Send a text

One team grew social reach from 7 million to 12+ million impressions.
Engagement exploded. Video views were up.

ROAS? 7–8x.

And yet… single-game ticket sales stayed flat.

In this episode, Jeremy breaks down why awareness alone doesn’t create growth, the difference between monetizing demand vs. multiplying it, and how to structure your funnel so reach actually turns into repeat buyers.

Key Topics

• Why a strong ROAS can still hide a growth ceiling
• Monetizing demand vs. multiplying demand
• The 3 Ad Buckets every sports team must use
• Why frequency problems get mistaken for awareness problems
• The overlooked “Game 2 Strategy”
• Database growth as a revenue multiplier
• Why timing sales ads to 24–48 hour buying windows matters

The Core Lesson

This team didn’t hit a wall.
They hit a ceiling.

Their ads worked.
Demand exists.

But their funnel wasn’t engineered to move fans from awareness → intent → repeat behavior.

The 3 Ad Buckets Framework

Every ad must live in one of three buckets:

1. Audience Building - Build familiarity and retargeting pools.
2. Buyer Warming - Reduce friction and drive traffic.
3. Buyer Ready - Sell tickets.

If every ad says “Buy Now,” none of them function like true sales ads.

Platforms optimize for engagement — not wallet behavior.

They’ll find people who:

• Watch
• Like
• Comment
• Share

They are not automatically optimizing for:

• Selecting a date
• Bringing a family
• Buying multiple games

That behavior must be engineered.

This team likely:

• Re-activated past buyers
• Sold to an existing pool
• Improved efficiency

But didn’t expand the buyer base.

That’s a frequency problem — not an awareness problem.

5 Layers That Unlock Growth

1. Capture Before Conversion – Own the relationship early.
2. Retargeting Discipline – Structured audience building.
3. Separate Content Tracks – Entertain and sell.
4. Game 2 Strategy – Opening Day is marketing. The rest is sales.
5. Group Data Capture – 50 tickets sold ≠ 1 contact captured.

Database growth = revenue growth.

The Timing Insight Most Teams Miss

Most single-game tickets are purchased within 24–48 hours of the game.

If your conversion ads aren’t strongest during that window, you’re fighting buying behavior.

Align your ads with when fans are ready to act.

Timestamps

00:00 – Massive reach, flat sales
01:16 – The 7–8x ROAS breakdown
03:30 – Monetize vs. multiply demand
05:14 – The 3 Ad Buckets
08:16 – Engagement vs. buyer behavior
12:57 – 5 growth unlocks
19:43 – Ceiling vs. wall
20:20 – Timing matters
21:52 – Self-audit questions

Episodes mentioned:

Episode 125 - “I Saw Your Ad—But Didn’t Buy”: Fixing the Fan Follow-Up Funnel

Episode 111 - Building Your Marketing Budget Like a Funnel: Awareness to Action

Episode 132 - The 35,000 Visitor Problem: Why More Traffic Can Tank Your Profits

Sports Marketing Machine on LinkedIn
Sports Marketing Machine on Instagram
Book a call with Jeremy from Sports Marketing Machine

Send a text

If you're still running one “hero ad” and hoping it scales, you're already behind.

In this episode, Jeremy breaks down why Meta’s evolving algorithm has made single-creative campaigns obsolete—and why sports teams must shift from building one good ad to building a creative system. You’ll learn how to structure multiple angles around one game, how to think in buyer motivations (not demographics), and how to create a “creative menu” that actually drives ticket sales.

Key Topics Covered

• Why “What’s the best ad format?” is the wrong question
• The myth of the one perfect ticket-selling ad
• How Meta’s reduced targeting options change everything
• The “menu problem” most teams don’t realize they have
• 5 psychological ticket-buyer motivations for the same event
• Why frequency spikes and CPM increases aren’t budget problems
• How to build 8–10 creative variations from one game
• Using ChatGPT to generate angles, hooks, and copy faster
• Why warming ads matter (AIDA framework explained)
• The difference between boosting posts and building strategy

Timestamps

00:00 – The myth of the “one killer ad”
02:40 – Why buyers aren’t all motivated by the same thing
05:50 – The ice cream shop analogy (creative variety explained)
06:11 – 5 angles for the same Saturday Night Fireworks game
08:30 – Why Meta won’t scale one message anymore
10:44 – How to practically build multiple creative angles
11:51 – The AIDA framework and warming ads
13:00 – Simple 4-step creative system for teams
15:19 – Stop boosting. Start building a creative menu.

