MON 16.03.2026 | Whitepaper - Selling tickets online more successfully

The event industry and the ticket market are currently changing at an enormous speed. Ticket sales are shifting massively from classic local advance sales – i.e. from sales at the box office or via stationary advance booking offices – to online ticket sales available anytime and anywhere. This development has many advantages for organisers. Processes become more efficient, events can be organized more easily and costs for personnel, advance booking offices and administrative processes can often be significantly reduced. But at the same time, a new challenge arises: On the Internet, every event competes with a huge number of other events for attention. Without a clear strategy, an event can be barely visible online and potential visitors may not even notice it. If you want to sell tickets online today, you have to do more than just publish a ticket link.

Many organizers hope that their tickets will sell automatically as soon as they are listed on a major ticket portal. The reality is often different. In large event portals, thousands of events compete for attention at the same time. Many events disappear into long lists or collective newsletters and reach their target group only to a limited extent. At the same time, many ticket providers charge percentage fees per ticket sold. This means: The more successful an event is, the higher the fees become. Part of the hard-earned income thus flows directly to the ticket portal - money that would be urgently needed elsewhere in the event.

Many organizers believe: "If my event is on a large ticket portal, it sells automatically." In reality, the opposite often happens. Most events get lost in huge event lists, while organizers pay fees per ticket sold. This leads to a paradoxical effect: The more successful an event is, the higher the costs become.

This situation becomes particularly critical when you look at the current developments in the event industry. The costs of events have risen significantly in recent years: - Increasing artists' fees - Higher production costs - Increased energy and operating costs - Higher safety requirements At the same time, visitors today are often more price-conscious and compare events more closely. Nevertheless, many organizers still work with ticket models that date back to a time when tickets were mainly sold through advance booking offices or print-at-home providers. These models are often still based on percentage fees, although ticket sales are now almost entirely digital and automated.

Every card sold through this old system not only costs you fees, but in the long run above all data and independence.

In many cases, this turns ticket sales into an expensive middleman instead of a strategic tool for growth. Ticket sales could do much more than just sell tickets. Used correctly, it can help: - Build your own target group - Retain visitors in the long term - Make marketing more efficient - Make events more independent of platforms. Ticket sales are thus becoming an important part of the overall marketing strategy for events.

Another factor is also changing the ticket market: Visitors today have more choice online than ever before. People are constantly discovering new events via social media, event platforms and search engines. At the same time, it has become easier to buy tickets spontaneously – often directly via smartphone. For organizers, this means: The competition for attention has become much greater. In order to sell tickets successfully online, it is therefore no longer enough to just hope for the reach of ticket platforms.

The biggest difference between successful events and events with weak advance sales is often the perspective on ticket sales. Many organizers consider ticket sales exclusively as a technical process. In fact, however, it is much more than that. Ticket sales are a marketing channel. If you strategically build your ticket sales, you can: - Build your own target group - Reach visitors again and again - Start pre-sales earlier - Reduce marketing costs in the long term. Ticket sales are thus becoming a central component of a modern event strategy.

Every dollar saved in fees and advertising becomes new budget that you can invest in your event, your team or your growth.

Today, ticket sales not only determine how many tickets are sold. It decides how visible an event is, how well visitors can be reached and how economically an event can be operated in the long term. If you want to sell tickets better online, you should therefore not only consider ticket sales as a technical infrastructure. But as one of the most important marketing channels for events.

The ticket market is currently developing from a pure sales model to a strategic marketing tool for event organisers. If you understand this change, you can develop your ticket sales from a cost factor to a real growth channel. This is exactly the question we deal with in our current white paper: "Rethinking ticket sales – from cost factor to growth channel" In it, we show, among other things: