In-Person Event KPIs You Need to Track in 2024

As event organizers, you have an innate understanding of the unique power that in-person events hold for your organization. But to harness this power and make events memorable and productive, you must know how to quantify their impact with event KPIs. Event KPIs provide a roadmap to assess success and continually elevate the caliber of the events.

Reasons Why Tracking Event KPIs is Essential

During in-person events, success is often subjective but the significance of tracking KPIs cannot be overstated. It gives you a clear picture of your event performance and provides relevant data for future reference. Here are some reasons why monitoring event KPIs is essential.

1. Measuring ROI

Tracking KPIs allows you to measure the event’s ROI accurately. Your event’s possible outcomes can be increased revenue, improved brand recognition, or other predefined objectives. You can assess whether the resources invested in the event translated into these tangible outcomes by measuring key performance metrics. 

2. Data-Driven Decision Making

Tracking KPIs gives you insights into what works and what doesn’t. This knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions about event strategies, budgets, and resource allocation. They provide a measurable way to assess the success of these objectives. With real-time monitoring, organizers can make immediate adjustments or capitalize on emerging trends. Data on KPIs helps in optimizing resource allocation and helps you evaluate the effectiveness of various strategies employed in the event.

3. Accountability and Transparency

KPIs enable you to report back to stakeholders, sponsors, and team members, demonstrating the impact and outcomes of your events. This transparency builds trust and helps secure support for the future.

4. Enhanced Event Marketing and Promotion

By analyzing attendee acquisition metrics, you can fine-tune your marketing strategies to reach your target audience more effectively, resulting in better event attendance and engagement.

5. Risk Mitigation

Event KPIs allow organizers to detect potential issues early in the planning process. By identifying warning signs through relevant metrics, they can take corrective actions, minimizing the impact of unforeseen challenges.

Event KPIs to Monitor 

From the initial planning to post-event analysis, monitoring event KPIs will empower you to make informed decisions and optimize your efforts. Let’s explore the key performance metrics that will shape the narrative of your event’s success.

1. Marketing KPIs 

Marketing your event right is an incredible way to reach your objectives. Here are the marketing KPIs that you need to monitor to measure how well you performed:

i. Tickets Purchased 

The first and foremost event metric that you need to monitor is the number of tickets purchased. You can record this data when attendees add their information to the registration forms. You should also record the number of registrations by ticket type as it will help you understand what was the most popular type for future reference. 

Offering promo codes is also a great way to gauge which marketing channels were working the most for your event promotions. People using certain influencers’ promo codes can give you an idea of how much exposure their efforts created. 

ii. Number of Attendees 

You can record the number of attendees by measuring the number of badges printed, scanned QR codes, and mobile app check-ins. Here’s how this event KPI can help you: 

• It will help you measure the event’s popularity and appeal. 
• You get to effectively allocate resources and budget planning.
• The number of attendees serves as a barometer for the effectiveness of your promotional strategies. 
• It allows organizers to assess the diversity and segmentation of their audience.

iii. Brand Awareness 

The effectiveness of your event can be measured by assessing brand awareness. You can gauge this event KPI by measuring the increase in sales, social media engagement, page views, and DMs or queries. You can also run polls or host a pop-up event to understand this metric well. 

Here are a few poll ideas you can use to survey people on how they perceive your brand:

• Brand Recognition Polls: “Have you heard of [Your Brand] before attending this event?”
• Brand Recall Polls: “Can you recall a memorable experience or product associated with [Your Brand]?”
• Product/Service Awareness Polls: “Are you familiar with [Your Brand]’s latest product/service [Product/Service Name]?”
• Competitor Awareness Polls: “Which brand comes to mind first when you think about [industry/product/service]?”
• Event-Specific Awareness Polls: “Did you know that [Your Brand] is one of the sponsors/exhibitors for this event?”

iv. New Leads

Lead generation is one of the most important event KPIs that needs to be measured to assess your event’s success. You can scan leads with their personalized QR codes and collect all the data within the vFairs lead generation app.      

This data can later be exported to your CRM for further processing and analysis. The number of leads collected and qualified can help you understand the outcome of the event. It shows the event was a success and gave you a solid outcome. 

v. Social Media Mentions

Tracking mentions allows organizers to gauge the immediate response to their event, providing insight into its popularity and resonance within the digital community. Sharing mentions from key influencers within your industry or community on your brand’s page enhances the credibility and influence of your event. 

You can leverage social media listening tools to track mentions and monitor hashtag performance across different platforms. You can also integrate them within your event using a large LCD at an in-person event and setting up a social wall for a virtual event. vFairs uses walls.io integration to make this happen. 

2. Partner KPIs

Partnerships play a pivotal role in elevating the overall success and impact of an event. The effectiveness of these partnerships can be measured through a set of event KPIs tailored to assess the contribution of partners. 

i. Booth Visits

Booth visits directly contribute to the exposure and visibility of partner brands. Monitoring these visits allows partners to assess their efforts and adjust strategies for maximum impact. Moreover, monitoring visits to booths where multiple partners are present helps assess the cross-promotional impact, enabling partners to refine collaborations for future events. 