The Big Idea: You Don’t Have a Targeting Problem. You Have a Creative Problem.

Most teams run:

• One graphic
• One hype video
• One caption
• One boosted post

That’s vanilla ice cream.

But your fans don’t all buy tickets for the same reason.

Some buy for:

• Family memories
• Social nights out
• Date nights
• Corporate hosting

When you run only one angle, Meta finds one pocket of people, frequency climbs, CPM increases, and performance plateaus.

It’s not a budget issue.

You ran out of angles.

The Creative Menu Framework

For one game:

1. Write down 5 reasons someone would attend (motivations, not demographics).
2. Create 2 angles per motivation.
3. Make sure visuals are different (faces, scenes, tone, format).
4. Let Meta run long enough to optimize (not 48 hours).

That’s 8–10 ads from one event.

That’s scale.

Jeremy references the classic AIDA model:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

Not every ad converts immediately. Some warm. Some build trust. Some create demand.

If you shut off non-converting ads too quickly, you kill the top of your funnel.

Call to Action

If this episode helped shift your thinking, share it with someone on your marketing or ticket sales team.

Because the teams that move from one creative to a creative system are the teams that will scale ticket sales in 2026 and beyond.

Links mentioned:

Sports Marketing Machine powered by Revelocity Sports

AIDA Framework vi

Sports Marketing Machine on LinkedIn
Sports Marketing Machine on Instagram
Book a call with Jeremy from Sports Marketing Machine

Send a text

If you’re spending money on Meta ads but don’t fully trust the numbers… you’re not crazy. In this episode, Jeremy Neisser breaks down why Meta’s reporting often doesn’t match ticketing reality—and what sports teams should track instead. You’ll get a simple, no-nonsense framework for measuring marketing performance using real revenue, not modeled guesses.

Key Topics Covered

• Why Meta’s reports and your ticketing software rarely line up
• What Conversion API (CAPI) actually does—and what it doesn’t
• The difference between optimization data and reporting truth
• Why your ticketing system and bank account are the real scoreboard
• A simple framework to track marketing without attribution drama
• New Customer Acquisition Cost (NCAC) explained for sports teams
• How Average Order Value (AOV) and Revenue Per Buyer reveal buyer quality
• Why judging ads every 48 hours leads to bad decisions
• How to evaluate marketing weekly (and ROI monthly or by homestand)

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Why teams don’t trust their marketing numbers
• 02:16 – How this episode connects to Meta strategies & budget planning
• 04:37 – How Meta actually matches purchases (and why it breaks)
• 06:57 – CAPI helps optimization, not reporting accuracy
• 09:18 – Meta is better at finding buyers than explaining them
• 11:36 – Why attribution falls apart in real fan journeys
• 12:04 – A simple, spreadsheet-level tracking framework
• 13:58 – Measuring ROI the way owners and GMs actually understand
• 16:11 – NCAC: the metric that removes attribution arguments
• 18:31 – AOV vs. Revenue Per Buyer (offer strength vs. buyer quality)
• 20:40 – What to stop over-obsessing about immediately
• 23:00 – Final framework: delivery engine vs. scoreboard

Core Framework (This Is the Money Slide)

Use Meta as a delivery engine.
Use your ticketing system as the scoreboard.

Track:

• Real ad spend (including agency fees)
• Real ticket revenue
• New Customer Acquisition Cost (NCAC)
• Average Order Value (AOV)
• Revenue per buyer
• Repeat purchase behavior

Ignore:

• Platform-specific ROAS arguments
• Modeled attribution fights
• Day-to-day emotional decision-making

Call to Action

If this episode helped you, share it with someone on your team. The fastest way to kill “marketing isn’t working” conversations is getting everyone to agree on one scoreboard—your ticketing data.

Links mentioned:

Sports Marketing Machine powered by Revelocity Sports

Episode 135 - Simplest Way to Justify Your Marketing Budget

Episode 147 - Meta Ads Strategies That WORK in 2026

Sports Marketing Machine on LinkedIn
Sports Marketing Machine on Instagram
Book a call with Jeremy from Sports Marketing Machine