How to sell tickets online for your event

You're looking for how to sell tickets online for your event. Which ticketing tool to choose, how to structure your pricing, how to promote effectively, and above all how to track what works to fill your venue.

In this article, you'll find best practices and tools to simplify your registration management and event promotion.

• Choosing the right ticketing platform
• Structuring your tickets and pricing
• Creating an event page that converts
• Promoting your event on the right channels
• Tracking campaign performance and understanding where your sales come from
• Connecting your marketing tools to automate what can be automated

Choosing the right tool to sell your tickets online

Your ticketing platform will handle the purchase journey for your attendees, process payments, and centralise your sales data. The choice deserves careful consideration.

Available payment methods. In Belgium, if your ticketing platform doesn't offer Bancontact, you'll lose a significant portion of your buyers. PassPass is one of the few modern ticketing platforms in Belgium to natively integrate Bancontact, Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna. The more payment options you offer, the fewer sales you lose at checkout.

The simplicity of the purchase journey. Test it yourself before choosing. Go to the sales page of an existing event on the platform and try buying a ticket. If it takes more than 3 clicks or forces you to create an account before paying, your attendees will experience the same friction. Every extra step means more drop-offs.

The real fees. Compare what you actually pay per ticket sold, VAT and payment fees included. Some platforms display a low percentage but add processing fees, buyer-side service charges, or paid options for basic features. PassPass relies on transparent pricing. Before even launching your sales, you know exactly how much each ticket sold will cost you, service and payment fees included. No hidden fees passed on to the buyer, no surprises when withdrawing your revenue to your bank account.

The ability to grow with you. Your first event might be simple, but your needs will become clearer with experience. Choose a tool that lets you start quickly while offering room to grow. Sales analytics, connectors to your marketing tools, integration into your own website, campaign tracking. Better a tool that grows with you than having to migrate to another platform after a few events.

PassPass puts professional tools in your hands without making things complicated. From your very first event, you automatically get a view of your sales by channel, the geographic origin of your buyers, and the performance of your promotion campaigns. Data that elsewhere requires manual configurations or third-party tools. The goal is simple: help you do more with less time and resources.

Structuring your tickets and pricing

Offer multiple ticket categories. Even for a simple event, having at minimum an early bird and a standard rate increases your revenue and creates initial sales momentum. For larger events, add a VIP or group rate.

Name your tickets clearly. "Standard ticket" says nothing. "Entry + 1 drink" or "2-day access" gives a reason to buy because the attendee immediately understands what they're getting.

Take the time to calculate your net price after deducting platform fees and taxes. If you need to recover €20 per ticket to cover your costs, check how much you actually receive. A tool with transparent fees lets you make this calculation from the start, with no unpleasant surprises at closing. Check the PassPass pricing to simulate your net revenue before launching your sales.

Finally, think about mechanisms that create natural momentum. Limiting the number of early bird tickets, setting an online sales end date. These are simple levers to configure that have a direct impact on your fill rate.

Creating an event page that makes people want to buy

Your event page is often the first contact between a potential attendee and your event. It needs to answer three questions in under 10 seconds. What is it, when is it, where is it.

The visual first. Invest time in a quality cover image. Use Canva or AI image generation tools if you don't have a designer, but take time to refine the result. We see more and more events with visuals and texts generated on the fly with AI, and it shows. A generic visual or a text that sounds artificial puts off visitors rather than convincing them. Put yourself in your audience's shoes and ask whether what you see would make you want to register.

A precise title. Avoid cryptic titles or internal code names. "Electro Festival Namur 2026" works. "EFN26" doesn't. When someone shares the link, the title must speak for itself.

Complete it with a concrete description of the programme, who will be there, what attendees will experience, and essential practical information: exact venue with Google Maps link, times, access, age policy if applicable. And if it's not your first edition, show it. "3rd edition" or the number of attendees from the previous year reassures hesitant buyers.

Promoting your event and selling your tickets

Having an online ticket sales page doesn't generate sales on its own. Promotion is what fills your event. And every channel you activate can be tracked in your dashboard to know exactly how many sales it brings in.