What you can do is employ tracking mechanisms that attribute booth visits to individual partners, allowing for accurate attribution and ROI calculation.

ii. Net New Leads 

This metric goes beyond total lead count, focusing specifically on the growth of the audience base through partnerships. By accurately attributing leads to specific partner activities or engagements, organizers gain visibility on the impact of their efforts on lead generation. You need to implement lead-scoring mechanisms that assess the quality of net new leads with partner-defined criteria.

iii. Speaker Session Check-ins 

Successful collaboration is reflected in the level of engagement during speaker sessions. By accurately attributing session check-ins to specific partner-led presentations, partners can gauge the resonance of their content with the audience.

You can integrate session check-in data with partner-specific metrics, enabling partners to assess the attendance and engagement levels for their sessions. You can also monitor post-session engagement metrics, such as discussion forum participation or audience questions to gauge the depth of audience interaction.

iv. Session Ratings 

By collecting feedback through attendee ratings, organizers and partners gain valuable insights into the effectiveness, relevance, and overall satisfaction with partner-led sessions. Ratings provide a quantitative measure of the value perceived by attendees. 

High ratings mean the attendee engagement at your event was incredible and the content was relevant. You can collect attendee feedback for different speakers, identify high-performing sessions, and strategically plan for future events.

Partners can use this data to gauge the alignment of their content with audience expectations and refine future presentations accordingly. You can implement post-session surveys or integrate session rating features within event apps to gather attendee feedback.

3. Sales KPIs

As organizations strive for growth and market dominance, the ability to measure, analyze, and optimize sales performance becomes paramount. Here are some sales KPIs you need to monitor for your events: 

i. New Customers

One of the fundamental event KPIs is measuring the percentage of leads successfully converted into new customers. This metric provides insight into the effectiveness of the sales team in nurturing leads through the sales funnel. Here are some customer metrics to track: 

• Measuring Customer Acquisition Cost is essential to analyze if the efforts are cost-effective. 
• Follow the Sales Cycle Length to track how long it takes to convert a lead. 
• Understand Customer Lifetime Value to optimize marketing and sales strategies to attract high-value customers.

ii. SQLs

Measuring the conversion rate from Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) provides insight into the effectiveness of lead qualification processes. This KPI allows for a granular analysis of which channels are most effective in delivering high-quality leads to the sales team. You should define criteria for SQL quality and regularly evaluate the attributes of SQLs against these criteria.

4. Finance KPIs 

The effectiveness of financial strategies relies heavily on the ability to measure and interpret KPIs accurately. Here are some finance KPIs you need to start measuring:

i. Net Profit Margin

Evaluate the overall profitability of the organization by assessing the percentage of net profit in relation to total revenue.

ii. Return on Investment (ROI)

Calculate the return generated from financial investments, providing insights into the efficiency of capital allocation.

iii. Asset Turnover

Measure asset utilization efficiency by evaluating the ratio of revenue to total assets.

iv. Budget Variance Analysis

Compare the budgeted financial figures with actual results to identify variances and adjust financial strategies accordingly.

v. Financial Forecasting Accuracy

Evaluate the accuracy of financial forecasts to refine your forecasting models and improve future planning.

How the vFairs Apps Help You Track Event KPIs

The vFairs suite of mobile apps is designed to empower event organizers at every stage, providing valuable tools to enhance engagement, streamline logistics, and capture meaningful data. Here are the metrics you can track from each app:

vFairs Mobile Event App

Here are the event KPIs you can track using the vFairs mobile event app:

• You can monitor the number of attendees logging into the virtual event platform, providing insights into overall attendance and participation.
• You can track the number of messages sent through the app to understand engagement and interaction among attendees.
• Organizers can monitor how many attendees are actively sharing their contact information to gauge networking success.
• You can track the number of active attendees participating in the live event feed to check the real-time engagement of participants.
• You will be able to utilize polls and surveys within the app to gather feedback and insights.
• Exhibitors can measure the frequency and type of content downloads, helping assess the popularity and relevance of the provided materials.
• The vFairs event mobile app allows you to measure engagement metrics like leaderboard participation, Q&A participation, poll participation, chat interactions, and session attendance. 

vFairs Badge Printing App

Here are the logistics and efficiency metrics you can track with the vFairs badge printing app:

• Organizers can automatically note check-ins based on QR codes scanned onsite. 
• They can keep a pulse on attendance in real time with a visual dashboard.

Lead Capture App

Exhibitor success metrics you can measure using the vFairs event lead capture app:

• You will be able to generate visual reports that provide insights into leads captured per exhibitor and sponsor.
• Exhibitors can track leads captured by each team member, facilitating team optimization and recognition.
• Gain valuable insights into attendee interactions with exhibitors and sponsors, allowing you to assess engagement levels and identify areas for improvement.
• Utilize the lead capture app for multiple events, allowing exhibitors to have a centralized location for all lead data. 
• Evaluate the success of lead generation efforts by calculating the conversion rates from captured leads to meaningful connections. 
• Assess the quality of leads captured by incorporating additional data points such as interactions, engagement level, and specific interests or preferences.

Use Event Analytics to Track KPIs for Event Success 

As an event organizer, your goal should be to ensure that every handshake, conversation, and shared experience translates into meaningful results. It demands meticulous planning, agile adaptation, and insightful analysis. In this journey, event KPIs emerge as indispensable tools, guiding event organizers toward continuous improvement. 

You need to determine the right KPIs to monitor that will guide your decision-making process and maximize your event’s impact. With your event management platform, you can use event reporting to track the event KPIs that will define your future decisions.