All Ticketing businesses are different – Heuristics are used to support in getting you closer to an answer, but not to solve specific issues – use them wisely!
Ticketing businesses differ by Market, Event Type, Sport and many other variables, please make sure that all Heuristics are relevant to your use case before applying.
These Heuristics intend to get you to the start line in client conversations, not the finish.
If you have specific questions or require support, please discuss with the Heuristics captains.
If you require visuals from these Heuristics, please contact the ‘Knowing Fans Best’ team.
Understanding Ticketing Businesses
Understand the shape of your ticketing business and the levers you can pull. Know what to pull and when – particularly price, volume, capacity, % at category, flex category splits, blend of premium + GA
When considering seasonal events or Tournaments – you also need to consider Frequency – how many times the purchaser attends per season/tournament.
Tactics to Retain Purchasers
Deliver Great Experiences
Engage Fans outside of Ticketing Communications
Brilliant Comms to your Owned Database
Increase your Marketing Opt In Rate.
Tactics to Acquire Purchasers
Understand and Engage with your prospective fans
Use your ticket buyers as advocates
Create inventory for new fans
Make purchasing easy Test & Learn!
Increasing your Ticketing Yield
Flex Inventory Levels – more seats in higher categories.
Increase Fixture Categories for in-demand matches and events
Move window dates – e.g. shorter early bird price windows
Re-model ticket pricing, and product architecture
Encouraging larger Basket Sizes
Group Discounts
Use Narratives to build community for events – bring friends & family.
Make Ticket Purchase Journeys easy to purchase multiple tickets, including for more than one event
Go to the Glossary Page for more definitions
Selling Tickets to Fans
Going on sale earlier for mid- to large scale events provides more opportunity to sell through the ticketing window – resulting in more sales overall.
Which events does this apply to?
Mid- to large-scale events that don’t regularly sell-out at pace. Why is selling earlier often advised?
More days in market unlocks opportunities to deliver sales windows/ phases & cover milestone moments which give authentic narrative to market your event.
Longer sales periods also provide you with time to push scarcity messaging surrounding tickets sold to date.
Creates early buying habits within your fanbase.
Drives Revenue in the bank earlier!
Launch sales of your event with sufficient time for early-bird and priority windows, along with time to sweat key milestones ahead of the event.
Be cautious of launching earlier if you can’t generate some early momentum – going on-sale with all your matches at the start of the season is rarely the correct approach.
Where possible for Major Events – consider going on-sale whilst in event!
Selling Tickets to Fans
If looking to achieve sell out at your event – achieving a ‘Surging Start’ is critical to doing so efficiently.
Why is a ‘Surging Start’ important?
Scarcity drives more sales – an early spike in sales makes selling the final tickets simpler.
A ‘Surging Start’ allows you to spend your marketing budget more effectively, later in the Sales Curve.
What are the key considerations?
This is an aspirational target for fixtures looking to hit sell-out.
50% by 25% is much easier to achieve after year 1 of an event –for new events a 3-year plan would be advised, using year-onyear improvements to achieve a ‘Surging Start’ through retention and awareness
Current Ticket Purchasers are a key sales channel – the more you have early, the more word-of-mouth sales you achieve.
Ticket Sales
Product & Pricing needs to be on point from Day 1 of sales window
Warm up your audiences prior to on-sale so they know it’s coming.
Your first price should be your best price (see later insight) Brilliant communications to your hottest prospects.
Sales Window
Selling Tickets to Fans
Scarcity (or the perception of Scarcity) is the most powerful tool in delivering successful and efficient ticketing campaigns.
Scarcity important?
Creates a sense in Fans that they need to buy immediately, or they’ll be worse off or miss out.
Demonstrates your event has a high perceived value and has limited availability – making it more desirable.
Release limited quantities of Tickets, in batches to ‘Sell Out’ allocations.
Create time constraints – limited window to access tickets.
Give exclusive access and encourage Registering of Interest to ‘guarantee a ticket’ or gain first access.
Announce sell outs of events when achieved, but also sell outs of categories & singular events.
Shout about key milestones achieved – “10,000 tickets sold already – Don’t miss out!”
Use ‘Money can’t buy experiences or VIP products to generate scarcity.
