Ad Plans: Fr0m Ideation to Execution

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Ad Plan Template

• Example Marketing Plan

• Example Marketing Checklist

🎯 Strategy & Planning

• How are we currently defining an “ad plan”? Is it clear, consistent, and useful across our team?

• Are we tailoring our marketing plans to each artist—or defaulting to templates?

• Where do we need to improve collaboration with artist teams (communication, timing, assets)?

• Are we aligning our campaigns with key moments (on-sale, releases, tour activity)?

💸 Budget & Spend Decisions

• How are we currently allocating budget across announce, maintenance, and close?

• Are we spending too much in the “maintenance” phase vs. the close?

• For smaller budgets, are we concentrating spend effectively—or spreading too thin?

• Are we prioritizing the platforms that actually perform for our audiences?

👥 Audience & Targeting

• Do we truly understand who we’re marketing for each show?

• How often are we using past purchaser data or owned audiences?

• Are we adjusting targeting based on artist behavior (early buyers vs. late buyers)?

• What assumptions are we making about audiences that we should revisit?

📣 Platform & Channel Strategy

• Are we putting budget into platforms where the artist isn’t active?

• How do we decide when to go beyond Meta (if at all)?

• Are we testing vs. defaulting to the same platforms every time?

• What’s our current balance between paid vs. organic?

🎨 Creative & Content

• What types of creative are actually driving engagement for us right now?

• How do we adapt when we have limited assets (no video, no artist content)?

• Are we leveraging fan-generated content (UGC) effectively?

• What’s our process for testing creative and iterating?

🤝 Artist + Venue Collaboration

• Are we proactively asking artist teams for insights (audience, interests, timing)?

• How can we better align on campaign timing and key moments?

• Where are we missing opportunities to collaborate (collabs, content, announcements)?

• How can we push for more artist participation (ex: IG collabs, content support)?

🌆 Community & Guerrilla Marketing

• What local partnerships have worked best for us—and why?

• Are we investing enough in long-term community relationships vs. one-off activations?

• What “no budget” tactics can we scale (collabs, giveaways, local partners)?

• How can we create more experiences vs. just ads?

📊 Success & Measurement

• Are we measuring success based on platform metrics or ticket sales?

• How often are we reviewing what worked vs. what didn’t?

• Do we have a system for capturing and reusing successful campaign ideas?

• What patterns are we seeing in buyer behavior (early vs. late purchasing)?

⚡ Operational Efficiency (VERY real for your world)

• How do we stay intentional when managing 20+ shows at once?

• What can we standardize vs. what must be customized?

• Do we have “playbooks” by genre or artist type?

• Where are we wasting time that could be streamlined?

🔥 Hot Takes / Debate Starters (great for engagement)

• Is “maintenance spend” becoming obsolete?

• Should small budgets focus almost entirely on closing?

• Is Meta still the only platform that matters for most venues?

• Are we overcomplicating ad plans vs. what artist teams actually want?

⭐ Bonus (pulling from that chat moment energy)

• How can we better leverage artist-led announcements and IG collabs?

• What would it take for us to push artists/agents to collaborate more on launches?