Paid media metrics — ROAS for live event campaigns | Nevent
Paid media metrics in Nevent
Section titled “Paid media metrics in Nevent”Paid advertising is one of the most powerful levers for selling tickets, but also one of the easiest ways to waste money. Without clear metrics, it is hard to know whether your ads are profitable. Nevent centralises paid media metrics alongside ticket sales data so you can calculate the true ROAS of every campaign.
What paid media metrics can you measure?
Section titled “What paid media metrics can you measure?”| Metric | What it answers | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | How much have I spent on ads in total or per campaign? | Budget control |
| Impressions | How many times has the ad been shown? | Measure campaign reach |
| Clicks | How many people clicked on the ad? | Measure generated interest |
| CTR | What % of people who see the ad click on it? | Evaluate the creative and ad copy |
| CPM | How much does it cost to get 1,000 impressions? | Compare the cost of advertising inventory |
| CPC | How much does each click cost? | Evaluate ad efficiency |
| CPA | How much does it cost to achieve one conversion (sale)? | Measure the true cost per ticket sold via ads |
| ROAS | How many pounds of revenue per pound invested? | Evaluate overall paid media profitability |
| Multi-touch attribution | Which combination of ads / channels led to the purchase? | Understand the full path to conversion |
| Creative comparison | Which ad performs better for the same audience? | Optimise creatives and messaging continuously |
What is ROAS and why is it the key metric?
Section titled “What is ROAS and why is it the key metric?”ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) is the ratio between the revenue generated by an advertising campaign and the cost of that campaign. A ROAS of 4 means that for every £1 invested in ads, you sold £4 worth of tickets.
For live events with ticket sales, a minimum acceptable ROAS to cover costs is typically 2–3x. A ROAS of 5–10x is healthy. Values above 10x are achievable with highly qualified remarketing audiences (fans who already know you and your events).
According to the official documentation from Google Ads and Meta Business Help Centre, target ROAS varies by sector. In entertainment and ticketing, benchmark expectations tend to be higher than in generic e-commerce because the target audience is more specific.
What is CPA and how does it differ from ROAS?
Section titled “What is CPA and how does it differ from ROAS?”- CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): how much it costs in advertising to achieve one sale. If you spend £1,000 on Meta Ads and sell 50 tickets, your CPA is £20 per ticket.
- ROAS: the relative inverse. If each ticket is worth £60 and your CPA is £20, your ROAS is 3 (60/20).
Both metrics are complementary. CPA helps you decide whether a sale is profitable at all. ROAS tells you how much you are multiplying the investment.
What is multi-touch attribution?
Section titled “What is multi-touch attribution?”Multi-touch attribution is the methodology that assigns credit for a sale to the different ads or channels the fan saw before purchasing. A typical conversion path might look like: a fan sees a Meta ad, then searches on Google, then clicks a link in an email — and then buys.
With Nevent’s attribution you can see which combination of touchpoints leads to the most sales and shift budget towards the channels that contribute most at each stage of the purchase journey.
Practical example
Section titled “Practical example”Imagine you promote a reggae festival in Valencia with a £3,000 advertising budget — £2,000 on Meta Ads and £1,000 on Google Ads. With Nevent’s paid media metrics you can see that Meta generated a ROAS of 7 (£14,000 in sales) while Google generated a ROAS of 4 (£4,000 in sales). For the next event, you can shift budget towards Meta with that objective data in hand.
Summary
Section titled “Summary”- ROAS is the primary paid media metric: how many pounds you generate per pound invested
- CPA tells you how much it costs to turn a click into an actual sale
- Multi-touch attribution reveals which combination of ads leads to the most conversions
- Comparing creatives lets you optimise ads on an ongoing basis