Did you know that 95% of organizers prioritize measuring event ROI? Event organizers now crave a better understanding beyond counting attendees to justify their event investment and understand the return on investment (ROI). 

However, measuring your event’s ROI can be complex.

Our blog will guide you through measuring virtual event ROI, highlight key metrics to monitor, and provide actionable insights to maximize your event’s success.

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Why Tracking ROI in Virtual Events Matters

Monitoring virtual events’ ROI reveals key insights into attendees’ behaviors and marketing strategies.

Let’s explore other reasons why you should track your event ROI:

• Evaluate Your Event’s Performance: You can tell whether your event has achieved its goal and if the investment was worthwhile.
• Inform Future Data-Driven Decisions: Accurate ROI analysis can help you make informed decisions about future events, allocate resources efficiently, and ensure that your event meets your organizational objectives.
• Promote Accountability: You can use a positive ROI to justify your investment and highlight the value of your event to stakeholders like sponsors and your company leadership.
• Allows Benchmarking: You can compare your ROI and marketing strategies from your previous events to achieve similar or better results.

Key Metrics to Measure Virtual Event ROI

You should track metrics for every strategy, from customer engagement to business growth metrics. That way, you can get an accurate picture of your virtual event’s success.

Below, you’ll learn about 9 metrics you should keep an eye on:

Audience Engagement Metrics

Track the level of engagement and interaction from attendees with the following metrics:

• Engagement: Evaluate your attendees’ engagement during the event, for example, through interactions, chat participation, and the polls answered. 
• Customer Feedback and Satisfaction: Use polls and surveys to assess your audience’s overall experience and pinpoint areas for improvement.
• Post-Event Engagement: Monitor metrics like email open rates and click-throughs after the event.

Lead Generation & Conversion Metrics

Measure the number of new leads and landing page visits made after the event. Also, measure the success of your virtual events by the revenue they bring. 

Some of the key metrics are: 

• New Leads Captured: Measure the number of new leads acquired.
• Qualified Leads: Check the number of leads generated from your virtual event that indicate potential customers with a genuine interest in your products or services.
• Conversion Rates: Measure the registration, attendance rate, and the closed new customers to reveal how your virtual event brings your audience through the sales funnel.

Brand Growth Metrics

The below metrics can help you track the changes in your brand recognition and growth:

• Social Media Mentions: Check for your brand mentions on social media.
• Web Traffic: Monitor the number of attendees that have visited your landing page pre- and post-event.
• Brand Recognition: Check if your event enhances your brand recognition and positions your brand as an industry leader.

How to Calculate ROI for a Virtual Event

Calculating virtual event ROI involves comparing the financial gains to your incurred costs.

Here are the two steps to determine if your event was worthwhile:

1. Determine the Key Figures

The first step to calculate your ROI is to determine the key figures:

• Event Revenue: Calculate the total revenue from your event.
• Total Cost of Event: Include all event expenses, such as marketing and promotion, technology, virtual event platform fees, and miscellaneous costs.

2. Apply the ROI Formula

Here’s the basic formula to calculate your event ROI:

Enjoying this blog? Explore other interesting reads below:

• Virtual Event Checklist
• Virtual Event Marketing
• Best Practices for Virtual Events

Effective Strategies to Maximize Virtual Event ROI

You can boost your ROI by implementing these strategies and planning your event wisely:

1. Set Clear Virtual Event KPIs

Outline specific, measurable, and time-bound (SMART) KPIs to provide a benchmark for tracking your success. 

These can include achieving a 75% attendance rate or increasing registration by 20% in the first month. Clear KPIs also align your event activities with your overall organizational goals.

2. Optimize Your Costs

You should prioritize strategic budget allocation. For instance, make sure there’s a significant amount for marketing your event to boost registrations and engagements.

3. Follow Up on the Attendees

With 74% of event planners only seeing a positive ROI 6 months after an event, you should not underestimate the value of a simple follow-up. 

Reach out to the attendees to generate continuous qualified leads that will convert down the line. 

4. Targeted Event Marketing

Another way to boost your ROI is to advertise to the right audience. Don’t cast the net wide with a goal to target anyone. Instead, create targeted marketing to reach qualified leads that align with your goals.

