Event Marketing: Trackable Campaigns and Conversion Pixels
Overview
The Marketing section in the event editor helps you build an engaged audience whilst staying compliant with UK data protection rules. Rather than managing separate tools, you configure everything from one place.
At its simplest, Marketing Tools answers one question: How do I collect permission to contact attendees and measure where my ticket sales come from?
Who uses this: Event organisers and organisation administrators who want to grow their audience or track advertising effectiveness.
Key capabilities:
- Collect email marketing consent during checkout
- Display a sign-up option on your event landing page
- Request permission to send post-event surveys
- Track advertising conversions from social media campaigns
- Credit users who share your event and drive ticket sales
The Marketing Tools editor showing all three sections: Marketing consent toggle set to No, Surveys consent toggle set to No, and Facebook Marketing with an empty Pixel ID fieldHow It Works
At a glance: You enable consent options, attendees choose whether to opt in during checkout, and the system records their preferences for future use.
1. Configure Your Preferences
In the event editor's Marketing section, you decide which consent options to enable. Each option adds a clearly labelled checkbox during checkout.
2. Attendees Make Choices
During ticket purchase, attendees see your enabled options and decide whether to opt in. They can complete their purchase regardless of their choices.
3. System Records Consent
When attendees opt in, their consent is recorded at the organisation level. This means consent applies across all your events, not just the one they purchased.
4. Use Your Data Responsibly
You can contact consenting attendees about future events or surveys. The system maintains records for compliance auditing.
Think of it this way:
- Marketing consent gives permission to email about upcoming events (promotional)
- Survey consent gives permission to request feedback after events (research)
- Advertising tracking measures where your ticket buyers come from — through Seaty Campaigns (your own posters, QR codes, social posts), Facebook Pixel (Meta ad attribution), and automatic capture of UTM tags from Mailchimp/Brevo/etc plus
fbclidandgclidfrom Facebook and Google Ads- Referral tracking credits users who share your event with friends
Marketing Consent
Marketing consent collects permission to contact attendees about current and future events from your organisation.
Enabling During Checkout
In the Marketing section, find the option:
"Ask attendees if you can use their email address to contact them with marketing about current and future shows?"
Toggle to "Yes, ask them" and this adds an opt-in checkbox during ticket purchase.
What attendees see:
- A clearly labelled checkbox they can tick or leave empty
- Purchase completes normally regardless of their choice
- Administrators creating orders on behalf of attendees see the same checkbox
The Marketing section with consent enabled showing Yes ask them toggle in green, and the conditional landing page sign-up option that appears below with its own toggleLanding Page Sign-Up
After enabling marketing consent, a second option appears:
"Show a sign up to marketing option on your event landing page?"
Toggle to "Yes, show sign up option" to display a dedicated sign-up section on your event page. This captures interested visitors who may not purchase immediately.
When this helps:
- Events with long advance booking periods
- Testing interest before announcing all dates
- Capturing "maybe later" prospects
- Running early-bird subscriber campaigns
Why the landing page option only appears after enabling marketing consent? The sign-up widget collects the same marketing consent as checkout, so it only makes sense when you're collecting consent in the first place.
Surveys
Survey consent lets you collect feedback after events conclude, helping improve future productions.
Enabling Survey Consent
In the Marketing section, find the Surveys heading and the option:
"Ask attendees if you can use their email address to contact them with surveys on your organisation's events?"
Toggle to "Yes, ask them" to add a survey opt-in checkbox during checkout.
Important distinction:
- Marketing consent is for promotional emails about upcoming events
- Survey consent is for feedback requests about events they attended
These are separate permissions. Attendees can consent to one, both, or neither.
Best Practices for Surveys
Timing: Send surveys 1-3 days after events whilst experiences are fresh. Beyond two weeks, response rates drop significantly.
Length: Keep surveys brief, around 5-10 questions, taking no more than 5-7 minutes to complete.
Respect: Only survey attendees about events they actually attended, and never use survey consent for marketing purposes.
Advertising Tracking
Advertising tracking connects your event to social media ad campaigns, measuring which purchases come from your advertising spend.
Setting Up Tracking
In the Marketing section, find the Facebook Marketing heading:
"Do you have a Facebook Ads Pixel ID?"
Enter your Pixel ID in the Pixel ID field. This is a numeric identifier you get from your advertising account.
What happens:
- Your event pages automatically report when visitors view and purchase
- You can see conversion data in your advertising dashboard
- Ad targeting improves based on purchase patterns
Where to find your Pixel ID: Log into your advertising business account, navigate to Events Manager, and locate your Pixel. The ID appears at the top as a numeric code.
Leave blank if: You're not running advertising campaigns, or prefer not to use third-party tracking.
