Indy Eleven
Driving ticket sales through targeted digital campaigns
Indy Eleven, a professional soccer team competing in the United Soccer League, partnered with Cyclone Social with a clear objective: break the club’s all-time attendance record for their 2019 home opener. Cyclone developed a conversion-focused digital strategy combining social media and search advertising to reach soccer fans across central Indiana and move them through a ticket purchase funnel.
Overview
Indy Eleven has built one of the most passionate soccer fanbases in the United Soccer League. Ahead of the 2019 season opener, the club set an ambitious goal: break the franchise’s attendance record.
Cyclone Social partnered with the organization to design and execute a digital campaign that would reach fans across central Indiana and convert that excitement into ticket sales.
Challenge
Driving attendance for a single event requires both reach and urgency.
Key challenges included:
Competing with other entertainment options
Converting awareness into ticket purchases
Reaching fans across a large geographic region
Maximizing performance within a short promotional window
The campaign needed to generate excitement quickly while efficiently converting interest into ticket sales.
Opportunity
Soccer fans in Indiana were highly engaged online, creating an opportunity to reach them through targeted digital channels.
Cyclone focused on:
Identifying soccer fans across central Indiana
Building a conversion funnel from awareness to ticket purchase
Testing multiple advertising channels
Shifting budget toward the highest-performing platforms
This approach allowed the campaign to quickly scale the most efficient traffic sources.
Execution
Social & Search Campaigns
Cyclone launched coordinated campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, and search platforms to capture both discovery and high-intent traffic.
Targeting included:
Soccer fan interest groups
Regional geographic targeting
Event-focused messaging
Retargeting users who engaged with ads or visited the website
Conversion-Focused Optimization
Early performance data revealed social media ads were delivering conversions at a 23% lower cost than search campaigns.
Budgets were adjusted to prioritize the most efficient channel, maximizing ticket sales while maintaining strong reach.
Brand Reach Expansion
Beyond conversions, the campaign significantly expanded awareness for the club across the region.
More than one million soccer fans in central Indiana were exposed to the Indy Eleven brand during the campaign.
Results
20,251 tickets sold for the home opener
1.6 million soccer fans reached
33,606 new website visitors
447 season ticket inquiries generated
Outcome
Indy Eleven successfully broke its all-time attendance record for a season opener.
The campaign drove ticket sales, expanded regional awareness, and generated new long-term fan interest through season ticket inquiries.