About
SI Tickets, by Sports Illustrated, is a global fan-first ticketing marketplace offering more than 28 million tickets to over 175,000 concerts, theater performances, and sporting events. With transparent pricing, exclusive $10 flat transaction fees on select events via Venmo, and a 100% refund guarantee on canceled events, SI Tickets puts the fan experience above all else—delivering seamless access to the biggest entertainment moments around the world.
Challenge
In a market dominated by long-standing giants like Ticketmaster and StubHub, SI Tickets faced the steep challenge of carving out share while introducing itself as a powerful alternative. Their goal was ambitious: drive massive traffic, increase brand awareness, convert new users, and educate fans on the breadth of experiences SI Tickets offers—not just sports, but music and theater as well. All while building on the iconic legacy of the Sports Illustrated brand. To meet this challenge, SI Tickets hired AdToro to lead a full-funnel digital marketing strategy across paid and organic channels.
The Approach
AdToro was selected for its energy, strategic mindset, and deep media expertise. From the very beginning, the chemistry between teams was strong—Chris and Tyler from AdToro quickly embedded themselves as an extension of SI Tickets' internal marketing team. The scope of work included auditing, developing, and optimizing campaigns across the full paid media ecosystem: Paid Search: Google Ads, Bing Ads Paid Social: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest Programmatic & Native Advertising: Yahoo Gemini, display DSPs, and audience targeting Email Marketing & CRM Flows Creative Strategy & Development SEO Strategy & Optimization AdToro handled everything from media planning and creative execution to forecasting and cross-channel budget allocation. Each initiative was divided into two core objectives: traffic-driving (via programmatic, native, SEO) and conversion-focused (via search and social ad platforms). The agency also provided consistent performance reporting—weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually—allowing for full transparency and agile optimizations.
The Results
AdToro delivered meaningful results across every strategic KPI for SI Tickets: Millions of hyper-targeted users delivered monthly via traffic-based campaigns Efficient CPCs and CPMs maintained as campaigns scaled Significant improvements in cost per purchase (CPA) across Google, Meta, and other ad channels Consistent month-over-month growth in both ticket sales and site traffic Smooth and transparent collaboration leading to faster execution and continuous optimization