The contractor left three weeks before the forum. We launched the ads in four days
A two-day wealth management forum. Ticket sales depended on ads that did not exist: the previous contractor never launched them.
This case is anonymised: I do not disclose the forum name or people's names. Reports, correspondence and the organiser's feedback are available on request.
Under three weeks to the forum, and no ads
Speakers confirmed, venue booked, tickets on sale. The contractor hired to run the ads left without ever launching them.
The Mayor of Limassol and his deputy, the High Commissioner of India to Cyprus, a former Cypriot Minister of Justice.
Julius Baer, the CIO of a Geneva multi-family office, a former PwC Switzerland partner.
A partner at EY Cyprus, the deputy chair of STEP Europe, the co-founder of a Vodafone platform for Web3 and AI.
Three channels went live in parallel, not one after another
A sequential launch would have eaten half of the remaining time. Search, social ads and content went live on the same day.
Search: people already looking for wealth events and networking on the island.
Facebook and Instagram: interest-based reach in three languages — English, Russian, Greek.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram: a separate post for every speaker and sponsor. Run by the agency team.
Leads came in once every audience got its own creative
For the first week a single generic creative from the client was running, and Meta brought almost no leads. On day four of the run I wrote a brief for a new set and built it with the agency designers.
- a generic layout from the client
- one message for investors, lawyers and founders
- 4 leads in a week
- speakers, networking and dates instead of capital
- not a word about returns, ROI or "investing"
- 38 leads in a week
Speakers and agenda: "Insights from people shaping the market".
The right room and contacts: "The room where connections are made".
Dates for Stories: "Limited seats. 09–10 June".
Brief cheat sheet: what Meta rejects and what to use instead
- invest, returns, ROI, profit
- tokenisation as a service
- «Are you a wealthy investor?»
- coins, tickers, exchange logos
- join the conference, attend
- a panel on tokenisation as a topic
- status goes into targeting, not the copy
- Web3, blockchain, digital assets
The brief also required aligning the landing page with the same message and clearing the warning in the ad account before launch: Meta checks the destination page too.
What Google was doing meanwhile
Search immediately captured hot demand: people already looking for events like this.
Hot demand used up, search got pricier. Most of the second week's flow came from Meta.
The room was full, and the forum is announced for next year
"I definitely want to keep working with you. Let's think about how to do it better, this time without an emergency like this."
Google and Meta from scratch within four days of the first call.
A brief for 15 concepts and a countdown; some banners I made myself, the rest with the agency designers.
Weekly reports by channel: spend, leads, cost per lead.
What I would do differently
The first Meta week went to the client's layout. Three angles from day one would have saved seven days out of sixteen.
We do not know how many of the 71 leads bought a ticket. Next time: a tag in the payment link.
5,000+ clicks from Meta: a ready audience for retargeting in the final days.
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