The Truth About Event ROI (and How to Improve It)

Posted by Alistair on 20.12.2024

Trade show ROI is about more than just numbers...

Trade shows and events can feel like high-stakes investments. From booth setup and travel expenses to team time and marketing collateral, it all adds up quickly – especially true for those businesses on a tight budget.

Yet, as businesses, we keep going back due to the high potential for return that awaits us in those (hopefully) busy exhibition halls. In fact, events continue to be a major area of marketing budget growth, increasing by 17.2% in Q2 of 2024. 🤯

But how do you measure whether your investment really paid off? The truth is, measuring ROI from trade shows isn’t as straightforward as some formulas make it seem.

In this blog, we aim to provide an honest breakdown of the challenges, benefits, and strategies involved, as well as actionable tips to boost your event ROI by improving visibility, data capture, and attendee engagement.

Let’s get to it!

Measuring and improving event ROI

What is event ROI?
Why measuring event ROI is so challenging
ROI beyond revenue
Setting goals before your event
Measuring event ROI from new sales
Predicting event ROI based on historical data
The hidden ROI of trade shows
Top tips to maximise and improve event ROI

What is event ROI?

Event ROI – a.k.a. return on investment – is about measuring the success of your participation in relation to the cost of attending. You’re basically trying to answer the question: Was the event worth it for us?

A standard formula for calculating ROI might look like:

ROI = [(Revenue – Investment) / Investment] × 100

In this equation, Revenue is the total return attributed to the event and Investment is every pound or dollar spent on things like booth fees, stand design, travel, setup, staffing, accommodation, food and drink, etc.

Here’s our esteemed colleague, Andi the Cat, with a nice colourful example to demonstrate:

However, ask any marketer or salesperson to calculate the total return that can be attributed to a single event and they’ll begin to tear their hair out while running towards the emergency exit. It just ain’t that simple… 👇

Why measuring event ROI is so challenging

When it comes to calculating ROI for trade shows and events, the process is far from straightforward. And it’s something even the most experienced marketers struggle with. Here’s why:

1. The loooo… (💀) …oooong tail of ROI

ROI from a trade show isn’t always immediate or even measurable within the same fiscal period. The impact of a single expo can stretch over months or years, especially when it comes to building relationships with potential clients (and provided you haven’t made any of the common trade show mistakes).

Don’t be surprised to see customers return years later, casually sharing how an interaction at your trade show booth was the start of a decision-making process that pre-dates all three of their kids being born. Assigning a clear monetary value to these long-term outcomes is a challenge because the results may (and often do) unfold well after the event is over.

2. Intangible returns 🪄

Not all benefits from a trade show are tied to direct sales. Events play a critical role in shaping brand perception, generating visibility, and fostering awareness – outcomes that are notoriously hard to quantify.

A memorable booth experience might stick in someone’s mind long after the event ends, making them more likely to recommend your brand or seek you out in the future. While intangibles like brand engagement don’t always show up on a balance sheet, they’re foundational for long-term growth.

3. Measuring every detail isn’t always worth it 🤓

Trying to measure every single element of a trade show can become an expensive, time-consuming task that drains resources. Some benefits, like the trust gained from face-to-face conversations or the emotional impact of an interactive experience, simply don’t lend themselves to spreadsheets or metrics dashboards.

You can only really focus on the key outcomes that are actually measurable. These might include lead generation, attendee engagement, tags on social media, or media coverage.

4. Attribution is like negotiating with a f***ing toddler 🙃

That is to say, it’s nigh on impossible to win. In a multi-channel marketing environment, how do you know what actually worked? If you’re attending multiple trade shows and running parallel campaigns, it can be hard to pinpoint whether a lead came from your booth visit, email follow-up, or digital ads.

Attribution models often rely on partial insights, blending analytics with a bit of guesswork. Even with tools like lead capture software, identifying the exact role a trade show played in closing a deal is tricky at best.

💡 Top tip: Get your sales team to ask

When enquiries come in, make sure your sales team tries to understand where the person heard about you. Most prospects have no problem answering the question, especially if it was at a recent event and they remember it well.

ROI beyond revenue

To fully understand the value of a trade show, expand your perspective beyond just financial returns. Here are four additional metrics that can paint a clearer picture of ROI:

1. Lead generation and pipeline value

Trade shows are prime opportunities for collecting high-quality leads. Whether attendees are scanning their badges, playing a branded game, or booking follow-up meetings, those interactions can represent future revenue.

