Setting the Right Event Marketing Budget

Introduction

Setting the right event marketing budget is a critical piece of event planning. Marketing is one of the major components of any entertainment event budget. If fact, it should be one of the largest line items in the budget, behind talent fees and rider expenses. While the costs of marketing an event is an expense allocation, it’s different from other expenses. Event marketing should be viewed as an investment rather than an expense. Many venues, promoters, and event organizers are right to reduce expenses where they can to maintain profitability. Far too often, the marketing budget is looked upon as just another event expense to minimize.

TSE Entertainment often deals with venue operators and event organizers who do not understand the distinction between an expense and an investment in their events. That distinction is critical to developing and funding the right marketing budget for live entertainment events. We often see two critical mistakes:

1. Treating marketing as just another expense and underfunding the event marketing budget.
2. Using the same marketing budget for all their events, no matter the difference in the performers and ticket prices.

Some Benchmarks for the Right Event Marketing Budget for Live Entertainment

There are a lot of factors that go into creating the right event marketing budget for live entertainment. Those factors are discussed in this article. Those experienced in marketing entertainment events will tell you that you should be spending between 10 and 20 percent of your total possible gross ticket sales on marketing the event.

That number is affected by the reputation and frequency of events at a venue. A venue that consistently delivers high quality events has a big head start when it comes to marketing their future events. Consistent in this context means a minimum of 10 to 12 events per year. These venues should be allocating between 10 and 15 percent of their potential gross ticketing income to their marketing budget for each future show. The actual number will be determined based upon how much data they have on potential target audiences and their ongoing engagement with past ticket buyers and venue fans.

If you are a new venue, host only a few shows per year, or hosting a single event, then the right marketing budget number needs to be in the 15 to 20 percent range.

Examples of the Right Marketing Budget for Entertainment Events

Performance Hall: A music venue that regularly hosts 12 live entertainment events per year might look like this. The venue capacity is 2,500. An upcoming event has an average ticket price of $100 for all ticketing tiers.  Total gross potential ticket sales revenue would be $250,000. The benchmark right marketing budget for this upcoming event should be $25,000 to $37,500 with the final budget number determined by the factors discussed below.

A new venue or one that doesn’t regularly host live entertainment events under the above scenario, would need to spend more to market their upcoming event. In this case the right marketing budget would be $37,500 to $50,000.

Remember these are guidelines, not hard percentages. However they are historically based on what is needed to market successful live entertainment events.

It is extremely important to allocate the correct amount of money in your event budget to marketing. You must be able to bring awareness to your event, get an audience’s attention, and really create some buzz around the event to attain a stronger ROI and higher attendance.

The Significance of Marketing Budgets for Entertainment Events

Having the right event marketing budget can make or break the success of your event. It’s not just a number, it’s the way you will be able to build awareness, boost attendance, and generate revenue.

You simply cannot attract attendees to an event if they do not know about it in the first place. So, you need to have a well-thought-out marketing budget for your events whether they are fairs, festivals, or concerts. While the right marketing helps people become aware of your event, it also helps create buzz and anticipation around it. With the right budget, you will be able to reach enough of your target audience and build excitement for a successful event.

Having the right event marketing budget will not only be able to bring more of the right audience segments to your event, it will also allocate the funds you need to allow your team to test out different marketing strategies and channels to see what is more effective.

General Guidelines for Marketing Budgeting

Budgeting can be daunting at first. There are so many things you need to take into account and consider. While fairs, festivals, and concerts are different when it comes to making a marketing budget, here are some general guidelines to follow:

Establish campaign goals

• You goals can be tangible and/or intangible. Identifying goals will ultimately help you determine your target audience, the best way to reach them, and the costs associated with it.

Identify target audience

• Pinpoint the type of target audience and segments you’re promoting your event to. The more information you have about their demographics and interests the easier it will be to target them with your event marketing campaign. The better understanding you have of your target audiences, the easier it will be to market to them. Keep in mind that the audience size and location directly impacts cost as well.

