50 Event Planning Statistics for Your Marketing Strategy

Here you will find a particularly comprehensive list of helpful event planning statistics on event marketing, event management, and event planning. Be prepared for the 2023!

We've created the following list of 50 essential marketing and event statistics to help you plan ahead. You'll find topics like virtual and hybrid events, event budgets, event technology, event marketing and more.

Top Event Planning Statistics

These are the most interesting event statistics we think you should know:

• 89% say that events are critical to reach key business objectives (Sweap, 2022).

• 72% of event marketers plan to market their events community-based. (Sweap, 2022)

• 81% of event managers say they host virtual events (Sweap)

• Social media marketing is the most used event marketing channel, followed by email marketing and personal invites (Sweap).

• 19% of event marketers do not have the right data or 18% do not have the right tools to measure the success of their events. (Sweap).

• The majority (60%) of executives believe that events are the most important marketing channel for achieving corporate objectives (Bizzabo).

• 79% of event marketers use LinkedIn to market their events (Sweap).

• 52% of CEOs believe that event marketing delivers a higher ROI than any other marketing channel (Splash).

Event Planning Statistics: Virtual & Hybrid Events

Virtual events are booming! In summary, our event statistics show that virtual and hybrid events have many advantages, but technical challenges can always cause problems.

• 78% of event marketers plan to host on-site events in the future. (Sweap, 2022)

• 88% of event marketers say, that in-person events are critical to their company success. (Sweap, 2022)

• 81% of event managers say they organise virtual events (Sweap, 2020)

• 33.7% of event marketers report that the average cost of attending a virtual event is between $500 and 1000 $ (Market, 2021).

• 61% of organisers had to switch to virtual events due to COVID-19 (Sweap, 2020).

• 38% of virtual event organisers regularly encounter technical problems (Market, 2021).

• For 53% of organisers, finding the right technology is the biggest challenge for virtual events (Sweap, 2021).

• 67% of B2B companies use virtual events in addition to on-site events (Market, 2021).

• For 47% of organisers, the no-show rate is the biggest challenge for virtual events (Sweap, 2021).

• More than half (54%) of the companies increase the number of their online webinars (TOPO, 2020).

• 65.9% of event planners make the content of their virtual events available on-demand (Market, 2021).

• The biggest annoyance at virtual events is a bad connection (38%). The second biggest frustration comes from bad microphones (30%), followed by bad cameras (20%) (Market, 2021).

• The majority of companies (63%) are switching to digital conferences or events (TOPO, 2020).

• 75% of virtual event organisers do not yet use digital goodie bags for participants (Sweap, 2021).

• Event managers indicated that 23.6% of their events in 2021 will include a virtual component and will be smaller local events with fewer than 25 participants that do not require air travel or hotel rooms (AMEX, 2020).

• Half (50.7%) of executives believe that in the future all live events will have a virtual dimension (Marketing Charts, 2020).

• 27% of all virtual/hybrid meetings use mobile apps (AMEX, 2020).

Event Planning Statistics: Event Marketing

We live in a hybrid world - and not just since 2020. This does not make the creation of an event marketing strategy any easier, as event planners now have to prepare two events in one. Event budgets are exploding and becoming more complex. The following event planning statistics should help you to keep an overview.

• At 37.5% of the surveyed companies, more than 30% of the total marketing budget flows into the event department. (Sweap, 2022)

• 60% of virtual event planners use social media to get valuable attendee registrations (Market, 2021).

• 79% of event marketers use LinkedIn to market their events (Sweap, 2021).

• 84% of event marketers will continue to use LinkedIn to market their events in the future (Sweap, 2021).

• 76% of event marketers say email marketing is the most targeted channel to increase attendee registrations (Market, 2021).

• B2B companies invest 10-20% of their annual marketing budget in virtual events (Market, 2021).

• Almost all (97%) of B2B marketers believe that on-site events have an essential impact on the achievement of business objectives. (Bizzabo, 2019).

• 68% of B2B marketers use on-site events to generate new leads (AdStage, 2018).

• Of the strategies identified in one study, 68% of respondents said they use events to generate qualified leads for the top of the funnel (Marketing Charts, 2018).

