly interested in actually purchasing a ticket or attending an event soon. Advertisers can quickly connect with audiences by paying for boosted ads connected to keywords like this.

Now, the specific keywords that you bid on, along with the amount and duration of your marketing campaigns, will depend on the particular genre, event, market size, and audience. That’s where a managed PPC services agency can help you make the most of your ad spend by designing a customized plan just for you. 

Google Ads — Paid Search for Performing Arts

When you browse the internet, most websites have ads integrated into them. This is mainly powered by the massive Google Ads ecosystem — and you can advertise your shows there! 

Google Ads is the most popular interface for running PPC ads, so you’ll need to get familiar with it if you are extending your theater advertising into paid search. Not only do they offer the familiar text-based search ads, but Google Ads also runs:

• Display ads
• Shopping ads
• Remarketing ads 

Google Ads is open to any advertiser, but you have to be savvy in how you set up your strategy, or your ads can easily get lost in the noise. Effective digital advertising takes into account what kind of content performs the best among your key audience, leverages graphic design, clickable content, and the right data-gathering to make sure that you’re advertising to a local, interested audience.

Our team can design Google Ads campaigns that cover everything from initial data gathering to sales tracking and reporting. After all, you wouldn’t want to waste your marketing efforts — and budget — advertising your dance company to people located hundreds of miles away from where you perform! 

Targeted Display Advertising for Performing Arts

While pay-per-click advertising looks similar to any other search engine results page output — that is, it’s displayed as a link with a little bit of descriptive text — targeted display advertising is all about the visual. This includes both the static images you see while browsing the internet and video-based advertising that plays automatically on websites or even YouTube.

This is obviously a great choice for theater marketing. You work with visual media every day, and a strong visual hook is a great way to promote your shows or events to art patrons, moviegoers, new audiences, or anyone who might benefit from what you have to offer.

Some ideas for including targeted display advertising in your arts promotion could be:

• Short trailers for an upcoming season or movie run
• Behind-the-scenes content of rehearsals 
• High-impact stills of performers or participants

Image-based ads are highly effective at connecting with new and returning audience members alike. Our team can handle the photography or videography needed to create visually appealing ads, and then our digital marketing experts can design targeted ad campaigns that reach the most motivated ticket buyers online. 

Bing Advertising — Bing Ads for Live Events

When advertising live events, you need to focus on a specific geographic radius. If you cast too broad a net, you might be wasting marketing dollars displaying ads to people who would love to visit your venue, but are unfortunately way outside of your range.

That’s why we recommend that venues, theatre chains, performing arts companies, and other live event organizations narrow their focus to a specific geographic range and a specific target audience, and then use a multichannel advertising approach to reach as many of those likely to purchase as possible.

This is where Bing Ads come in. Some people overlook Bing because Google has a higher market share, but Bing Ads tend to be more affordable due to the lower competition for search terms. Furthermore, Bing Ads display across the entire Microsoft ecosystem, including Outlook and Copilot. 

Bing Ads are managed similarly to Google Ads. Our experts can design a multichannel approach for your organization that leverages the highest-converting advertising platforms for your geographic region and target audience. 

FAQs: Boost Ticket Sales With Proven Marketing Strategies

Getting the right audience interested in your local shows can be complicated in our noisy, digital age. The right theater advertising strategies leverage what patrons are already browsing on the internet to promote your next show.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, SEO Design Chicago has over ten years of proven experience leveraging the power of digital marketing strategies to help businesses and organizations of all sizes grow.

We work directly with you to understand your unique offerings, your target audience, your budget, and your growth goals. Then, we custom-quote a marketing plan specifically for you — no one-size-fits-all solutions here.

When you’re ready to turn the internet into a powerful tool to drive ticket sales, give us a call. In the meantime, check out our successful case studies and some of the frequently asked questions that our experts receive about theater, venue, and cinema advertising. 

Are Google Ads effective for theaters and live performances?

Yes, paid ads are ideal for boosting sales to patrons searching high-intent search terms like “shows tonight,” “theater tickets near me,” and “live shows this weekend.” They also work well for promoting specific show names, such as new release movies or particular performances like “The Nutcracker” or “Summer Blockbuster III.” 

What types of theater events perform best with paid search?

Time-sensitive events that need a short-term, aggressive promotion strategy do very well with paid search. This includes:

• Limited-run shows
• Opening weekends for a season or particular show
• Special performances — especially if a specific performer is coming for a limited time
• Film premiers
• Touring groups
• Seasonal programming

These ads boost immediate visibility so that patrons can learn about the show and buy tickets before it’s too late. 

How much should theaters budget for paid search campaigns?

This will vary depending on your competition and the size of your market. In general, paid search campaigns are effective with budgets between $500 and $3,000 per month.

Large city markets with more entertainment options will generally need a larger budget to compete with large venues, while smaller cities and regions will have fewer options for performing arts or theaters and can generally see good results from less ad spend. 

What keywords work best for theater paid search campaigns?

Paid search works best for theater companies when it leverages high-intent keywords that show a patron is very interested in buying tickets right now, or at least very soon.

These long-tail keywords include:

• Specific show titles, like “Big Hit II,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” or “The Nutcracker,” that indicate a patron wants to see a specific show
• Venue names that indicate someone is searching for your organization or event venue — like “Downtown Pavilion” or “Encore Theater”
• Genre-based searches, like “family-friendly shows” or “comedy shows”
• Time-sensitive searches, like “things to do tonight in CITY_NAME” — this is a great way to engage new audiences who might be trying out your show for the first time
• Specific local modifiers — “near me,” “Chicago,” “downtown,” or “Pilgrim Heights” all indicate location-specific searches

Is paid search better than social media ads for promoting shows?

Paid search does a better job of boosting short-term ticket sales. Social media content, including paid ads, does better at helping companies and theaters connect with their audiences, which can boost long-term engagement.

Ideally, your digital marketing strategy will include a strategic combination of short-term and long-term promo tactics so that you’re always working to both fill your theater and build a long-term audience. 

Ready to fill more seats? Request your free call with our digital marketing experts to get your personalized plan.