How an integrated online advertising strategy helped one Association increase its annual conference attendees by 46%
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One of the largest associations in the USA hosts an annual conference to bring together thousands of neuroscientists from around the world to debut cutting-edge research on the brain and nervous system. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, put a halt to all in-person gatherings, forcing the conference to become a virtual event and raising concerns about low attendees.
OBJECTIVES
- Drive awareness of the annual virtual conference to a wider geographic audience
- Increase registrations to the virtual event
SOLUTION
- An integrated online advertising strategy was developed that included Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook as well as a programmatic retargeting of website traffic.
- The target audience was defined using demographics, interests, topics, and an expanded geographic reach across North America and Europe. Additional audience segments were also created from prior events and retargeted with LinkedIn and Facebook ads
- User behaviour was analyzed and additional audience segments were created to target this audience with programmatic retargeting campaigns.
- UTM codes were used to track which ads were driving traffic to the event page and the number of registrations.
- Campaigns were reviewed and optimized weekly.
SUCCESS
- The integrated social media advertising strategy combined with programmatic retargeting of custom audiences resulted in 4,391 event registrations, far surpassing expectations
- The strategic placement of ads and consistent optimization resulted in a 46% increase in registrations compared to the previous year’s event.
- Custom “UTM” tags showed that Twitter ads performed the best, resulting in 263 conversions including direct as well as attributed conversions.

We work with associations, foundations and other non-profit organizations to reach, connect and engage their target users through data-driven digital marketing strategies. We have proven expertise in increasing your member and alumni engagement, event registrations, and program awareness and outreach. Our goal is to help you promote your programs, initiatives and events to your members, alumni and target users.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help your association grow your annual conference attendees with an integrated online advertising strategy.