Event marketing benchmarks Switzerland: ROAS, CPC and what good looks like
Numbers from campaigns we ran for Swiss festivals and shows, with the context that makes them comparable - because a ROAS without a tracking setup behind it means nothing.
The numbers we can show
Ohlala Show: 8.07x return on ad spend, driven by data-driven retargeting on a deliberately small budget. SunIce Festival: 11.5x ROAS, over 5,000 clicks at a cost per click of CHF 0.42. The events we worked with have sold over one million tickets combined.
Both cases share the same precondition: a checkout that reports real purchase values back to the platform. The ROAS figure is tracked revenue, not modelled or self-reported.
How to read a ROAS figure
A tracked ROAS is only comparable when you know three things: whether it counts all ticket revenue or only ads-attributed revenue, which attribution window it uses, and how much of it comes from retargeting an audience the organiser already built. Agencies quoting 20x without naming these usually count organic sales as ad revenue.
For an established Swiss event with a warm audience, 4x to 8x tracked ROAS in a full sales window is a solid result. First editions typically start lower and improve once the retargeting pool fills.
Cost per click is a diagnostic, not a goal
CHF 0.42 per click on SunIce is unusually low - the result of strong creative in a well-defined geography, not of clever bidding. A low CPC only matters if those clicks convert; we watch it as an early signal for creative fatigue, and judge the campaign on tracked revenue.
What moves the number most
In order of impact: tracking quality, retargeting depth, creative rotation speed, and offer structure (tier pricing, deadlines). Audience targeting - the thing most people optimise first - matters least in a market this size.
What ROAS should a Swiss event campaign achieve?
For an established event with tracked checkout, 4x to 8x is a realistic target across the full sales window. Retargeting-heavy campaigns on warm audiences can reach 8x to 11x, as in our Ohlala Show and SunIce Festival cases.
What is a normal cost per click for event ads in Switzerland?
Between roughly CHF 0.40 and CHF 1.50 depending on region, language and audience temperature. We reached CHF 0.42 on SunIce Festival with strong creative in a tightly defined geography.
How many tickets can paid media realistically sell?
It depends on capacity and audience size, not on budget alone. Across our campaigns we have tracked more than one million tickets sold, with paid media typically carrying the middle and end of the sales curve rather than the launch spike.