Select marketing channels

• Think about where your target audience can be found and how you can best reach them. Depending on your budget, you might need to give some channels more priority than others, but it’s important to concentrate on the right ones to use.

Make a list of your event marketing costs

• List your estimated costs – break them down into projected fixed and variable costs. Reach out to various platforms or advertising spots to obtain precise prices for the services you’ll require to meet your campaign objectives.

Identify revenue streams and cash flow issues

• Cash flow is important. Understand that you will start incurring marketing costs before any revenue is generated for your upcoming event. Just like other upfront costs with putting on a live entertainment event, you need to have the necessary funds on hand to pay them before any revenue is generated for the event. TSE highly suggests that event promoters and venues have about 60 percent of their total budget on hand before proceeding with hosting a live entertainment event. This provides enough funds to cover both cash flow issues as well as protecting them in case the event doesn’t break even or make money.
• Make a list of all your revenue streams and anticipated timetable to receive them. This guarantees that you have sufficient funds to cover your advertising and marketing costs as you expend them. Use this to create an estimate of your cash flow timetable. Those who operated strictly on cash flow will have great difficulty being successful. You need to have enough money in the bank to carry out your marketing efforts until revenue from various revenue sources starts arriving.

Complete an event budget template

• Your event budget enables you to keep tabs on your spending. Event marketing should have its own section in the overall event budget. Eventbrite is one site that offers a free event budget template you can download.

Review, optimize, and update budget regularly

• Your event marketing budget should never be set in stone. It’s essential that you monitor your marketing spending each day to make sure you are staying within your budget and adjusting your tactics to maximize the channels that are working best at reaching your audience. A good event marketing budget should track actual versus budgeted showing variances to improve marketing budgets for future events.

Breaking Down your Marketing Budget

You need to take into consideration all the types of marketing channels you will be using to reach your target audience and promote your event. With this determined, you can divide your marketing spend, for instance, into the following groups:

• Paid advertising
  • Social advertising, e.g., Meta ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok ads, along with Google search ads as well as retargeting campaigns are examples of paid advertising for events.
• Campaign and content production
  • Website and box office content, video production, graphic design (for posters, ads, and other social media content, content creation and scheduling, photography for teasers and recaps, and motion graphics.
• Email and SMS marketing
  • Email platform subscription, list segmentation, and possibly an SMS texting platform if needed.
• Influencer marketing or partnerships and street teams
  • Influencer partnerships and ambassador or street team programs.
• PR and press outreach
  • PR news releases creation and distribution, radio and/or podcast outreach, outlet pitch’s
• Social media organic promotion
  • Content posting and boosting posts
• On-site promotion
  • Event signage, posters, etc.

Developing a budget is only one aspect of a good marketing strategy for your entertainment event. Another is matching the appropriate tactics and marketing channels to your objectives and target audience. Your event marketing budget will need to be efficiently allocated among various marketing channels such as influencer collaborations, PR outreach, content production, email and SMS marketing, paid advertising, and on-site promotion.

You can maximize ticket sales, optimize your reach, and position your event for long-term success by allocating resources according to audience data and event timing. Remember that as your marketing campaign unfolds, you will need to reallocate resources based on what channels are performing to reach your goals.

Other Tools and Tips

There are a couple of tips you can keep in mind to assist you in creating the right event marketing budget. Firstly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use a marketing calendar or scheduling template. It can give you a clear vision of what your promotional and marketing tactics should look like throughout your event marketing campaign. This will not only keep your promotional content and schedule organized, but you can also keep track of how much you are spending for each phase of the campaign and on what content and channels. Using it will allow you to keep your marketing strategy organized, help to avoid overspending, and assists in managing the team workload.

Using a budgeting app or budgeting template for your event marketing budget can be incredibly beneficial. It can help you track your budgeted versus actual money spend on marketing. Like the marketing calendar application, it keeps you and your team up-to-date as the campaign unfolds. It can also be helpful to use this template to reallocate funds from a certain marketing channel or a promotion tactic that has underperformed to ones that are doing well. Remember to judge your efforts against the key performance indicators (KPIs) you set for your overall marketing campaign. Keeping track of what’s working and what’s not is important for you to keep improving your marketing methods and tactics.