Implement an event marketing strategy to reach your target audience and increase attendance. You can use social media, email campaigns, and podcasts.

Speaking of event promotion, you can reach your audience through private podcasts if your audience is on the go. Our platform lets you repurpose your existing content (including past virtual events) into private podcasts. For example, Angie created a private podcast and sold out the launch of her new product.

Watch a quick demo to learn how our tool works.

5. Evaluate and Adjust Strategies

You should continuously analyze your event data. Note the areas that need improvement and implement the changes in your future events to achieve better outcomes and maximize your ROI.

Post-Event Analysis and Reporting

Beyond applying the ROI calculations we’ve tackled above, there are several things you should do to understand the success of your event:

• Compare Event Metrics: Analyze your events’ KPIs against the previous events, or you can compare them against the industry benchmarks. You should then identify the trends and patterns in the data.
• Conduct Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis: Analyze the survey feedback, open-ended questions, and observations to understand your attendees’ satisfaction.
• Create Tailored Reports: Personalize your reports according to the stakeholders, such as sponsors, team members, and management.
• Structure Reports Appropriately: To help your target audience understand the reports, include sections like the event overview, the key findings, success, improvement areas, and the conclusion.
• Create Visualizations: Use data visualizations like graphs and charts to make your data easy to understand.

Common Challenges in Measuring Virtual Event ROI

Measuring the impact of your virtual events can present some challenges.

We’ve compiled the common ones you should address:

1. Picking the Right Metrics: Not all metrics are reliable and relevant to your virtual event. So, choosing the ones that best reflect your ROI is challenging — the metrics that can be collected and analyzed quickly.
2. Selecting the Right Tools: With so many options, choosing a tool compatible with your virtual event platform is difficult.
3. Collecting Data: Another challenge is collecting data from your virtual event participants. Deciding on the methods and getting the stakeholders’ consent can be difficult.
4. Issues Analyzing Data: Drawing meaningful insights from quantitative, qualitative, structured, and unstructured data is a common problem. Therefore, misleading results are common, especially if the data collected is inaccurate or incomplete.
5. Measuring Non-Quantifiable Benefits: Assessing customer satisfaction and brand perception metrics can be challenging.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Before you start measuring event ROI, here’s some extra information you should know:

What Are the Key Differences in ROI Calculation for B2B vs. B2C Virtual Events?

Here’s a breakdown of the ROI calculation in these two industries:

Aspect	B2B Virtual Event ROI Calculation	B2C Virtual Event ROI Calculation
Main Goals	Lead generation, nurturing prospects, and driving sales.	Building awareness, engaging customers, and launching products.
Key Metrics	Lead generation, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and cost per lead (CPL).	Web traffic, direct sales, attendance, brand awareness, and social media engagement.

What is a Good ROI for Virtual Events?

A good ROI is above 0%, which indicates a positive return. 

An ROI above 100% shows that your event was profitable and exceeded your investment, often showing performance excellence.

What Are the Most Cost-Effective Tools for Tracking Virtual Event ROI?

Here are cost-effective tools to monitor your virtual events:

1. Google Analytics: Set up goals to track registrations and downloads. You can also track the web traffic of your event registration pages.
2. Survey Monkey: Create online surveys to collect feedback and attendee satisfaction.

How Frequently Should ROI Be Assessed?

Companies generally monitor the virtual event ROI immediately after the event, monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the goals. 

It’s best to track metrics like attendance and registration during the event; however, others, like conversion rate, can be monitored months after.

Conclusion

Measuring the ROI of virtual events is vital to justifying your investment, demonstrating accountability to the stakeholders, and making informed data-driven decisions.

Having said that, most companies want to find the best way to promote their events and maximize their returns.

For that, you can repurpose your virtual events files in minutes and measure the listening patterns in one platform, Hello Audio. Our tool also auto-sends your private audio content to listening platforms like Apple Podcasts, ensuring your audience continues to listen to your content in their favorite app.

Get started with our 7-day trial, enhance your attendees’ experience, and boost the ROI of your virtual event!