A regional sports team partnered with New Path Digital to connect ad spend directly to ticket sales for the first time—unlocking campaign clarity, better creative decisions, and a roadmap for smarter seasons ahead.
The result: 549 confirmed transactions and an estimated 2,000+ tickets sold across the season. But the bigger win? Real attribution. With clear visibility into what was working, the team could shift strategy mid-season, optimize budgets, and set the stage for even better results moving forward.
Strategy: Build a Full-Funnel Foundation for Sales
To drive consistent results across a long season, we deployed a layered approach designed for awareness, engagement, and conversions:
- Always-on brand visibility through CTV, YouTube, display, and streaming audio.
- Conversion-focused campaigns on Meta targeting high-intent fans.
- Ongoing creative optimization to identify and double down on top-performing assets.
The goal wasn’t just to sell tickets—it was to understand what actually sold them, then scale it.
What We Learned — and Leveraged
Static Outperformed on Conversions
Static ads consistently delivered the lowest cost per purchase and highest ROAS. Once we saw this pattern early in the season, we made them the core of the campaign—especially for direct ticket promotions.
Video Brought the Energy
While static drove sales, video boosted engagement, especially around theme nights and key matchups. Fans responded to the emotion, energy, and game-day vibe that video delivered.
By mid-season, we adopted a hybrid strategy: static for conversions, video for storytelling.
Urgency Matters
Holiday games and playoff matchups generated the strongest results at the lowest cost. Their built-in urgency paired perfectly with targeted campaigns, making them the most efficient opportunities to convert.
Demand Shifted Over Time
Early- and mid-season games were more efficient overall. As the season progressed, later games required stronger offers or incentives to maintain performance—an insight we used to fine-tune both creative and budget allocation in real time.
The Attribution Breakthrough
This was the first season the team could clearly track which ads were driving ticket sales. That visibility unlocked smarter, faster decisions throughout the campaign. We were able to:
- Spot top performers early and scale them quickly.
- Adjust creative mix mid-campaign based on CPR and ROAS.
- Prioritize high-return game dates where results were strongest.
- Optimize spend dynamically based on momentum and demand.
With every shift, results improved—and guesswork was eliminated.
Looking Ahead
With a solid foundation in place, the strategy going forward will focus on:
- Prioritizing high-demand games like holidays, theme nights, and playoffs.
- Expanding use of static ads for conversions, and video for engagement.
- Running longer-term promotions to allow more optimization runway.
- Maintaining an evergreen brand presence to support retargeting and sustained visibility.
Bottom Line
This campaign proved what’s possible when strategy, creative, and data come together. It wasn’t just about selling more tickets—it was about making every dollar work harder by understanding what actually drives results.
549 confirmed transactions. Over 2,000 tickets sold. And for the first time, full visibility into what worked, what didn’t, and what to do next.
