When you organise an event, chances are you have poured your heart and soul into making it a success. But before you start celebrating its outcome, you should step back and measure the event's ROI. Was the brand experience impactful? Was it worth the time and investment? Did it bring the results you were hoping to achieve?
Events and experiential campaigns have become quite popular, with studies showing that 72% of marketers consider event marketing their most effective marketing channel. Measuring event ROI means determining success and understanding the value your event brought. It means calculating if all the efforts were justified.
But this is not a simple calculation. There is so much at play, some values are quantifiable while many others are not.
So read on as we explain how to measure event ROI in marketing and get a clearer picture for future reference.
Understanding Event ROI
Let us say you host a business event and spend money on catering services, invitations, and the whole deal. You would now want to know if all that expenditure has paid off. You can judge vaguely by seeing if there were any deals signed during or after the event or if there was some excitement created around your products.
A better way is by calculating the event ROI which will give a clearer picture of the result. It is a more direct comparison between the input and the output of the event.
How to measure event ROI
The formula to calculate this is quite simple:
Event ROI= Revenue - Cost
This means that it is the total earnings that were generated after taking care of all the costs.
If you want a percentage value, the formula is:
Event ROI %= (Revenue-Cost)/ Cost x 100
Types of Event ROI
There are two types of values you need to look at.
Financial
These values give a clear picture of the monetary gains generated by the event.
These include:
- Revenue Generated: This is easy to calculate. For example, how much income did the event bring in, such as from ticket sales, product purchases etc? Did you see a spike in online sales or high-value contracts after the event?
- Sales Conversions: Of the people who attended the event, how many went and signed up for future services or subscribed to it or made a purchase? This value reveals how effectively the event moved attendees through the sales funnel.
- Cost vs. Revenue: This is quite a straightforward measurement. Simply calculate the profit margin by subtracting event costs from revenue. This comparison provides a clear snapshot of financial success.
Non-Financial
These values paint a broader qualitative picture of the impact of an event and are associated with long-term brand growth.
- Brand Awareness: You can make use of surveys, social media reach, and impressions to determine how effectively the event boosted the visibility of the brand. For example, did your hashtag trend? Did mentions of your brand increase? Social media engagement is an important factor in increasing brand recognition. Studies show that 50% of a brand's reputation is influenced by its social media presence.
- Attendance Rate: Before any event, many people show interest and sign up to attend it. Measure the percentage of people who actually turn up for the experience to gauge the attendance rate.
- Customer Engagement: Another way to measure attendee participation is through post-event surveys, interactions on social media, and engagement during live sessions. The number of questions asked or networking activities can reflect the event's impact.
- Lead Generation: Events are great opportunities to create new leads. Keep count of the number and quality of leads collected. For instance, tracking email signups or new client inquiries shows potential for future business growth.
All these values will help you get an overall look at the effectiveness of the experience you created and help in measuring event ROI. These values will also help you plan all future marketing strategies for better reach.
Importance of SMART Goals in Measuring ROI
SMART goals mean Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These provide a clear roadmap for success. Here is why they are important.
- Specific: It always helps to have clear objectives so that resources are spent efficiently. For example, “Increase social media followers by 20% during the event” is more actionable than a vague goal like “improve online presence.”
- Measurable: ROI calculation demands measurable goals. Collecting figures such as attendee count, revenue, or customer satisfaction scores ensures accountability.
- Achievable: Setting realistic targets means that your team stays motivated and avoids frustration. For instance, a small-scale event may aim for a 10% increase in customer leads rather than an overly ambitious 50%.
- Relevant: Goals should directly tie into your organisation’s strategies. For instance, hosting a tech-focused conference is suitable for a company’s goal of becoming an industry leader in innovation.
- Time-bound: Adding deadlines keeps the team on track, such as achieving a certain number of signups by a specific date or closing sales within a set post-event window.
Data to Collect for Measuring Event ROI
Data can be collected at various stages of the entire event, right from the planning till the execution.
Pre-Event Data
Before the event takes place, keep track of the following statistics.
- Budget Allocation: How much money are you planning to spend on venue, marketing, staffing, and logistics?
- Marketing Metrics: Keep track of the website traffic in the form of visits, click-through rates etc. Also, note the email open rates and social media engagement created due to the planned event.
Data Collected During the Event
While the event is taking place, keep note of the following numbers.
- Attendee Engagement: How many people have checked in and how many are participating in the event? If you have set up a booth, how many visits did it receive?
- Real-Time Feedback: Conduct polls or live Q&A sessions to get instant feedback.
- Social Media Data: Measure social media event ROI by calculating event hashtag mentions or social media impressions in the form of posts, comments, likes and shares.
- Technical Insights: In the case of a virtual or hybrid event, check the number of downloads or interactions on digital event platforms.
Post-Event Data
Once the event is over, record the following data.
- Financial Metrics: How much money was generated through ticket sales, merchandise sales and sponsorships? Was it more than the expenses?
- Attendee Feedback: Study the survey responses given by attendees.
- Content Performance: Calculate the views and replays of the session and the email open and response rates.
- Lead and Sales Data: Keep count of the new leads generated and the number of leads that got converted into customers.
- Brand Metrics: See if there was any boost in web traffic or increase in the number of followers, subscribers or even inquiries after the event has concluded.
Going through this data will give a clear picture of the event ROI.
Wrapping up…
Measuring event ROI will help you gauge the financial success of the activation, the overall impact it created and the value it brought. It will help you decide how impactful the campaign was.
At the same time, it will also guide you in any further ventures you wish to undertake so all investments bear fruit and bring returns.