Selling Tickets to Fans
Retention is a crucial building block in any ticket marketing strategy – delivering significant efficiencies when executed well.
Why is Retention 4x Cheaper than Acquisition?
Fans you can communicate with directly are cheaper to reach and easier to market to as you understand them.
Data is often available to inform what they desire in a Ticketed event – and experience can be tailored to increase likelihood of conversion.
Acquiring newFans requires marketing budget –materialising as e.g. Paid Media, Campaign Creation
How do you improve your Ticket Retention?
Deliver best in-class event day experience –This is the foundation of any retention strategy.
Capture data of all attendees – not just ticket purchasers.
Deliver timely and personalised communications to promote the next visit.
Promote fans to climb your product ladder – from unbundled to bundled to seasonal products.
Provide priority access to the best prices – reward loyalty.
Selling Tickets to Fans
Owned Fan = Across a Rightsholders Digital Channels or within their Database.
Owned fans provide up to ~8x more value than operated & earned when selling tickets to sports and entertainment events.
Why are Owned Fans more valuable?
Rightsholders
Earned
IP Owner Social Channels
Operated
Web & App
Data Records (Opted Out)
Data Records (Opted In)
Owned
Owned Fans are more valuable to an organisation because you can address them directly – guaranteeing you can show them marketing messages regularly.
Earned fans: you are at the mercy of Broadcasters, Publishers and Social Algorithms to communicate with fans.
It is free to talk to your Owned Fans – rather than paying often expensive CPAs / CPCs (Cost per Acquisitions / Clicks ) to speak to other Fans.
Owned Fans have been proven to spend more money when purchasing tickets as well – more £ per purchaser
When building a Ticketing Campaign plan – factor in time to allow fans to Sign Up to priority lists and build your Owned Fans.
Drive Engaging content to your Owned Digital Platforms, where you can address fans more directly.
Sell to your Owned Fans first! (likeyouwouldinviteyourbest friendstoapartyfirst!)
Your hottest prospects typically buy 3.5x faster than your average customers.
Registered an Interest
Purchased Previously
Marketable Database
Group Ticket Buyers
Family Ticket Buyers
Content Engagers
Younger Demographics (making up their minds…)
Earned, Operated & Paid Audiences
Previous Late Purchasers
Selling Tickets to Fans
Encourage positive purchasing behaviours by pricing your tickets correctly throughout the sales window.
First Price = Best Price – Kick off your sales windows with the lowest ticket price on offer at any point for this individual seat –and avoid discounts later in the sales window.
Why your first price should always be your best price:
Discounting late devalues your product, highlights a lack of scarcity, and encourages late purchasing habits within your fan base.
Starting with your best price encourages earlier purchasing habits and prioritise long-term revenue objectives over short-term revenue objectives.
Use early bird windows and pricing to encourage early purchase – make sure to give yourself enough time to market the beginning and end of the early-bird.
Basket Size fluctuates event-to-event, but aiming for a Basket Size of 4 or more will allow you to optimise your revenue tree.
Basket Size = The number of tickets an individual purchases in one transaction
What factors impact your average basket size?
Scarcity of the event
The availability of Bundled Products
Group Products and Offers available
How Group- and Family-orientated is the target market?
Average Price of Tickets
Regularity of the Event (One-Off vs In-Season)
Ability to purchase 4 tickets – some high-demand events we can limit basket size to as low as 2 with the right plan
Influence Basket Size through narrative and imagery –“Bring your family and friends along for the ride!”
Restrict ability to purchase single tickets where applicable.
Understand the online ticket purchase journeyinfluence selection by making multiple tickets easy to add to basket
Selling Tickets to Fans
Improving Frequency means improving your retention – and it is one of the best indicators of someone becoming a more engaged fan.
Frequency = The number of fixtures per season , tournament or event that fan attends a match/fixture.
For example:
Fan 1 = Attends 3 World Cup Matches
Fan 2 = Attends 4 World Cup Matches
Avg Frequency of 3.5
Frequency is an output of retention – so if you do retention well, your frequency will increase.
Have a range of products that enable one offs (attends 1 fixture per event/season) to become casuals, (2-3) casuals to become cores (4+) – laddering up to your most engaging product.
