Brief
The Columbus Crew needed to move beyond a campaign structure that was working against itself — short bursts that sacrificed continuity, reset the platform's learning, and relied on a narrow set of date/opponent/time creative assets with limited appeal and staying power.
By transitioning to an evergreen Meta framework, overhauling the creative suite, and keeping media live throughout the season, we built a more durable engine that compounded efficiency gains over time rather than restarting from zero with every push.
The results: 84% more tickets sold, 133% more ticket revenue, and a 53% improvement in ROAS — all while spending $1,000 less than the prior year.
A Campaign Structure Working Against Itself
The Crew needed a smarter paid media engine to drive ticket sales more efficiently across the season. Previous efforts were more flighted and burst-based, which limited continuity, learning, and creative staying power — requiring the team to rebuild momentum from scratch each time a new campaign launched.
A narrow creative suite of date/opponent/time assets had limited appeal beyond the most engaged fans, leaving a larger potential audience untouched.
Evergreen Framework + Creative Overhaul
We redesigned the Meta strategy around evergreen campaigns with rolling creative updates:
- →Shifted from short-burst flighting to an always-on structure, keeping media live and building momentum throughout the season
- →Expanded the creative suite from date/opponent assets to theme nights, fan experience content, and generic tickets-on-sale creative
- →Tied creative refreshes to match schedules and seasonal storylines without rebuilding the underlying structure each time
- →Gave the Meta platform more runway to learn and optimize, reducing the inefficiency of repeated campaign restarts
Activated On
Key Outcomes
Transitioned from short-burst flighting to a durable evergreen framework — maintaining continuity in market throughout the full season.
Expanded creative suite to include theme nights, fan experience content, and seasonal storylines — giving the algorithm more signal to optimize against.
Gave the Meta platform more time in-market to learn and optimize — compounding efficiency gains rather than resetting with each new push.
Achieved more output with lower cost — 84% more tickets sold and 133% more revenue while spending $1,000 less than the prior year.
Established a scalable, repeatable framework easier to build on and adjust in real time as the season unfolds.
Let's Talk.
If you'd like to dig into the strategy, the data, or how this approach could apply to your team — I'd love to chat.
