mdg | Event Marketing Agency for Trade Shows and Associations

Case Study

• Influencer creative drove 60% more conversions than branded video at 40% lower CPA 
• Google Ads drove +50% of all registrations at the lowest CPA
• Meta conversions more than doubled YOY while CPA dropped nearly 25% 
• 30.6K organic views generated from influencer content 

Client

Forge – Be+Well, Beauty and Wellness Show

Challenge

Be+Well Beauty and Wellness Show — the newly unified home of IBS and IECSC — launched at the Javits Center with a dual mandate: drive immediate registrations for a March 2026 debut while building awareness of a brand name its audience had never searched for. The target community of estheticians, nail artists and beauty professionals is peer-driven and skeptical of traditional promotional content — not the easiest audience for a show still establishing its identity. 

Approach

mdg deployed a three-platform paid media strategy across Google, Meta and Programmatic Advertising, with each channel playing a distinct funnel role.

A pre-campaign awareness phase warmed audiences before the registration push, while upper-funnel campaigns segmented Spa and Beauty verticals to test messaging resonance.

In the final two weeks, mdg executed a geo-targeted influencer sprint — identifying and vetting licensed micro-creators in the NY/NJ/CT area, briefing them with profession-specific messaging, and deploying across Instagram and TikTok.

Top-performing influencer content was then amplified through Meta paid media, integrating organic credibility directly into the conversion layer. 

Results

Influencer creative outperformed branded video, driving 60% more conversions at a 40% lower CPA and generating 30.6K organic views.

Google Ads accounted for over 50% of all registrations at the lowest CPA, while Meta conversions more than doubled year over year as CPA dropped by nearly 25%.