Create benefits for repeated visits:
Bundled Ticketing products that provide discount for multiple attendances.
‘Secure your Seat!’
Those with high Frequency are high propensity fans to buy bundled tickets (e.g. Season Tickets)
Selling Tickets to Fans
100% of tickets being fulfilled digitally is now the norm – and you should now know 90% of who is in your stadium (i.e. attendees) instead of 20-40% (i.e. just the ticket purchasers)
Post-COVID, it has become the norm for close to 100% of inventory to be ticketed digitally.
Fans now understand & expect this mode of delivery.
Ms
Ms
ID: #123456789
ID: #123456789 Digital
000-000-000
01/01/2026
01/01/2026
01/01/2026
Ms
ID: #123456789
ID:
Of attendees known with digital ticketing Vs 20-30% with paper tickets only
Digital ticketing enables you to know and own the data of all ticketholders within an attending group, not just the lead booker.
The primary benefit of this is the increased capture of first party data of the fans in your stadium including the capture of marketing permissions.
This enables a more personalised event day experience for non-booking attendees and unlocks opportunities to directly cross-sell & up-sell to them.
Digital ticketing is supported by most of the ticketing service providers either via their own app, integration with rightsholders digital products or via a midware solution
Own the ticketing data to your event, not the venue, ticketing supplier or promoter
Adopt 100% digital ticketing, keep the roll out simple, don’t over complicate with wider app functionality or complex ticket share rules
Selling Tickets to Fans
Demand is regularly seen to exist first for the best seats in the house, and those seats which are the cheapest option to be there.
Higher and lower price points often see the most demand.
Top price points see high demand due to reflecting the best experiences on offer. Often have finite volume to sell e.g. 100m finish line of athletics or the halfway line of football
Bottom price points can sell quickly as the cheapest option to access the event. Often reflect the worst experience e.g. high up, limited views, poorer facilities
Review where demand is and create a plan to match it. Maximise yield from your best seats
Create narrative for all tickets, not just the best and cheapest. Use comms and web journeys to push fans to alternative products and price points.
Always keep a limited number of tickets at the lowest price points to protect accessible marketing messages
Selling Tickets to Fans
A successful bundled ticketing business needs a mix of core, regular and one-off attendees, driven by a large and ever-growing marketable base. of capacity of capacity of capacity of capacity
This is a diagnostic tool – variants apply for larger stadiums and one-off events.
To ensure sell-out and maximise yield, club businesses need to have the right mix of core (e.g. Season Ticket Holders), Regulars, and one-off purchasers
Relying too much on core fans can lower yield, through discounts given to STH and membership, while over-reliance on one-offs can risk lack of sell-outs
Each stadium will have its own ideal mix of the 3 types of purchaser, based on capacity, products and history.
Understand, measure and track your stadium’s ideal and current mix
Focus on growing the marketable base through data capture on attendees (non-purchasers), geo-targeted above-the-line campaigns and simple sign-up forms
Identify non-engaged and lapsed prospects in the base to know the true value of marketable base (e.g. not inflated by low likelihood prospects)
Build campaigns which incentivise first purchase from the base and drive oneoffs to convert to regulars
Selling Tickets to Fans
If your retention is poor, it doesn’t matter how successful your top of funnel is performing – you’ll still need to do more.
How leaks spring:
Poor data collection - means rights holders can’t influence purchasers and other attendees to return
Poor matchday experience means purchasers don’t want to return
Failing to keep previous customers engaged out of season can lead to lapsing
Failing to consider any part of the user journey properly can lead to leaks if friction exists
And why it matters
When retention is poor, businesses must work extra hard to stay on par, spending more time and money to drive acquisition and sell to new customers
Work on a strong sign-up form – easy to capture and complete. Capture more data about customers at each stage of journey
Build campaign plans which treat previous purchasers as special, to avoid them from lapsing.
Review ticket purchase journey and ensure you can minimize drop-offs at every step - including abandon basket communications as minimum.