Privacy Considerations
Advertising tracking:
- Only tracks anonymous visitor behaviour
- Complies with GDPR requirements
- Respects browser opt-out settings
- Shares no personally identifiable information without consent
Referral Tracking
Referral tracking enables attendees to share your event and receive credit when their friends purchase tickets.
How Referrals Work
When logged-in users visit your event page, they can generate a personalised link containing their unique identifier. When someone clicks that link and purchases tickets, the original user receives credit.
Sharing options available:
- QR Code button - Generates a downloadable QR code perfect for printing or sharing on social media
- Link Copy button - Copies the referral URL to clipboard with visual confirmation
Who Can Create Referrals
- Must have a registered account (not a guest)
- Must be logged in when visiting the event page
- Works for any event (referrals are enabled by default)
What Referrers See
Users can view their referral performance in their account dashboard, including which orders were attributed to them and when purchases occurred.
Current Status
Note: The referral system works automatically for events. However, the option to enable or disable referrals at the event level is not currently visible in the editor interface. Contact support if you need to change referral settings for specific events.
UK Data Protection Compliance
All marketing features follow UK GDPR requirements:
Consent-based approach:
- Nobody is automatically opted into marketing
- Every contact requires explicit, informed consent
- Consent requests clearly explain what communications they'll receive
Organisational scope:
- Consent applies to all events from your organisation
- You don't need attendees to re-consent for each event
- Records are maintained for compliance auditing
User control:
- Attendees can withdraw consent at any time
- Unsubscribe requests must be processed immediately
- Never send marketing to non-consenting contacts
What you can still send without marketing consent:
- Order confirmations and tickets (transactional)
- Critical event updates (venue changes, cancellations)
- Information directly related to tickets they purchased
Testing Your Configuration
Before going live, verify everything works:
Marketing consent test:
- Open your event page in an incognito window
- Start a ticket purchase
- Verify the marketing opt-in checkbox appears
- Complete a test order (delete afterwards)
Landing page widget test:
- Visit your event page when not logged in
- Look for the marketing sign-up section
- Test the email submission with a test address
Survey consent test:
- During test purchase, verify survey opt-in appears
- Confirm it's clearly distinct from marketing consent
- Check both can be selected independently
Advertising tracking test:
- Install a pixel helper browser extension
- Visit your event page
- Verify your tracking activates
- Complete a test purchase and verify the purchase event fires
Common Questions
Consent and Permissions
Do attendees have to consent to marketing to purchase tickets? No. Marketing consent is completely optional. Attendees can purchase tickets whilst leaving marketing opt-ins unchecked.
What's the difference between marketing consent and survey consent? Marketing consent is permission to email about upcoming events. Survey consent is permission to request feedback about events attended. They're separate permissions.
Can I send marketing emails to people who haven't consented? No. Under GDPR, you can only send marketing to people who explicitly opted in. Exceptions include order confirmations, tickets, and critical event updates.
What happens to marketing consent between events? Consent is organisational, not event-specific. When someone consents for one event, that consent applies to all events from your organisation.
Advertising Tracking
What if I don't have advertising tracking set up? Leave the Pixel ID field blank. Your events function normally without it. Only add tracking if you're actively running advertising campaigns.
How do I find my advertising Pixel ID? Log into your advertising business account, navigate to Events Manager, click on your Pixel name, and copy the numeric ID displayed at the top.
Referrals
Can referrals be made anonymous? No. Referrals intentionally show the name of the person who shared the link. This transparency encourages authentic recommendations. However, referrers don't see personal information about who they referred, just that tickets were sold.
Do referrers receive payments or commissions? Currently, no. Referrals provide recognition and credit for driving ticket sales but don't include financial incentives. You can create your own incentive programmes based on referral performance.
Surveys
How long after an event can I send surveys? There's no technical limit, but best results come within 1-3 days whilst experiences are fresh. Beyond two weeks, details are forgotten and completion rates drop.
Managing Settings
Can I disable marketing features after they've been enabled? Yes. Toggle any option off and save. Previously collected consent remains valid until withdrawn by individual attendees.
Can I customise the marketing opt-in text? The standard text is fixed to ensure clear, compliant consent language. You can provide additional context in your event description explaining what types of marketing subscribers receive.
How do I view who's consented to marketing? Marketing consent data is stored in attendee records. Contact support for exports of consenting contacts or integration with email marketing platforms.
Next Steps
With marketing tools configured, continue enhancing your event:
- Custom Questions - Collect additional attendee information
- Discounts - Create promotional discount codes
- Event Images - Add compelling visuals for social sharing
Need help? Visit our Organiser FAQ or contact support.