Gaining ROI in your virtual events in 2022

by Meeting Protocol

Once events went virtual in 2020, the entire industry was forever changed. Though we are all eager to get back to as many in-person events as possible, we also recognize that we can engage a much larger audience with virtual events. 

This increased reach, plus lower overall costs of virtual events, can help you maximize your ROI. Virtual event KPIs might be a little different than those from your standard in-person event - let us help you determine the right KPIs for your event! 

How to measure your virtual event’s ROI

ROI (or return on investment) is a very simple but incredibly important KPI, it enables you to know if your event was worth the investment of time and money. To measure your virtual event’s ROI, the math is simple :

[(Total Event Gained Value – Total Cost of the Event) ÷ Total Cost of Event]  X 100 = ROI

So for example: If my event cost a total of $20 000 but I got $30 000 in revenue from it, my ROI for this event would be: 50%. 

But a virtual event’s value is not just about revenue or sales, what do you want to gain from this event? 

  • Brand awareness (page views, attendance)
  • New customers or lead generation
  • Sponsorships, partners

You need to take all the value gained by this event in consideration to calculate your return on investment. However, you have to make sure that those added-values are measurable. How do you make brand awareness measurable? Put a price on it! 

For example, ask yourself how much you would usually be ready to pay for a page view or an impression for this audience. 

Then, make sure you take into account all the investments you had to do, which can include:

  • Your virtual event platform
  • Games or activities
  • Food and beverages delivery 
  • Swag and promotional items
  • Time spent on event organization
  • Hourly rate of your event managers, speakers or hosts
  • All promotion 

It’s important to determine which event data will be most useful in measuring ROI before you plan your event, so that you can make sure you track the right data in your virtual platform (such as attendance, page views, chat metrics). It’s a good idea as well to send a short but powerful post-event survey to measure your attendees satisfaction and overall experience.


What’s a good virtual event ROI? 

It all depends on your goals and your industry. However it’s safe to say that you need to gain at least more in revenue or value than what you spent. Overall, the average ROI for events in 2015 was around 25-34%, according to Marketing Charts. With virtual events being increasingly used nowadays, it might be safe to say that your ROI could be a lot better than that in 2022.

After all, when you don’t have to take expenses like venue, flights, booths, promotional material, security, and more into consideration, the cost goes down tremendously, and your ROI automatically increases. 

It’s also a lot easier to track your event data with a virtual event tool. You can track when your attendees arrived, left, what they did, if they clicked on your sponsor banners, and much more.

How can I increase my virtual event’s ROI?

  1. Set clear goals ahead of time

First off, make sure you set clear measurable goals for your events ahead of time. That way, you’ll be able to create an event that’s better aligned with your goals and objectives, and find a tool that enables you to track all the data you need. 

  1. Make audience engagement your #1 priority

According to Bizzabo, half of event marketers believe it is more difficult to create unique and memorable experiences for attendees through virtual events in comparison to in-person events. Which is not surprising if the only video conference tool you have access to is Zoom.

You need to create an event that’s engaging so that people attending your event will talk about it, and keep your event in mind afterwards. A good way to do that is to invest in quality content and speakers, and use a fun interactive virtual event tool that’ll get rid of the zoom doom. 

  1. Offer networking opportunities

Networking is a very important part of most events, may it be having booths, networking between different industries, companies, providers, and much more. But about 68.8% of event marketers believe it is more difficult to provide networking opportunities when hosting a virtual event. Luckily, there are virtual networking tools available to help you achieve your goals. 

  1. Advertise to the right audience

Depending on who your audience is, make sure you don’t waste your time and ad spend on people who won’t attend your event. For example, if you try to reach B2B businesses, make sure you do that on platforms like LinkedIn, not on Tik Tok. You can also focus on different communities, groups and forums where your audience is, and tackle Google ads keywords that fit your event.

Other KPIs to track for your event

There are a number of other event KPIs that you can track to know what to improve in your event, what worked out best, and how to optimize your revenue. So make sure you track all the most important KPIs for your event, your goals and your particular ROI.

Here are some of them: 

  • Number of Attendees
  • Attendee Engagement
  • Sponsorship Engagement
  • Number of Sales Leads Generated

Get started

If you’re an event management agency, you’ll want to use a tool that offers you all these event KPIs, great engagement, networking capabilities, and more. 

Luckily, Remo offers exactly that! Remo is primarily a virtual networking tool with an immersive map based layout for easy navigation. And even better yet, with their partner program, you can get a new revenue source on top of it that’ll help you get an even better overall ROI.

Back to News