• 60% of event marketers see event sponsorship as a good option to increase brand awareness (Sweap, 2021).

• 61% of B2B marketers are also successful in generating qualified leads through webinars (Marketing Charts, 2018).

• 52% of CEOs believe that event marketing delivers a higher ROI than any other marketing channel (Splash).

• 76% of event marketers say that event and experiential marketing initiatives are integrated with all other marketing campaigns (Event Marketing Institute, 2016).

Event Planning Statistics: Event Success

For many, a successful event is difficult to prove with numbers - at least not for everyone. The following event planning statistics show that most event marketers know how important it is to track and measure the ROI of an event, but most still struggle to put it into practice.

• For 84% of event marketers, technologists have a positive impact on event success. (Sweap, 2022)

• 19% of event marketers do not have the right data or 18% do not have the right tools to measure the success of their events (Sweap, 2020).

• 19% of companies do not know their ROI for events (Marketing Charts).

• 26% of event marketers lack the time to measure the success of their events (Sweap, 2020).

• 87% of event marketers see virtual events as a potential factor for success (Market, 2021).

• 87% of event marketers see participant satisfaction as a potential factor for success (Market, 2021).

• 55% of event organisers across all formats use surveys to measure participant satisfaction (Sweap, 2020).

• For 45% of organisers, last-minute participants are the biggest challenge when creating guest lists (Sweap, 2020).

• 65% of the organisers are responsible for reporting and measuring success (Sweap, 2020).

• 90% of event planners and marketers use surveys to measure the satisfaction of participants (Market, 2021).

• 45.7% of event marketers see generating a pipeline as the main goal of virtual events (Market, 2021).

• 23% of organisers do not measure the success of their events (Sweap, 2020).

• 43% of organisers manage their guest lists with a digital solution (Sweap, 2020).

• The number of event websites increases by up to 52% per year. The number of mobile apps has doubled accordingly since 2017 (Meetingbox, 2019).

• For events, the average ROI is 25-34% (Meetingbox, 2019).

Event Planning Statistics: Audience Engagement

Virtual events bring a whole new set of challenges that were often not a big issue for on-site events: Participant engagement and the constant question: How do I keep my virtual event participants happy? 68% of event marketers consider the engagement of virtual participants to be the biggest challenge at virtual events. We have summarized the most interesting event planning statistics on engagement here.

• For 40% of event managers, the engagement rate is one of the most important KPIS. (Sweap, 2022)

• 66% of event managers Use the thank you email as post-event engagement. (Sweap, 2022)

• For 68% of organisers, engagement is the biggest challenge of virtual events (Sweap, 2021).

• 49% of event marketers see participant engagement as the most important factor for a successful event (Market, 2021).

• 71% of event planners use online surveys to keep attendees' attention (Market, 2021).

• 57% of event managers have participated in a networking carousel or would participate if the event platform/event offered it (Sweap, 2021).

• 58% of event managers have never used virtual applause at an event or used it themselves as participants (Sweap, 2021).

• 82% of B2B marketers believe that attendee engagement is an important KPI for the success of an event (Bizzabo, 2019).

• 70% of respondents measure engagement and attendee satisfaction as a KPI to define the success of an event (Bizzabo, 2019).

Why Are Event Planning Statistics Important?

Event planning statistics can provide valuable insights into the current state of the event planning industry. Here are some of the things that we can learn from event planning statistics:

• The types of events that are most popular, such as conferences, trade shows, and weddings.

• The average cost of events, including expenses such as venue rental, catering, and entertainment.

• The factors that drive event success, such as effective marketing, engaging content, and high-quality experiences.

• The trends and opportunities in the event planning industry, such as the growth of virtual events, the increasing use of technology, and the importance of sustainability.

• The challenges and challenges facing event planners, such as rising costs, competition, and the impact of COVID-19.

Overall, event planning statistics can provide valuable information that can help event planners understand the industry, benchmark their performance, and identify trends and opportunities.

Conclusion on Event Planning Statistics

That's it for the Sweap event stats for 2023. We're excited to see what new event planning stats this year will bring. Interested in creating your own event statistics? Then take a look at Sweap's Event Insights Feature, giving you great measurable event data for your ROI.