Build Digital ticketing journeys to include easy sharing enabling data capture on attendees who aren’t the purchasers (The Hundred)
Selling Tickets to Fans
Fans with high experience scores at least 20% more likely to buy again compared to those who give low experience scores
Fans’ experience, from purchase to post-match, will determine whether they return for another match or event
On-pitch action will play a big role, but there are many factors which rightsholders can control to increase event day experience scores
Send Matchday Experience (MDEX) surveys to all attendees within 24 hours, Analyse results to understand which matchday factors have biggest impact on the overall experience – and focus actions on low-performing factors
Build post-match campaigns which include upsell messaging for those who have given high overall experience scores, and feedback for those with lower
Anything over 80% is a good retention rate for Season Ticket Holders - 90% or above is brilliant.
Retention Rates vary dependent on scarcity of ticket – Teams with a Waiting List will have retention nearing 100%.
Financial Variables such as price increases will have an impact on retention.
Life Variables - moving cities, going to university and having children also impact people’s ability to retain Season Tickets.
Team Variables – on-field performance and promotion/relegation will also impact this key metric.
Lean on Emotional Narratives – Season Ticket Holders want to feel part of something bigger, with shared experiences and aligned values.
Retention is a 365 day a year campaign – demonstrating value in a Season Ticket through the year will make retaining fans a far easier process.
Be clear on the benefits of being a Season Ticket Holder – outside of access to home fixtures .
Make STHs aware of the value in their Season Ticket – what is their saving on purchasing Match Tickets, with a guaranteed seat at every game
Identify higher and lower likelihood STHs to renew – and attribute your marketing effort accordingly. Traits of fans with higher propensity to renew:
Marketable and engaging with Communications
% of Matches attended in the Season
Last time they attended a home fixture
Tenure – consecutive years with a Season Ticket
Distance from the Ground
Age – older demographics have higher retention
Selling Tickets to Fans
‘ ’
Event Shoulders = ‘Shoulders’ of an event is the period immediately before and after your event starts and finishes.
Creating noise before and after events is a brilliant way to grow the peak fan attention and achieve KPIs.
Why stretch the shoulders of events?
Provides more opportunity to drive ticket sales, build audiences, media value and engage fans.
Provides opportunity to sell future events after the spike.
Creates greater peaks in fan attention.
Building the Left Shoulder
Gamifications and Fantasy Products.
Content Series and Original Video Programming.
Head to Heads, Team Comparisons, Ones to Watch
“What to expect when you visit …”
Building the Right Shoulder
“Thanks for visiting, join us next time …”
Fantasy Wrap-Up, Team of the Tournament.
Highlights and Replays of Event.
Stats, Rankings, Next Fixtures.
In addition to ticket price - consider what revenue levers to pull and when to flex your ticketing yield: inventory mixes, fixture categorisation and management of sales windows
LEX INVENTORY LEVELS
e.g.
CHANGE FIXTURE CATEGORIES
Keep your seat pricing simple and take into consideration what matters most to fans when pricing your venue.
Keep it simple – Too many price points are confusing
Consider the Narrative – How will you market these price points?
What impacts the pricing of your seat In-Stadia?
Location – Fans will pay to sit closer to the action, or more central to the action (halfway line, lower tier). Home & Away Ends give an opportunity to flex prices higher as well.
Comfort – Protection from the elements: Rain, Sun, Wind.
What’s the physical seat? Padded, USBs, Cup Holders, Screens
Demand – How many people are trying to purchase these tickets?
Facilities – How easy is it to get to Toilets, Food and Beverage, or in and out of the venue afterwards?
Product & Pricing for Fans
Up to 80% of your Tournament Revenue can come from just 20% of your inventory if priced correctly and matched to demand.
Tier your events within a tournament in line with expected demand, then price accordingly
Team & Stage in Tournament - The biggest influencers who is playing (including the hosts) and the stage in the tournament with the Final being the highest demand of any match.
Day of week and Venue – Also important factors, weekends preferred and the size of the venue directly impacts how many seats there are to sell
Knockouts – Watch out! Quarter-finals and Last 16 matches can be a challenge to sell when you don’t know who is playing
The Long Tail – Majority of matches will sit here, they are an opportunity to drive volume here and accessible pricing
Hardtosell
Low demand combination of teams, day of week, time of day, early in tournament.
