6 Ways to Gauge ROI at The Event Planner Expo

September 25, 2019 Susan Serena

Measuring your exhibiting results at The Event Planner Expo can be as straightforward or complex as you need to make it. The components you use to gauge your ROI will be determined by your expo goals.

The two essential purposes behind exhibit measurement are to:

1.) legitimize your investment and

2.) assemble data to make your venture more gainful.

A decent assessment system can enable you to decide to what degree you should keep exhibiting at The Event Planner Expo. Perhaps next year, you’ll need a bigger booth or more giveaways. Your evaluation will enable you to distinguish your display's qualities and shortcomings, along with the effectiveness of your planned booth activities for attendees.

Knowing how to measure your exhibiting tactics at the Event Planner Expo will also help you scale your success from previous year’s shows so that you’re able to calculate if your pre-show marketing and offered deals improved or not from one year to the next.  If you’re going to win at the exhibiting game, you should have a scoring system that will track the success of your entire process.

Here are six essential measurements that practically every organization ought to gauge:

1. Return on Objectives:

What definite objectives would you say you were looking for after the show, and what advancement did you make toward those objectives?

2. Exhibit Budget Vs. Actual:

What was your anticipated expense budget and what did you really spend?

3. During & After-show Sales:

What was the total number of orders (and dollar amount) you received during the expo and after?  In a perfect world, you should gauge post-expo deals at the 90 and 180-day focuses, or you can stretch it out to a longer period if your sales cycle runs long. Additionally, you have to think about the recurrence of the show.

4. Amount and Quality of Leads: 

What was the number of leads you collected? What was the number of A – B – C leads? What is the assessed sales total for those leads?

5. Price Per Lead:

What was your cost per lead? You can divide the number of leads you collected by your expo expense total to decide what your per-lead cost is.

6. Cost Per Interaction:

What did it cost you to generate eye to eye contact? To decide this number, you will need to multiply your total number of leads by 2.4. This will give you a truly precise method for deciding your booth activity. Now, divide your exhibiting investment by your estimated booth traffic.

These six-essential measurements are in no way, shape or form the only metrics that could and ought to be measured. However, they are an exceptionally strong starting point. They will give you a decent picture of whether you are winning at the exhibiting game.

There is one last metric that all exhibitors should try to quantify – the indefinable exhibiting.

Quantifiable profit.

To properly calculate ROI, you should first have the capacity to track at-show and post-show income. When you have that, just follow the method below.

Here's a Return on Investment Sample (the dollar amounts shown below do not reflect actual cost to exhibit at the Event Planner Expo):

  • Total post-expo income from your leads: $250,000
  • Minus cost of gross margin or sales: - $190,000
  • Equals Gross Expo Profit $ 60,000
  • Less the Cost to Exhibit: $ 20,000
  • Equals Net Expo Profit: $ 40,000
  • Net Expo Profit $40,000/Exhibiting Costs $ 20,000 = 200% ROI

And there it is! In this sample, each dollar you invested to exhibit is delivering a 200% ROI. What other type of investment will give you this degree of profitability? What does this translate to for your business, and for you, if you are able to convert your exhibiting program from an expense to a profit-making machine?  You can rest easy knowing that the data included in this article gives you a direct path to making your booth pay off. Now it’s up to you to make it work!

If you want more information about The Event Planner Expo 2019 lineup and what you can expect, check out this schedule right here! If you’d like more information on who you can expect to exhibit at this year’s expo, we have the list ready for you!

Previous Article
How to Appeal to the Top Dog Executives for Events
How to Appeal to the Top Dog Executives for Events

How can you create events that are appealing to the big bosses? Use the tips listed in this blog post and y...

Next Article
5 Reasons to Attend the Event Planner Expo
5 Reasons to Attend the Event Planner Expo

The Event Planner Expo is New York City’s premiere networking event and showcase for all event planning pro...