3 weighted criteria to score event marketing products against your brief

What to take away

A Leeds agency selling 300 places for a two-day conference needs two products: a ticketing tool to take the money, and an ad platform to fill the room.
Score every product on three weighted criteriacost per registration at 40%, data ownership at 35%, and audience fit at 25%.
Free ticketing products carry limits on fees, export and check-in, so score them against the brief before assuming zero cost.
Ad platforms are priced by auction, so cost per registration moves with audience and creative rather than a published rate card.
Date each score and keep a source trail, as our reviews and comparison methods guide sets out.

A Bristol agency wins a venue launch and needs places sold by Friday. Someone suggests one product for everything. The honest answer separates selling from promoting. Then score each product against the same brief using three weighted criteria.

The three weighted criteria

Set criteria before you see pricing. Weight them to the client's goal. The three that matter are cost per registration, data ownership, and audience fit. Contract length is a pass/fail check, not a score.

Weighted criteria for scoring

Cost per registration40%
Data ownership35%
Audience fit25%

1. Cost per registration, weight 40%

Model the full cash cost. Eventbrite sets out its free tier and per-ticket fees on its Sell Tickets Online With Free Event Ticketing Platform page.

Ticket Tailor uses pay-as-you-go per-ticket pricing, not a monthly subscription. Humanitix charges a booking fee on paid tickets and is free for free events. Compare those with a flat monthly subscription and a per-registration ad charge.

2. Data ownership, weight 35%

Ask who holds the attendee record and how you export it. Data protection duties sit with the organiser, so export rights, retention settings and consent capture outweigh badge printing.

Check-in speed and offline scanning decide whether the door runs smoothly, while Meetup is a subscription product for organisers and not built for paid ticketing. Cvent is quote-based enterprise software with deeper data controls.

3. Audience fit, weight 25%

LinkedIn Campaign Manager, documented on the LinkedIn Campaign Manager page, targets by job title, industry and company size. That suits a B2B conference. Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager reach broader audiences but have weaker job-title targeting. Microsoft Advertising offers LinkedIn profile targeting for some campaigns. Check reporting lag, attribution window and cost per registration.

How to score and document the comparison

Weighted scorecard

Score each product from 1 to 5 on the three criteria. Multiply the score by the weight. Add the results. A free ticketing product may score well on cost and badly on audience fit. An ad platform may score the reverse. Date the scorecard and note the source for each figure.

Due diligence before signature

Check contract length, notice period and what happens to attendee data if you switch products mid-campaign. Confirm in writing who is the data controller. For agency-side selection, our agency reviews in England article shows how to test a supplier's claims against evidence rather than a sales deck. The ONS digital economy statistics can support a realistic test budget.

Glossary

Cost per registration:: total ad spend divided by completed sign-ups.
Data controller:: the organisation deciding why and how attendee data is used.
Weighted score:: a rating multiplied by the importance you gave that criterion.
Attribution window:: the period after a click in which a sign-up is credited to that ad.

Common questions

Can one product cover ticketing and advertising?

Rarely well. Most ticketing platforms have limited ad targeting. Most ad platforms cannot issue tickets or scan people in. Plan for two products unless your event is small and free.

How do I compare a free tool with a paid one fairly?

Convert everything to cost per registration at your expected volume. A free ticketing platform with per-ticket fees is not free at scale. Model both at 100 and at 500 attendees.

How often should I refresh the comparison?

At least once a quarter, and again before any campaign over £5,000. Fees, targeting options and reporting windows change. An undated scorecard can mislead a client.

What evidence should sit behind each score?

A dated source: the platform's own feature page, the signed contract or your own campaign data. If you cannot name the source, drop the score.