Hitting the ground running with Meta Advertising for Bridge to Brisbane

From Starting Line to Sell Out: Marketing Bridge to Brisbane 2025

In 2025, Bridge to Brisbane partnered with Aruga to lead the event’s paid social media strategy across a six-month campaign designed to build awareness, drive website traffic and convert registrations ahead of race day.

From April to September, Aruga delivered a seven-phase Meta Ads campaign strategy supporting the event’s Flash Sale, Early Bird and General Entry periods. Acting as the end-to-end paid social partner, Aruga managed strategy development, creative briefing, audience targeting, campaign implementation, optimisation, reporting and budget management throughout the campaign lifecycle.

With registrations opening months ahead of the event, the challenge was maintaining momentum across multiple campaign phases while continually re-engaging audiences and driving urgency as availability tightened.

To achieve this, Aruga implemented a phased campaign approach designed to guide audiences from awareness through to conversion. Early activity focused on maximising reach and visibility ahead of the 72-hour Flash Sale, before shifting into high-performing traffic and retargeting campaigns during the Early Bird and General Entry periods.

Creative testing played a major role throughout the campaign, with multiple assets trialled across audience groups to optimise performance and improve conversion rates over time. Prospecting and retargeting audiences were continually refined based on user behaviour and previous engagement with the event.

Results

2,052,636

total impressions

671,663

total reach

$0.25

average cost per click (industry average $0.40 - $1.20)

29,472

total link clicks

Winning Tactics

Phased Campaign

Rather than relying on a single campaign burst, Aruga implemented a seven-phase paid social strategy designed to build momentum across every stage of the registration journey, from Flash Sale awareness through to final General Entry urgency. This always-on approach kept Bridge to Brisbane top of mind for audiences across the full six-month campaign period.

Creative Testing

Multiple creative assets and messaging variations were tested throughout the campaign to identify what resonated most with different audience groups. From Flash Sale urgency to “Nearly Sold Out” messaging, the agile creative approach helped optimise engagement, improve click-through performance and ultimately contributed to Bridge to Brisbane selling out earlier than previous years.

Running The Right Track

Using a combination of prospecting and retargeting audiences, Aruga re-engaged users who had interacted with previous campaigns or visited the registration website but hadn’t signed up yet. By continually refining audience pools throughout the campaign, we were able to drive strong conversion performance and maintain low CPCs across the Early Bird and General Entry phases.