TSE Entertainment can help you develop the right event marketing budget for your events, and make the most of every dollar spent. From building awareness, increasing engagement, and most importantly, driving ticket sales, we’ll help you gain bigger audiences and create a marketing strategy that helps you attain trackable results.

Conclusion

Creating the right event marketing budget is one of the most important steps in holding financially successful events. It’s easy to underestimate how much you really need to spend on marketing to create awareness and excite your target audiences to get people in the doors.

The right marketing budget developed based on target audience data and allocated to specific activities and channels allows you to reach your intended audience and achieve your overall goals for ticket sales and maximizing your ROI. Remember, it can make or break your event. So, be sure to follow these tips to make sure you’re not underspending or overspending on marketing needs for your event.

FAQ:

1. Why is marketing considered an investment rather than just an expense for entertainment events?

Marketing helps build awareness, generate buzz, and drive ticket sales—directly contributing to event success and ROI. Unlike fixed expenses (e.g., venue rental), marketing actively grows event revenue when done right.

2. How much should I budget for marketing my entertainment event?

A general rule is to allocate 10–20% of your total potential gross ticket sales to marketing:

• • Established venues with regular events: 10–15%
  • New or infrequent event organizers: 15–20%

3. Can I use the same marketing budget for all my events?

No. Each event varies in scale, performer popularity, audience reach, and ticket price. Marketing budgets should be customized per event to reflect these differences.

4. What factors influence how much I should spend on marketing?

Key factors include:

• • Venue reputation and frequency of events
  • Audience data and engagement levels
  • Event size and ticket pricing
  • Available marketing channels
  • Cash flow and upfront funds available

5. What are the key components of a marketing budget?

Your marketing budget may include:

• • Paid advertising (social media, Google ads)
  • Content creation (graphics, video, website updates)
  • Email/SMS marketing
  • Influencer and street team outreach
  • PR and press
  • Organic social media
  • On-site promotional materials

6. When should I start spending on marketing?

Marketing expenses begin before ticket revenue starts, so cash flow is crucial. TSE recommends having at least 60% of your total event budget on hand before launching your campaign.

7. How do I identify the right target audience for my event?

Define your ideal attendee by:

• • Demographics (age, gender, location)
  • Interests and past behavior
  • Event relevance (music genre, type of entertainment)

Understanding your audience helps you choose the best channels and tactics.

8. How do I choose the right marketing channels?

Choose platforms based on:

• • Where your target audience spends time (e.g., Instagram vs. radio)
  • Cost-efficiency of each channel
  • Channel performance in past events

Balance your budget among multiple channels but prioritize what’s most effective.

9. Should I track and update my marketing budget?

Absolutely. Monitor spending daily and adjust as needed. Use tools like budgeting templates and marketing calendars to track actual vs. budgeted costs, performance, and ROI.

10. What tools can help me manage my event marketing budget?

Helpful tools include:

• • Marketing calendars (to schedule and track promotions)
  • Budgeting apps or templates (to monitor spending and adjust allocations)
  • KPI tracking (to evaluate channel effectiveness)

11. What’s the biggest mistake event organizers make with marketing budgets?

Two major mistakes:

1. 1. Underfunding the marketing budget and treating it as just another expense.
   2. Applying a fixed budget across all events, regardless of size or scale.

12. Can TSE Entertainment help with marketing budgets?

Yes. TSE Entertainment assists with:

• • Building the right marketing budget
  • Crafting tailored marketing strategies
  • Maximizing ROI through effective promotions and audience targeting

Sources

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/event-marketing-budget#:~:text=Keep%20in%20mind%20that%20new%20events%20will,your%20budget%20to%20marketing%20a%20new%20one.

https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/event-marketing-budget/