How to promote an event or tour in 2026

The order of operations

Set up the on-sale properly: a ticket page per date, a presale for the people on your list, and a link that goes to the right city. Then get footage out the morning after every show, from your own accounts and from creators paid per view, each clip carrying the next date and the link. Then convert the people who saw it with the list, local creators and ads aimed at the next city. Promotion that waits for the official recap is promoting a show that already happened.

1. Ticket pages and the on-sale

A ticket page per date with the venue, time, price and a two-tap checkout; a presale for the list and the fan club before the public on-sale; tiered pricing so early buyers are rewarded and the last week has urgency. Every clip, post and ad for a city points at that city's link, never at a generic tour page where the buyer has to find themselves.

2. Clipping campaigns: paying creators per view to post last night's show

A clipping campaign is a funded budget that pays short-form creators per 1,000 verified views for clips from your shows, festival or conference, posted on their own TikTok, Reels and Shorts accounts while tickets are on sale, with the next date and the ticket link in every caption. A folder of phone footage from night one becomes a hundred clips for night two, from a hundred accounts, paid only on the views that arrive. You approve clips per city so the links stay right.

What it costs. You set the rate and the budget, so it costs what you fund, and unspent budget comes back. On Try Shoot a campaign starts at $500, with a 7% platform fee and no retainer. Event campaigns are time-boxed by the calendar, so size the budget per leg or per on-sale window rather than as an open-ended figure. Across the market, per-view rates commonly sit somewhere between roughly $1 and $5 per 1,000 views, and they vary a lot by niche, platform and how competitive the brief is. Treat that as context, not a quote: the rate that matters is the one you set.

Who runs it. You can launch it yourself and refresh the folder and the link after each show, or have it run for you. Clip Mansion, the verified agency on Try Shoot, runs campaigns for artists including personalheartbreaker, Cedric Gervais, Rodney Hazard, and is recognised by Le Loup Studios and Red Light Management. Its headline campaign reached 22.4M verified views in 48 hours at a $0.28 effective CPM.

How an event clipping campaign works, with a rolling tour brief

3. Your own footage, the morning after

Film every show from the floor on a phone: the drop, the sing-back, the guest. Post the best thirty seconds from the artist's or event's own accounts the next morning with "[next city], you're next" and the link. Don't wait for the edited recap; the phone clip from night one is the campaign. For conferences, the one line from a talk that makes people want the rest.

4. Local creators and attendee POVs

In each city, give tickets or guest-list spots to local creators whose audience lives there, with no script beyond the date and the link. "Day at [festival]" and "I went to [show]" formats are the most trusted content a ticket buyer sees, because the person posting it was in the room. Collect attendee footage with permission; it feeds the clipping brief.

5. Email, SMS and the presale list

The list is the presale, and the presale is where the first tickets go. Collect emails and numbers at every show, on every ticket purchase and in every bio; announce dates to the list first; send the city's clip to the city's segment the morning after the nearest show. Nothing else on this list sells tickets as reliably per message.

6. Geo-targeted paid ads

Short-form ads on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube aimed at the next city's radius, using the clip that already travelled, pointing at that city's ticket link, timed to the last two weeks before the date. Event ads are among the few that genuinely work on cold audiences, because the targeting is a place and a date rather than an interest.

7. Local press, radio and listings

Every city has listings pages, a local paper's what's-on section, local radio and a few local accounts that post events. Pitch two to four weeks before each date with the clip, the date and the link; offer a ticket giveaway to radio. It is unglamorous, free, and reaches the people who decide what to do this weekend.

8. Partners: venue, lineup, sponsors

The venue has a list and accounts in the city; the support acts and the other names on the lineup have audiences who haven't heard; sponsors have channels they're obliged to fill. Send each of them the clip, the date and the link the morning after the nearest show, cut for their account. Most partners want to post and never get around to it.

9. Communities and group chats

The fan Discord, the city's subreddit, the genre's forums, the WhatsApp and Telegram groups where fans arrange who's going. Post the clip and the link as a participant, run a meetup, answer questions about the venue. Tickets sell in groups, and groups form in chats.

10. Offers, bundles and the last week

Group tickets, a merch bundle, a two-date pass, a student rate, and a plainly stated last-week message with the clip and the link. Urgency is honest when the date is real; a fake sold-out claim is not, and it's in every brief's hard-nos for a reason.

From announcement to the last date

1. 1

   Announcement: list first, then everyone.

   Dates to the list and the fan club as a presale, then the public on-sale with a ticket page per date, the lineup clip cut to a sound with the dates on screen, and partners sent the share kit.

2. 2

   The weeks before each date: locals and listings.

   Local creators booked per city, press and listings pitched two to four weeks out, communities joined. A clipping campaign opened with rehearsal or previous footage so the sound and the dates are already moving.

3. 3

   The morning after every show: the clips.

   Footage folder uploaded within 24 hours, your own best clip posted with "[next city], you're next", the campaign brief refreshed with the next date and link, clips approved per city.

4. 4

   The two weeks before each date: convert.

   Geo-targeted ads behind the clip that travelled, the city's clip to the city's email segment, partners nudged, the local creators' posts live.

5. 5

   The last week: fill.

   Offers and bundles for the dates that need it, the plain last-week message, and the campaign running through the final on-sale date, not the final show.

What to spend, by budget

How to measure it

• Ticket sales per city in the days after clips go live, against the sales curve before.
• Ticket link clicks per city and per source, which most ticketing platforms report.
• Presale conversion from the list, the number that tells you whether the list is worth the effort.
• Cost per 1,000 views per leg across clipping, local creators and ads, and cost per ticket for anything paid.
• Which moments and cities travelled, so the next leg's brief leads with them.

Mistakes that leave seats empty

• Waiting for the official recap video. The phone footage from night one is the campaign.
• One ticket link for the whole tour when each city has its own.
• Posting last year's footage. This tour's clips sell this tour.
• Emailing the whole list about one city.
• Running ads on a clip that hasn't proven it travels.
• Pitching local press the week of the show.
• Discounting every date, so the audience learns to wait.
• Ending the campaign on the last show instead of the last on-sale date.