Proven Facebook & Instagram Ad Strategies for Your Virtual Summit Success

In my 9 years of running ad campaigns in the Service & Information market and testing everything from webinars and direct sales ads to paid challenges and evergreen funnels, one format has outperformed them all: virtual summits.

After marketing 50+ summits, I’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t. We’ve refined our approach and discovered the formula for marketing summits with remarkable success (including one of the largest summits in history that drew 500,000 registrations and nearly $2M in revenue).

In this guide, I’ll share these strategies and help you transform your summit's performance on Facebook and Instagram.

Essential Foundation: Facebook Pixel Setup

Before launching any campaign, ensure your Facebook pixel is properly installed across all summit pages. 

Why the pixel is crucial:

• Enables Facebook's powerful optimization algorithm

• Provides accurate attribution data across devices

• Tracks cross-device behavior (users often discover on mobile, purchase on desktop)

• Essential for measuring true campaign performance

Note: HeySummit provides built-in pixel integration to make this seamless.

Campaign Strategy: Focus on Conversions

Always run conversion campaigns over traffic, boost posts, or engagement campaigns. Conversion campaigns are specifically designed to find users who will complete your desired actions.

Key optimization options:

• Leads (recommended starting point)

• Purchases (for established campaigns with sufficient data)

• Initiate Checkout (for mid-funnel optimization)

Impact: Conversion campaigns typically deliver leads at 3-5x lower cost compared to other campaign types.

Targeting High-Value Audiences

The key to profitable summits isn't just volume—it's attracting attendees with higher lifetime value potential.

Strategy 1: Optimize for Higher-Funnel Goals

Configure campaigns to optimize for "Initiate Checkout" or "Purchase" events. This automatically attracts users more likely to buy, though it requires sufficient conversion volume to be effective.

Important: If you're not a seasoned advertiser, I recommend starting with lead optimization rather than this strategy. However, keep this approach in mind as a testing opportunity once you're comfortable with the basics and want to attract higher-quality audiences.

Strategy 2: Lookalike Audiences from Customer Lists

Upload email lists of your highest-value customers (recent buyers or highly engaged subscribers). In Facebook, you can create lookalike audiences that mirror these valuable user characteristics.

Strategy 3: Website-Based Custom Audiences

Create audiences based on visitors to high-value pages like:

• Specific high-converting blog posts

• Purchase confirmation pages

• Premium content access pages

Then build lookalike audiences from these segments.

Strategy 4: Geographic Targeting for Maximum ROI

Based on extensive ROAS analysis across multiple campaigns, these countries consistently deliver the best return on ad spend for English-language summits:

USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein

Note: Consider timezone compatibility when selecting locations and keep in mind it's okay to add more countries if you think they may be worthy. For example other European countries, certain areas in Bali, Singapore, Japan, Dubai etc. If you'd like to be more inclusive, it's best practice to make an extra campaign for those countries. If you add India for example to this main audience, a lot of the budget will go there and usually the ROAS will be low although you'll get a lot of leads for a great price.

The Three-Campaign Framework

This proven campaign structure maximizes lead generation, attendance rates, and conversion to sales:

Campaign 1: Audience Acquisition

• Cold Audience: Target new prospects with landing page ads

• Warm Audience: Retarget engaged users to the same landing page

Campaign 2: Sales Conversion

• Warm Audience to Sales Page: Drive registered attendees to a dedicated sales page to increase purchase rates

Campaign 3: Engagement Optimization

• Agenda Promotion: Target registered users with agenda highlights as the summit approaches to boost attendance rates

Creative Best Practices

After testing thousands of ad variations, these principles consistently drive results:

Ad Copy Guidelines

For beginners: Start with clear, concise copy that includes:

• Summit name and value proposition

• Clear benefits attendees will receive

• Strong call-to-action

Pro tip: Test both short-form and long-form copy variations to find what resonates with your audience. But if you're not an advanced writer, I recommend keeping most of the ad texts short.

Visual Creative Strategy

• Text-heavy images often outperform polished speaker collages

• If you don't have a designer, use Canva's conference and summit templates for your image designs

• A/B test minimal text vs. information-rich creatives

• Keep the headlines straightforward and concise. It should be clear what it's about right away

Scaling and Optimization

As your campaigns gain traction, monitor the frequency metric in Ads Manager closely. When frequency exceeds 2.0, you'll typically see rising costs due to ad or audience fatigue.

Solutions for scaling challenges:

• Expand to broader audiences

• Introduce fresh creative variations

• Test new ad formats and placements

About The Author:

Paul de Zeeuw is the co-founder of The Social Tap, a multi-award-winning advertising agency. With a background in psychology and marketing, he has personally managed over $20 million in Facebook and Instagram ad spend over the past nine years, specializing in high-performing social media campaigns and marketing large-scale virtual summits.