By 2025, Toros de Tijuana had already established itself as one of the most relevant organizations in Mexican baseball, both on and off the field, with multiple championships and innovation awards in the Mexican Baseball League for its work in fan engagement, communications, marketing, and digital media.
At that point, I had already been leading the club’s paid media strategy for several years. Prior to 2022, advertising investment was focused almost entirely on traditional channels such as television, radio, and print media.
While the team consistently ranked among the league leaders in attendance, there was still an untapped opportunity. Despite the proximity, it was not common to see consistent attendance from fans traveling from Southern California, including San Diego, Chula Vista, Riverside, Los Angeles, and surrounding areas.
For a team located just 8.5 miles from the world’s busiest international border crossing at San Ysidro, and only 27 miles from a Major League Baseball stadium (Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres), the opportunity was clear: a unique binational baseball market with a deep cultural connection to the sport.
In 2024, we ran the first paid media test campaign targeting the United States for a weekend series near the end of the season. The campaign was executed on Meta platforms and resulted in a noticeable increase in attendance from U.S.-based fans.
Under the direction of Omar Canizales Soto, Executive President of Toros de Tijuana, and Juan Manuel Vega, Media Manager, we developed a full paid media strategy focused exclusively on English-language campaigns targeting the United States, primarily through Meta (Facebook and Instagram).
One of the key learnings was the difference in cost efficiency between markets. U.S. campaigns delivered approximately 25 to 28 percent of the reach compared to the same investment in local Mexican targeting. This forced a more precise approach to audience segmentation, messaging, and budget allocation.
Each week leading up to home games, campaigns such as “Baseball & Fiesta” were deployed across Southern California, focusing on high intent zones such as baseball interest audiences, Mexican-American communities, and social areas around San Diego.
While performance metrics remain confidential, the impact was clear. U.S. fan attendance increased significantly throughout the 2025 season, along with in-stadium spending and engagement.
Beyond weekends, the effect was consistent across the week. Many fans from Southern California became regular attendees, frequently visiting concession areas and taking advantage of game-day pricing, including affordable ticket ranges and promotional nights designed to increase accessibility.
For context, a 24 oz beer at Petco Park is priced at approximately 16.99 USD before tax, while in Tijuana the same size beer at the stadium was priced at around 5.50 USD, highlighting the value gap that also influenced cross-border attendance behavior.
In addition to audience targeting and messaging, one of the most important drivers of conversion was the structure of the ticketing funnel.
For digital ticket sales, the club worked with its official ticketing provider, Boletomovil. However, instead of directing U.S. campaigns to the standard Spanish-language platform, traffic was routed to Ticketmatch, the English-language version of the system.
This allowed us to eliminate language friction at the point of purchase and maintain a fully localized experience for U.S.-based audiences without sacrificing conversion.
At the same time, each campaign was structured with dedicated tracking links per game and per placement, including Facebook Feed, Facebook Stories, Instagram Feed, and Instagram Reels.
This approach made it possible to clearly evaluate performance by placement, audience behavior, and creative format, allowing us to refine budget allocation and optimize future campaigns based on real conversion data rather than assumptions.
This structure turned paid media from awareness into a measurable acquisition channel.
What started as a geographic opportunity quickly became a structured growth system for cross-border baseball audiences. The combination of localized messaging, English-first communication, and a simplified purchase journey transformed paid media into a direct driver of attendance and in-stadium revenue.
More importantly, it shifted how the organization understood digital investment. Paid media was no longer seen as promotion, but as infrastructure for fan acquisition and real-world conversion.
The momentum built during these years helped lay the foundation for continued growth in the U.S. market. The club’s ability to leverage opportunities such as the addition of MLB veteran Justin Turner in 2026 has strengthened its visibility and presence in the United States.
For me, the 2024 and 2025 seasons marked my first full experience working exclusively in English-language communication and paid media strategy. Without knowing it at the time, this experience later became a key factor in my hiring by Baseball United, the first professional baseball league in the Middle East based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.