By Kreg Peeler, SpinGo

As an event marketer, one of the most frequent questions event makers ask me is how much digital advertising is required to drive X number of attendees. In response, I usually encourage them to take a step back and consider the position digital advertising has within a larger, well-rounded marketing strategy.

At SpinGo, we work with an “Awareness-Discovery-Decision” marketing approach. This method maps the strengths of different marketing channels to an audience’s attendance decision behavior pattern. It is a helpful exercise for every event maker to consider how different marketing channels (including, but not limited to, digital advertising) work in this Awareness-Discovery-Decision approach.

The three main components of this marketing framework are:

Awareness – The attendee is in her daily routine when an ad grabs her attention and makes her aware of an upcoming event. She is interested in attending, but she does not need to make an immediate decision to go.

Discovery (layered onto continued Awareness efforts) – While exploring upcoming things to do, the attendee discovers an interesting event. There is some urgency to finalize plans, and she shares the event information with her social circle to see if anyone else has interest.

Decision (layered onto continued Awareness and Discovery efforts) – The attendee finalizes her event plans. She searches online for the best ticket prices, artist info, venue info, and other important details related to the event. She makes sure everyone who’s going is on the same page.

Here is an exercise that demonstrates the value of a full range of marketing options in this Awareness-Discover-Decision reality.