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Sligo GAA Development Draw · Meta Paid Social Campaign
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- €19,712 ad spend
- €97,010 in total online sales
- 4.01 ROAS
- 2.39M ad impressions
Background
Sligo GAA is a long-established county board within the Gaelic Athletic Association. Their Development Draw was a one-time fundraising initiative designed to secure targeted investment in cutting-edge facilities, technology, and the long-term development of players and personnel across the county.
Traditionally, draws of this nature relied on paper tickets, club networks, and word of mouth a model with a hard ceiling on reach and revenue. Sligo GAA chose to partner with Go Click Media to bring their campaign fully into the digital space and scale it to a national level.
Being selected to lead this campaign was a significant recognition for Go Click Media. To be trusted by an organisation of Sligo GAA’s standing to deliver their flagship fundraiser is a partnership we are proud to have earned.
The Challenge
GAA fundraising at this level is not a standard digital campaign. Success depended on building trust, reaching the right audiences at scale, and converting interest into ticket sales all against the clock. With a fixed draw date and a one-time window to generate funds, there was no room to course-correct slowly.
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- Time-critical: A fixed draw date created a narrow, unforgiving campaign window with no opportunity to rebuild momentum if early results underperformed.
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- Multi-market audience: local county targeting combined with national reach across Ireland.
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- Trust-led product: A raffle ticket requires credibility before conversion. Audiences needed to believe in the cause before they’d buy.
The objective for Go Click Media was to transform paid social into a structured, results-driven sales engine — one where every euro spent was accountable to a strong return.
Strategy & Execution
Go Click Media delivered end-to-end campaign management across four integrated pillars:
Creative Strategy & Consultancy
- Full creative direction — content format, messaging approach and campaign identity
- Advised on player-led video content to build authenticity and community trust
- Guided creative variant strategy to sustain performance across the campaign window
Campaign Architecture & Setup
- Full Meta Ads build, phased across awareness, engagement and conversion
- Audience segmentation: GAA supporters, county-specific targeting and Irish diaspora
- Pixel and conversion tracking configured end-to-end for full accountability
Ambassador & Influencer Coordination
- Aaron Kernan & Pat Spillane engaged as national GAA ambassador profiles
- Sligo Senior Panel: Jack Lavin, David Quinn, Andrew Kilcullen and others
- Content briefing, approval and publishing managed entirely by Go Click Media
Paid Media Management & Optimisation
- Bid management, budget pacing and retargeting maintained throughout the campaign
- Frequency controls sustained engagement without oversaturation (8.36× average frequency)
- Mid-campaign optimisations driven by live performance data to protect and grow return
Campaign Partnership Note
In the closing days of the campaign, the ticketing platform ran an SMS marketing push to their existing database — generating an estimated additional €18,000 in online sales. This combined effort brought total online revenue to €97,010, demonstrating the amplifying effect of integrating multiple digital channels around a strong paid social foundation.
Campaign Results
The campaign delivered outstanding results — with total online sales nearly five times the advertising investment:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Ad Spend | €19,712.29 |
| Online Ticket Sales (Paid Social) | €79,010.00 |
| Additional SMS Sales (Final Days) | ~€18,000.00 |
| Total Online Sales Generated | €97,010.00 |
| Net Profit | €59,298 (after ad spend) |
| Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) | 4.01x — €4.01 returned per €1 spent |
| Total Impressions | 2,390,657 |
| Total Reach | 285,873 People |
| Average Frequency | 8.36× |
Why This Campaign Stands Out
Cross-industry expertise applied with precision
Go Click Media brought knowledge gained across corporate, government, NGO, charity and sports sectors to shape a strategy built specifically around Sligo GAA’s audience, budget and objectives. That breadth of experience and the ability to apply the right principles to each unique brief is what consistently drives results.
National ambassador reach combined with local community trust
The combination of nationally recognised figures like Aaron Kernan and Pat Spillane with members of the Sligo Senior Panel created a two-layered credibility strategy: broad reach at the national level, and authentic local connection at the county level. Both were essential to conversion.
Structured for accountability, not just reach
Every element of the campaign from pixel configuration to audience segmentation to creative testing was built to produce measurable results. This wasn’t a brand awareness exercise. It was a structured sales campaign, and every euro of ad spend was tracked to a return.
Multi-channel amplification in the closing stretch
The integration of SMS marketing in the campaign’s final days coordinated alongside the paid social activity — is a strong example of how layered digital execution can unlock additional revenue that a single-channel approach would have left on the table.
Conclusion
Digital marketing works regardless of sector when the strategy is right and the execution is accountable. This campaign is proof of that principle applied to one of Ireland’s most respected sporting organisations. Whether your organisation is running a fundraising draw, a membership drive, or a commercial promotion, the same structured approach to paid social can deliver a measurable, scalable return.
Go Click Media specialises in PPC and paid social advertising for businesses, sporting organisations, charities and community groups across Ireland and Northern Ireland. We make your ad budget work harder and we have the results to prove it.
