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Thanks to an absolute boom of event technology solutions, event planners can now craft data-based event strategies and measure their event success better than ever before. First, planners define their event goals – what they want to achieve with this event – and break them down into measurable event KPIs. Event KPIs (key performance indicators) therefore directly drive event ROI and inform how successful was the event.

Once the KPIs are set, they need to be measured to determine event ROI. The best way to measure event ROI is with event platforms as they harness valuable data points and create analytics reports. However, platforms differ from one another based on pricing, features, and other functionalities. It’s important that event planners compare several event platforms by features and assess their analytics capabilities.

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Not every KPI is relevant and important to every event, though. There are no one-size-fits-all best metrics for event planners. While the main event goal of some events is to sell as many tickets as possible, others strive for higher brand recognition or good event marketing metrics.

We’ve outlined 77 event KPIs and divided them into eight major groups:

  • general and attendee event KPIs,
  • financial event KPIs,
  • marketing KPIs,
  • audience engagement KPIs,
  • presenter KPIs,
  • sponsorship and tradeshow KPIs,
  • event networking KPIs,
  • community KPIs.

We’ve outlined several in each group. Hopefully, some of these will help inspire you to embrace the benefits of event platforms and take your event strategy to the next level. Happy planning!

event kpisRegistration & Attendee KPIs

1. Number of total registrations

2. Attendee demographics: age, region, job title, industry. There is also value in measuring psychographics and valuegraphics (for example, to assess how much your attendees value sustainability or how they feel about attending an in-person event)

3. Attendee retention: how many attendees have attended the event before (loyalty rate);

4. Turnout percentage: how many people attended the event out of all that registered (in case of virtual events, how many people logged into the event platform)

5. Active people in the event platform each hour

6. Pageviews on the registration microsite

7. Post-event surveys: measure level of attendee satisfaction and overall event success

8. Device usage: Android, iOS, computer

9. Usage rate of each event platform features

event KPIsFinancial Event KPIs

10. Gross profit and net profit of the event

11. Tickets, sold by type: several ticket tiers, including virtual event attendance, in-person admission, early bird tickets, VIP tickets, etc.

12. Average number of tickets per purchase

13. Total number of ticket orders

14. The average revenue per attendee

15. Tickets sold by date

16. Donations received

17. Refunds issued

18. Incomplete orders

19. Average time spend per order

20. Processing fees paid

Marketing KPIs

21. Email open rate

22. Push notification open rate

23. Discount codes

24. Discount codes used by attendees

25. Website traffic by promo codes: see which sponsors or promo codes drove the most traffic to your event website

26. RSVPs to your next event responded during the event: this event marketing KPIs is crucial for building your own community

27. Social media mentions: create your own event hashtag or social media profiles

Engagement KPIs

Event platforms have transformed how we measure audience engagement KPIs. Event gamification can help support getting better results on these KPIs. help you reach your event goals. Virtual event metrics

28. In-person and/or virtual attendees per session: including drop off rate

29. Session watch duration: in seconds or minutes; including average session duration

30. Live polling response rate

31. Total Q&As, including sessions with the most Q&As, the number of question upvotes

32. Q&As answered vs. unanswered

33. Total session replays

34. Session with most chats

35. Number of hands raised, including virtually

36. Most/least registered session

37. Session rating: including metrics about top-performing sessions and topics (either by attendance or high rating)

38. Chats per session

39. Session feedback survey results

40. Event feed posts: number of likes and comments

41. Posts per discussion forum

Presenter KPIs

42. CFP (call for papers) received

43. Speaker profile visits

44. Speakers logged in: number or %

45. Average speaker rating

46. Most/least bookmarked speakers

Tradeshow KPIs

47. Exhibitor retention: how many exhibitors are returning and how many are new

48. Exhibitor lead captures: first, exhibitors need to define which metrics determine a qualified lead; other lead-related event KPIs include the number of opportunities and close rate

49. (Virtual) Business cards dropped

50. Booth visits/product views

51. Participation in gamified challenges: raffles, giveaways

52. Sponsor revenue

53. Sponsor/exhibitor satisfaction: measure with a survey

54. Cost per lead: how much money one lead costs, on average

55. Most/least bookmarked exhibitors, products, or services

56. CTA clicks

57. Product views

58. Files downloaded

59. Chats per booth

60. Average contacts per exhibitor 

61. Total meetings held with exhibitors

62. Sponsor logos clicked

analytics

Event Networking KPIs

63. Total contacts made

64. Contacts made per active user

65. Profile views: who were the most viewed/active attendee profiles

66. Meetings scheduled in an app/platform

67. Meetings held in-person versus virtually

68. Meetings declined

69. Contact scoring: giving conversations 1-5 stars, if your event platform allows you to score conversation

70. Connection requests sent in the event platform

71. Connections made: requests accepted

72. Group networking event KPIs: number of people who participated in video rooms, video lounge; average time per user spent networking

event kpisCommunity Community KPIs

The community model holds many perks, including continuous audience engagement, infinite virtual space for events and webinars, and year-round value for exhibitors. Have your attendees, sponsors, and stakeholders all share a virtual space before, during, and after the event, and make it an event platform (or in this case, a community platform) the base of your multi-event strategy.

While most event KPIs only concern a time-bound event, community KPIs offer data insights into the behavior and interests of your community members throughout the entire year.

73. Active/inactive members

74. Logins/day of the week

75. People online per time (hour) of day

76. New members

77. Posts/interactions

live page analytics

Pave The Way To Event Success With Event KPIs

Event planners who strategize, set goals, and measure the corresponding event KPIs are far more likely to scale their events and reach new heights of event success. There are many different types of event KPIs event platforms can measure, so it’s crucial that planners find the platform that will best support their vision and improve event ROI.

At Endless Events, we pride ourselves in being technology-agnostic event partners, dedicated to helping planners pave the way to event success. If you need help with event strategy, event technology implementation, community nurturing, and anything else event-related, reach out to us – we’re a forward-thinking event management company you will love to work with.

2022 Event Trends Guide

Anja Grcar

Author Anja Grcar

Anja, Senior Content Writer at Endless Events, aspires to educate and inspire event planners with the power of the written word.

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