Why selling tickets through a marketplace costs more than the fee

Ticket marketplaces are genuinely useful for a first event. They bring an audience you do not have yet, handle payment, and get you selling in an afternoon. The trouble starts at the second event.

The fee is the part you can see

Marketplace fees are usually somewhere between a few percent and low double digits once booking fees are included. That is a real cost, but it is at least legible, and for a first event it often buys more than it costs.

The audience list is the part you cannot

The names and email addresses of everyone who bought a ticket are the single most valuable asset an event produces. On most marketplaces that list stays with the platform. Your second event starts from zero again, and you pay to reach the same people you already sold to once.

And your competitors are on the same page

A marketplace is built to keep buyers on the marketplace. Someone arriving to buy your ticket will be shown other events on the way in and on the way out. You paid to bring them there.

When to use each

• First event, no existing audience: use a marketplace, and accept the trade.
• Regular events with returning attendees: sell direct, and keep the list.
• Both at once: run your own page as the primary channel and treat the marketplace as paid acquisition.

The third option is what most established organisers end up doing, and it is the one our own ticketing platform is built around.