TheDayJob
Narrative can be created to sell tickets, marketing’s day job to sell. Likely most of the tournament sits here
Revenue Engine – Up to 80% of your revenues may come from just these matches
Bankers
Demand will exist that can be converted through a combination of teams playing and the stage in tournament
SuperYield
Drives significant revenue, through the finals and and host team matches.
Product & Pricing for Fans
Not all fixtures are created equal. Multiple factors will determine the appeal of an event, and therefore the potential price a fan is willing to pay for it. It is important to consider this and price your inventory accordingly.
Where struggling for a reason to attend – create one!
Time & Day of the week:
Higher demand & fan availability at weekends & out-of-town fans less likely to travel on a weekday evening
Weeknights appeal to‘after-work’ crowd; potential for group booking offers
Afternoon fixtures more likely to attract a family audience
Event Context:
Higher prestige competitions drive higher demand
Matches with greater significance within their context are of more value (e.g. latter stages of cup comp. or league title run-in)
Opposition:
Match-ups against big teams with star players or established rivals drive higher demand Rightsholders have succeeded by creating themes around fixtures, e.g.: Armed Forces Day, LBGTQ+ Fixtures, College / Student Events
Audience Earned Earned media – rightsholders’ content or campaigns which receives shares, mentions etc. on Social Media (without payment), or other free promotion by other publications or users.
Audience Owned Fan A fan who visits a Rightsholder’s Digital Channels (web or app) or within the rightsholder’s database.
Audience Operated Operated channels are typically rightsholder’s accounts on 3rd party platforms, primarily social media accounts.
Paid Media Any marketing activity which is paid for from a marketing budget, e.g. social media ads, digital advertising, TV ads, influencer marketing, outdoor
Audience Direct Rightsholders can use Direct Marketing for those who are in their database and opted in to marketing on email, app or web campaigns.
Audience/Ticketing Audience/Fan Funnel An Audience funnel is a conceptual (and often visual) representation of the customer journey, showing the stages a potential customer goes through from initial awareness to completing a purchase.
✓ Top of the funnel refers to awareness, when fans first become aware of the event or product. This relies on paid marketing and earned media to reach new fans
✓ Bottom of the funnel are those fans already in your database and showing interest and likelihood to convert (i.e. buy , attend or transact)
Ticketing Inventory The total number of tickets (and hospitality/premium products) available for sale for a particular event, venue, or series of events.
Ticketing Ticket Yield The revenue generated per ticket, particularly in comparison to its maximum potential revenue. Average yield is used as a metric to assess and optimise pricing.
Ticketing Basket Size The number of tickets an individual purchases in one transaction.
Ticketing Frequency The number of times an individual attends an event or match in a season/year/tournament.
Recency A measure of how recently a fan or fan group last attended a stadium or event
Ticketing Net Revenue The income generated from ticket sales by rightsholder after deducting specific costs or fees associated with those sales (e.g. Booking Fee).
Ticketing Gross Revenue Gross revenue refers to the total amount of money collected from ticket sales, before any deductions or expenses. It represents the overall income generated directly from ticket buyers at point of purchase.
Ticketing General Admission (GA) GA is the term used for tickets (or attendees with tickets) for a single match or event, as compared to Season Tickets (and Season Ticket Holders (STHs) and those in Hospitality/Premium Experience events.
Ticketing Total Capacity The total number of people the stadium is designed to hold, as determined by building codes, safety regulations, and seating arrangements.
Ticketing Sellable capacity The total number of tickets avaliable after considering factors such as safety, operational requirements, and event-specific needs.
Ticketing Occupancy The percentage of a stadium’s capacity for which tickets have been sold and issued (i.e. given as complimentary tickets to rightsholders, commercial partners and other stakeholders.)
Ticketing Attendance The total number of people physically present at a match or event, recorded by the rightsholders (often now with access data capture)
Ticketing Event ‘Shoulders’ ‘Shoulders’ of an event are the periods immediately before and after your event starts and finishes.
Ticketing Retention Retention is the ability to drive repeat attendance at future events. The retention rate measures how many attendees (as % of previous event’s purchasers) return to purchase tickets for subsequent events.
Ticketing Acquisition Acquisition refers to the process of attracting new customers or attendees to an event. It focuses on expanding the audience base by reaching individuals who haven’t attended before.