2. Engagement and brand awareness

High attendee engagement means your brand is leaving a lasting impression. Did visitors spend time interacting with your booth? Were they excited about your free giveaways or curious about your products? Tracking these moments of engagement can help you measure awareness and goodwill generated during the event.

3. Media exposure and social buzz

An eye-catching booth can spark media interest and generate a buzz on social platforms, amplifying your brand’s reach far beyond the trade show floor. We personally like retro arcade machines for getting people involved and having a good time. 👀

4. Content creation opportunities

A trade show isn’t just an event – it can be a potential content goldmine. Use the opportunity to capture speaker presentations, photos, videos, and live streams that showcase your booth and highlight attendee interactions. Take this example of a video from one of our own recent trade shows! 👇

Branded Games at Events and Exhibitions Video Thumbnail

Setting goals before your event

Trade shows are bustling, high-pressure environments, so having clear goals provides focus and helps your team to do a better job on the exhibition floor. Examples of goals might be:

Lead generation: Aim to collect a specific number of qualified leads through badge scans or sign-ups. Fun and interactive elements like trade show games can encourage visitors to share their contact details when they submit their score to the leaderboard.

Brand awareness: Boost brand visibility by driving foot traffic to your booth, engaging attendees in conversations, or encouraging social media shares. Set a target for interactions or booth visits to measure your reach.

Meeting prospects: If building deeper relationships is your priority, aim to schedule follow-ups or demos with your top prospects during or after the event.

Website traffic or sales: For digital-focused businesses, trade shows can drive web traffic or sales either post-event or during the event through elements such as scannable QR codes.

💡 Top tip: Make your goals measurable

Instead of ‘Get more leads’, set a target like ‘Capture 300 qualified leads through booth interactions and game participation’. Instead of ‘Raise awareness’, aim for ‘Achieve 1,000 booth visitors and 50 social media mentions using our branded hashtag’.

12 Proven Tactics for Getting Visitors to Stop, Stay, and Interact at Your Booth

Want booth visitors to stop and engage? Use these 12 proven steps to win over a tech-savvy crowd!

Grab your copy!

Measuring event ROI from new sales

As mentioned earlier on in this post, a standard formula for calculating ROI might look like:

ROI = [(Revenue – Investment) / Investment] × 100

For example, if your total trade show investment is $20,000 and you know the event generates $50,000 in revenue (e.g. through new clients), your ROI would be:

ROI = [($50,000 – $20,000) / $20,000] × 100 = 150%

There’s Andi the Cat again, doing his sums:

Predicting event ROI based on historical data

If you’ve been to events before and have existing data to rely on, such as:

Your normal conversion rate for events (CVR – we explain this in more detail below)
Your average customer lifetime value (CLV)

…then you can attempt to calculate an ROI based on the number of leads collected.

For example:

Leads collected = 200
Normal CVR = 2%
Average CLV = $15,000

The formula here would be:

(Leads x CVR) x CLV

(200 x 0.02) x $15,000 = $60,000

Assuming the same cost of investment at the event, you’d then plug this into the basic ROI formula to get:

ROI = [($60,000 – $20,000) / $20,000] × 100 = 200%

Who gave that cat a megaphone?

Calculating your conversion rate

Based on your historical data, let’s say you usually collect 200 leads at an event. Half of them are your target market, 20% of them have a chat with your sales team about your services, and 20% of those (eventually) go on to become customers.

In other words, from 200 leads, you predict that 4 will go on to become a customer. This gives you a 2% conversion rate.

Needless to say, the more events you’ve been to in the past, the more info you’ll have to work with here to calculate a ‘normal’ conversion rate. And the data is always subject to change as new clients get in touch from past events. Fun times! 😬

The hidden ROI of trade shows

Remember, not all trade show results can be boiled down to revenue. These additional metrics can also be very valuable:

Dwell time and engagement

Track how long visitors spend at your booth. For example, if 50 attendees play your branded game and each spends 5 minutes engaged, that’s 250 minutes of focused interaction with your brand – a strong signal of interest and memorability.

Learn more about how you could present interactive games on your stand.