Your direct network first. Before thinking about advertising, leverage what you already have. Share the sales link in your WhatsApp groups, on your personal social media, in relevant local Facebook groups. Ask your co-organisers and artists or speakers to share too. First sales almost always come from your direct network.

The Facebook event. Even in 2026, the Facebook event remains a powerful lever for local events. It generates automatic reminders, enables organic sharing and provides free visibility. Include the sales link directly in the description and in the "Tickets" field.

Instagram with intention. Post regular content in the weeks before the event. Not just the poster on repeat. Show behind the scenes, introduce artists or speakers, share feedback from previous editions. Stories with the link sticker to your ticketing convert well, especially in the 48 hours before the event.

Email, the most underestimated channel. If you have a contact list, even a small one, send a dedicated email. Tools like Brevo are free up to 300 emails per day. A well-targeted email converts significantly better than a social media post. Remember to send a reminder one week before sales close.

Paid advertising. A geographically targeted Instagram or Facebook Ads campaign focused on your city and surrounding area, even with a modest budget, can have a measurable impact. The advantage over paper advertising is that the return is directly quantifiable in your sales statistics.

Partnerships and local relays. Contact local media, online cultural calendars, local accounts with an engaged audience. Offer tickets or preferential rates in exchange for visibility. A post from a local account followed by your target audience is often worth more than a generic ad.

Understanding where your sales come from

You've activated several promotion channels. The essential question remains: which ones actually bring in sales?

Most organisers spend time on Instagram, send emails, maybe launch an ad, without ever knowing which channel actually filled their venue. Tracking your sales by source changes that.

How it works. You create a different sales link for each promotion channel. One for your newsletter, one for your Instagram story, one for your Facebook ad. In your dashboard, you then see that your newsletter brought 20 sales, your Instagram ad 130, and your Facebook post 45.

What it actually changes. You spent €80 on Instagram advertising and €80 on Facebook advertising. Instagram generated 130 tickets sold, Facebook 12. For your next event, you know exactly where to focus your budget. It's the difference between "I think Instagram works well" and the numbers that prove it.

Beyond channels, geographic data shows you where your buyers come from by city or region. You identify areas where your communication is effective and those with untapped potential. And by observing your sales curve day by day, you spot actionable trends: sales accelerate after each post, stagnate mid-week and spike in the last 48 hours.

PassPass integrates these tracking tools natively. You visualise the source of each sale, the geographic origin of your buyers and the evolution of your sales in real time. No third-party tools to configure, no tracking code to install.

Connecting your tools to go further

One of the concrete advantages of selling tickets online with a modern platform is the ability to connect your tools together.

If you have a website, you can directly integrate the PassPass ticket sales module. Your visitors buy without leaving your site, which reduces friction and strengthens your brand. Then connect your ticketing to Brevo, Mailchimp or another email tool to automate your communications: personalised purchase confirmation, 7-day reminder, post-event email. These automations are configured once and save you hours on each event.

If you run online advertising, the Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics allow you to precisely measure the return on investment of every euro spent and create lookalike audiences based on your existing buyers.

The idea isn't to activate everything from the first event. Start by selling your tickets. For the next event, add source tracking. Then connect your email tool. Each step makes your organisation more efficient, without ever becoming complicated.

Event day and post-event

Access control is the last link in the chain. Each ticket sold online contains a unique QR code that you scan with the PassPass app on any smartphone. No more paper lists, no more queues at the entrance. During the event, you track in real time how many people have entered, how many tickets haven't been scanned yet, and your no-show rate.

An attendee lost their ticket? They can find it in their inbox or in their wallet. A buyer wants to transfer their ticket? It's doable in a few clicks depending on your configuration.

After the event, you leave with actionable data. Your attendee list is your qualified audience for your next events. Your sales statistics by category, promotion channel and time period give you a concrete basis for improving your next edition. Send a short satisfaction survey within 48 hours (two or three questions are enough) and you'll have a complete picture of what worked and what can be improved.