Easter is the single biggest Sunday of the year for most churches. People who haven’t been to church in years suddenly show up. And if you don’t have a plan to fill your seats and bring first-time guests back, you’re leaving one of your best opportunities on the table.
I’ve helped over 1,000 churches run Facebook and Instagram ads, and Easter is where I’ve seen the most dramatic results. In this training, I’m breaking down the exact system we use at ChurchCandy to help churches 10x their Easter attendance and convert first-time visitors into regular attenders.
The Two Goals of Easter Marketing
Every Easter marketing plan needs to solve two problems:
- How do you get more people to show up on Easter Sunday?
- How do you get those first-time guests to come back after Easter?
Most churches focus heavily on the first problem and almost completely ignore the second. That’s a mistake. The Sunday after Easter, your attendance typically drops off a cliff. The reason is simple: you filled the seats but you didn’t build the relationship. This guide covers both.
Why Facebook and Instagram Beat “Boost Post” Every Time
A lot of pastors default to Facebook Events or just boosting a post before Easter. I get it. It feels easy. But it rarely drives real results. When you run a proper Facebook or Instagram ad using Meta’s ad platform, you’re targeting people by location, age, and interest. You’re reaching people who live near your church and are actually open to attending.
We’ve connected over 375,000 people to local churches using this approach. That number isn’t from a big media budget. It’s from knowing what ads to run and how to run them.
Pastor Ken Bennett from Connect Church is a good example. His church went from 120 people to over 1,000 members in just 18 months. A big part of that growth happened because his team was running ads consistently, not just at Easter. But Easter was one of the key turning points where the strategy really compounded.
The Plan Your Visit Strategy
The single best thing you can do before Easter is set up a “Plan Your Visit” ad. This is different from boosting a post or running a generic awareness campaign. Here’s how it works:
- Film a short video ad — Keep it under 90 seconds. Start with a hook that speaks directly to someone who hasn’t been to church in a while. Mention your city. Talk about what Easter Sunday looks like at your church. End with a clear call to action.
- Run it to a local audience — Target people within 5 to 10 miles of your church. Keep your age range realistic for your congregation. Don’t try to reach everyone.
- Use Meta’s instant form — When someone clicks your ad, they fill out a quick form with their name, email, and phone number. This is far more effective than sending people to a website that might not load fast on mobile.
- Follow up immediately — As soon as someone fills out the form, reach out. Text them first. Email works too, but text open rates are dramatically higher.
The Triple F Hook Framework for Ad Copy
Writing ad copy that stops someone mid-scroll is one of the hardest parts of this. I use what I call the Triple F Framework: Faith, Family, and Future.
Your opening line should tap into one of these three things. Something like: “Looking for a church home in [your city] this Easter?” or “Bring your family to something different this Sunday.” These lines speak directly to the person you’re trying to reach. They don’t sound like ads. They sound like a conversation.
Pastor David Franklin at Incredible Church used this approach and saw an extra 450 people show up for Easter, and they were a brand new church plant. Life House Church, led by Pastor John Wear, ran a similar campaign outside of Easter and brought in 58 new families in just eight weeks.
How to Film a Church Ad That Doesn’t Look Like an Ad
You don’t need a camera crew or a production team. The best-performing church ads are filmed on a phone. They feel personal, not polished. Here are the basic elements:
- Film in portrait mode (vertical) for Instagram and Facebook Stories placement
- Start with a direct question or bold statement in the first three seconds
- Show your face — people connect with people, not logos
- Mention your city by name at least once
- End with a clear, simple call to action like “Click below to plan your visit”
Avoid generic stock footage and avoid anything that looks like a TV commercial. The goal is for your ad to feel like a post from a real person, not a marketing department.
Image Ads Still Work (And Are Easier to Make)
Video gets a lot of attention, but image ads are still highly effective for churches. A simple photo of your pastor or your worship team, with clean text overlay, can outperform a polished video. The key is to use real photos from your actual church — not stock images. Authenticity matters more than production value.
How Much Should You Spend?
For most churches, a budget of $500 to $1,500 for the Easter season will generate meaningful results. At roughly $10 to $15 per lead, you’re looking at anywhere from 30 to 150 people who sign up to plan a visit. Not all of them will show up, but with a good follow-up system in place, you can expect 40 to 60 percent show rates.
Churches that went from 120 to 1,000+ people didn’t spend $50,000 on ads. They spent consistently and they followed up every single time.
The Follow-Up Plan: Turning Online Interest Into Butts in Pews
This is where most churches drop the ball. Someone fills out your form. You get excited. And then nothing happens. No text, no call, no email. They forget about it. Easter comes and goes.
Here’s the follow-up sequence that works:
- Within 5 minutes: Send an automated text thanking them and confirming their visit
- 3 to 5 days before Easter: Send a personal reminder text from the pastor or a staff member
- The day before Easter: Follow up again. Even a short message like “Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!” makes a real difference.
- Day after Easter: Text or email everyone who showed up to thank them and invite them back the following Sunday
Luke 14:23 says: “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.” That verse is the foundation of this strategy. You’re not just running ads. You’re actively reaching out to people in your community who need to hear about Jesus. The follow-up is part of that mission, not just a marketing tactic.
The Friends Day Strategy: How to Get Easter Guests to Come Back
Getting people to show up on Easter is only half the battle. The Sunday after Easter is where you either retain them or lose them. The Friends Day strategy is one of the most effective tools I’ve seen for closing that gap.
The idea is simple: on Easter Sunday, you announce a special “Friends Day” for the following Sunday. You give every first-time visitor a reason to invite someone and come back. Maybe there’s a special message, a giveaway, a community meal — something worth showing up for. This single addition to your Easter plan can dramatically increase your second-Sunday attendance.
Connect Cards and Email Follow-Up
Even if someone doesn’t fill out an online form before Easter, you can still capture their information in the room. Connect cards are simple paper or digital forms you hand out during the service. They ask for a name, email, and phone number, and they invite people to check a box if they’re a first-time guest.
Once you have that information, the follow-up process is the same. A personal text or email in the first 24 hours is the most important step. After that, keep them in your email sequence for the next few weeks to nurture the relationship.
What Churches Are Actually Seeing
At churchcandy.com/proof, we have over 100 testimony videos from churches that have run these campaigns. People are getting baptized. Families are getting reconnected to their faith. First-time guests are becoming regular members, then volunteers, then tithers. That’s the arc we see over and over again.
This isn’t about gaming an algorithm. It’s about reaching people in your community who are already curious about God but need someone to make the first move. That’s what a well-run Easter ad campaign does.
Ready to Run Your Easter Campaign?
If you want our team to set up and manage your Easter ads for you, you can schedule a call at churchcandy.com/easter26. We’ll build the campaign, write the copy, set up the follow-up sequences, and track the results.
If you want to learn more about the broader ad strategies that work for churches year-round, check out our articles on how Thrive Church grew 70% using Meta ads and how this church plant got 710 people on their first Sunday.
Easter comes once a year. Make it count.
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