Word of mouth

If you’ve made a splash and given visitors a fun and entertaining experience, you increase the chances of them telling others about who you are and what you do. This could be through mentions on social media or through word of mouth to colleagues, friends, and family.

Learn more about how to give visitors a fun and entertaining experience (that also captures leads)!

"Not only did the game tick the boxes in attracting people to our stand, it worked brilliantly as a lead generating tool."

Leanne Mackee, Marketing Director, 4C Insights

Marketing content

Let’s imagine you’ve been wanting to get good photos or video footage of people using your product and providing feedback and testimonials. Could a bustling trade show setting offer the backdrop you need?

If you were thinking of attending an event, this could well be an added bonus that you factor into your ROI calculations. It’s certainly something we’ve done in the past: 👇

Strengthen existing relationships

Trade shows can provide a rare opportunity to meet current clients face-to-face, strengthening rapport and potentially upselling additional products or services. These interactions can improve customer retention and overall lifetime value, which are harder to quantify but obviously impactful.

Team training and experience

The trade show environment helps your team gain experience in pitching, networking, and handling customer enquiries. This on-the-ground learning builds confidence and sharpens skills, benefiting future events and day-to-day business operations.

Competitor insights

Exhibitions can offer a sneak peek into competitor products, strategies, booth designs, or pricing models. It doesn’t directly contribute to your revenue, but this knowledge may well influence your own business decisions and strategy.

Top tips to maximise and improve event ROI

There are always things you can do to try and get better results from your next event. Here are a few of our top tips:

💡 Top tip #1: Use measurable goals

Where possible, put solid numbers next to your goals. This could be something like ‘Capture 300 new leads’, ‘Achieve 1,000 booth visitors’, or ‘Get 50 social media mentions using our branded hashtag’.

💡 Top tip #2: Make your team aware of the goals

You want to make sure the people with boots on the ground know the objectives. If your goal is lead generation, train your team to prioritise meaningful conversations and collect contact information. If it’s to stand out and attract more visitors, ensure everyone is ready to guide attendees toward interactive booth elements like product demos or games with fun giveaways.

💡 Top tip #3: Spread your investment across multiple events

Instead of creating bespoke solutions for each show, consider ways in which you can repurpose elements of your stand design or benefit from supplier discounts for multiple events. Examples of this are a multi-event licence or multi-game licence, where you could take the same game or a different game to unlimited shows throughout the year.

“The fact that the games were flexible to different types of hardware was an attractive point to us, as we had to work with what we had.”

Annabel Seward, Marketing Executive, M247

💡 Top tip #4: Run a pre-show campaign

Don’t forget to build anticipation ahead of time and let people know that you’ll be at the event. Whether it’s emailing your newsletter list, sharing posts via social channels, or writing up an eye-catching event listing, you’ll start to create a buzz and put yourself on the exhibition floor map.

💡 Top tip #5: Use existing hardware

Do you have an office cupboard full of equipment such as monitors, touchscreens, tablets, or other devices? Consider ways in which you could put these to use to reduce your event spend (for example, here are 9 ways to use an iPad at an event).

💡 Top tip #6: Follow up with prospects

Kick things off with a personalised thank-you email, including a recap of event highlights and links to any introductory resources. You can then add your leads to a pre-built email automation sharing valuable content such as case studies, product demos, or exclusive offers.

💡 Top tip #7: Trace your enquiries

When new enquiries come in from your event, the prospects will often mention that it’s where they first came across you. But if they don’t, it’s always valuable to try and find out!

💡 Top tip #8: It’s often a marathon, not a sprint

Instead of focusing only on immediate revenue, think about tracking opportunities over time. Use tools like CRM systems to connect the dots between past trade shows and future deals.

Key takeaways

It’s important to focus on both measurable metrics (like lead generation) and the numerous intangible benefits (like brand visibility and engagement).
It can take a long time to see the benefits of exhibiting at an event.
You should set clear goals going into the event.
Measuring event ROI is tricky. There’s no getting away from it.

Stand out from the crowd at your next event

Trade show games are proven crowd-pleasers that grab attention, drive footfall, spark conversations, boost engagement, and support lead generation.

What’s more, the games are digital products that can be purchased and used all over the world, run across multiple devices, and are even available with a multi-event licence! 🌎

Fancy finding out more? Explore the resources below or book a free discovery call and one of our friendly team will be in touch to chat it all through.

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