When considering how to measure event ROI, remember that you’re essentially tracking how much value you get out of an event versus how much you put in. If you’re having trouble figuring out how do this in a reliable manner, check out this simple five-step guide and template.
Step #1: Learn how to calculate ROI – Return on Investment
Some simple math can go a long way toward helping you figure out how to track ROI on events. One way is by dividing the total revenue by the total event cost. The resulting number is expressed in pounds. For example, £2.50 was generated for every £1 invested. Using these easy calculations, you can set out at the start of planning your event what you hope to achieve in terms of ROI.
Try using an equation such as Total Sales Revenue / Total Cost of the Event = £ return per £1 invested.
Remember to include your time when calculating
When looking at your event expenditure, don’t forget to include the hours you and your team put into it (even if you didn’t pay your staff extra for their involvement, it’s time away from their usual activities). This will give you a more accurate idea of its true cost.
Step #2: Identify a primary goal
Consider the ultimate goal of your event. This could be any of the following:
- Generating qualified leads
- Attracting new employees
- Building brand awareness
- Launching a new product
Step #3: Set measurable objectives related to your goal
Event marketing ROI can be broken down into two primary categories: hard metrics and soft metrics. But what exactly are these?
Hard Metrics
Let’s say your primary goal is building brand awareness. You’d want to measure things like the number of people attending your event and the amount of press and social media coverage you get. Your objectives might include attracting 2,000 attendees, attaining 1,000 social media followers, and securing 10 press mentions. These are hard metrics.
Soft Metrics
Soft metrics refer to apparent intangibles like vibes and community spirit. However, even something as seemingly intangible as increasing community spirit can be measured by the right means. For instance, you could poll attendees about their community sentiment before and after the event, then look at the net difference. Just be sure to use the same set of questions and seek quantitative feedback.
Capture data for each objective
Now you know what you want to measure, you need to decide how you’ll measure it. What tools will you use to capture the data you need? An event registration platform like Eventbrite can help you capture information such as the number of registrations (overall and by attendee/ticket type), revenue from ticket sales, amount of no-shows, referral fees paid out, and revenue from merchandise sales.
There are lots of different metrics to track when it comes to assessing the success of your event’s social media, and there are a plethora of analytics tools available to help you do it – check out this list by Buffer.
Step #4: Gather data and track your progress
Whether you’re using a traditional revenue-based ROI model or measuring something else, now you need to choose how you’ll track your performance.
Start with the event technology you use to run your event, which already gathers an incredible amount of insight. Your event ticketing and registration partner, for example, should help you capture information like the number of tickets/registrations sold, your revenue from sales, the number of no-shows, and more.
Learn how to track event ROI for future events
You can leverage a wide variety of tools to track your progress. Online surveys, for example, can help you measure attendee satisfaction. A CRM like Salesforce can track leads generated from your events. If you use Eventbrite, check out the integrations that lets you easily gather and sync data with your events.
Step #5: Analyse results
Once you’ve captured data related to your goal and objectives, it’s time to understand the results.
The data you gather will tell you quite a bit about your event’s success by itself, but working with that data can give you an even deeper insight into your ROI.
For example, let’s say your event captured 80 qualified sales leads and your target was 50. Now you know you exceeded your goal by 60%. Taken a step further, you can calculate the cost per lead by dividing the cost of putting on the event by the number of leads you got. In this example, your lead gen event had a positive return on your investment – even if you didn’t directly generate revenue.
Calculate your cost per lead
Now you can take that one step further by calculating the cost per lead: the cost of putting on the event divided by the number of leads you got. If your event costs you £1,000 to stage, then each lead costs £12.50. By tracking subsequent sales, you will be able to see if the cost per acquisition is of good value and make informed decisions about future event activity.
Work out where you could cut costs
You can do similar sums against other metrics such as media coverage or employees recruited and work out if you could have achieved your objective for less outlay using another method like paying for advertisements or hiring a PR or recruitment company.
What is a good return?
Good ROI event management can be defined in a lot of different ways, but in simple terms, “good ROI” is when the value generated by the event – however we choose to define that – exceeds the cost of putting the event on. Check out the following tips on measuring ROI improvement.
How to measure the improvement of your event’s ROI
Measuring whether your events’ improving in this sense comes down to tracking the correct metrics. Take a look at some of the variables below.
Track new vs. returning attendees
When measuring event ROI, you’ll want to keep track of whether or not you have a healthy flow of both new and returning attendees.
While some attrition is a natural part of any successful business, if almost all your attendees are new, you know you have a problem. More specifically, this indicates that people are losing interest after attending their first event. On the other hand, if nearly all your attendees are returning, then you aren’t doing enough to attract new interest.
Keep an eye on attendance
If you see that your number of returning attendees is dropping, attendance rate is the next metric to track. Attendance rate is the total number of events an attendee has attended over a period of time. Keeping track of your attendance rate can help you identify and address waning interest.
For example, let’s say you’ve organised 20 events over nine months, and an attendee only bought tickets for two events – so their attendance rate is 10%. You may want to create a list of event-goers with attendance rates below, say, 15, and then send targeted emails with follow-up invitations or discount tickets to help them re-engage. (According to TrueList, 77% of marketers use experiential marketing as a primary event strategy). You could also send a survey asking for feedback.
Find your top attendees by money spent
If you want to get the most out of your event metrics, here’s an important point to remember: Not all attendees are created equal!
Simply put, some attendees are going to buy more tickets and spend more than others. Do your best to hang on to these “top attendees”. The more you have, the more they can help drive your ROI. According to a McKinsey study, 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions from brands, so the VIP treatment may be a worthwhile investment.
Think of your top attendees list as a VIP list. Create marketing campaigns specifically designed to keep your high-value attendees happy, so they’ll return every time.
Measure ticket and coupon performance
If you sell different ticket types at different rates (General, Early Bird, and VIP, for example), it’s important to know which ones drive the most revenue. To improve your ROI, keep track of what’s working.
For example, let’s say your VIP tickets drive a lot of revenue, but your Early Bird tickets have a high refund rate. You might want to consider reducing how many Early Bird tickets you offer and adding more VIP. The same can be said for coupons and discount codes. If you can track your coupons and their performance, you can lean into the tactics that work best.
Calculate your total revenue
Of course, no event metrics measurement would be complete without closely monitoring your total revenue. After all, 52% of business leaders believe that, when it comes to marketing, event marketing is their primary driver of ROI, so the total revenue figure is key.
The simplest way to calculate your ROI is in terms of revenue. You’ll need a clear picture of your total revenue (net revenue minus expenses). There are other metrics (like goal completion) that you can use to measure ROI, but total revenue paints a simple picture: How are your marketing efforts affecting your bottom line?
Whenever you adjust your marketing strategy, look for changes in your revenue as a result. That’s the only way you’ll know if your efforts are paying off.
Track success with this event ROI template
With all these variables to track, event marketing can start to feel overwhelming. Stay on top of whether you’re hitting your numbers by using this handy ROI event template.
| Objective | Key metrics | Outcomes | |
| Hard metrics (quantitative) | Increase revenue | Tickets sales Sponsorships Merchandise sales | Total revenue |
| Soft metrics (qualitative) | Attendee enjoyment | Returning attendees Survey responses Social media mentions | [positive survey feedback] / [cost of event] |
Generate more revenue with your data
Still looking for more ways to effectively track and improve ROI? Eventbrite has you covered with the Event ROI Calculator. Now, nothing stands between you and throwing the event of the year.
