Webinar Metrics to Track and Analyze

Posted by Sophia Duplin

Webinar Analytics

Webinars are, without a doubt, "one of the most powerful formats in the content marketer’s arsenal, and it’s used by 46 percent of B2B marketers" today (CMI). 

 

Hosting webinars is a great way to reach your target audience and vet qualified leads that you can move along the sales funnel. These virtual events can be stand-alone or done in a series and add to any company’s lead generation or marketing strategy. 

 

As more and more companies begin to adopt this modern practice, it becomes increasingly more important to understand your webinar metrics in order to identify areas of improvement and areas of potential future success.

 

In a recent webinar, Content Marketing Institute wrote about some important figures Executive Webinar Producer, Mike Agron, put together to help people understand what analytics matter and what they should be. 

 

Let’s take a look at what webinar analytics you should be focusing on and what actions you can take once the data is gathered. 

 

 

Qualities Of A Successful Webinar 

Nowadays, companies are harnessing the power of the webinar to reach their target audience far and wide. However, it takes a lot of hard work and careful planning.

 

 Presenting a few slides and choosing a random topic isn’t going to get you the results that you want. 

 

Let’s take a look at the qualities that successful webinars share. 

  • Targeted Topic: Webinars typically last 90 minutes or less. Be sure to choose a concise topic that your audience wants to learn about. 

  • Interactive Features: Live webinars benefit from features, such as live polling, live chat, and gamification, to help keep your audience engaged. 

  • Perfect Timing: The most successful webinars are scheduled when their target audience is likely to be free and available to attend. 

  • High-Quality Content: The best webinars offer great content and dedicated media libraries that attendees can refer back to after the event is over. 

  • Strong Marketing Campaigns: To attract the right audience to your webinar, you’ll need to focus on key marketing channels to ensure your message is heard loud and clear by the right people. 

 

Planning your webinar is only half the battle. You’ll need to use specific metrics to identify whether or not your webinar strategy was effective. 

 

Let’s take a look at six of the most essential webinar analytics to track. 

 

6 Important Webinar Analytics To Track

Webinars are virtual events that can be rerecorded or presented in real-time. They are used to communicate information about a specific product or topic to your target audience. 

 

Unlike in-person events, it’s difficult to quantify the success of your webinar. Some marketers may look at one or two metrics,  like the number of attendees or landing page views, but to get an idea of the big picture, you’ll need to take a look at multiple indicators. 

 

 Once you look at your webinar metrics individually and holistically, you’ll gain critical insights that can help you adjust your strategies and gain more qualified leads. 

 

Here are the top six webinar metrics you need to analyze after your virtual event. 

 

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

When it comes to the "click-through rate,” or CTR, of the number of visitors who clicked on the link to your registration's landing page versus the number of people who clicked and successfully registered for your virtual event. 

 

Here are what the numbers should be:

  • A CTR of 34 to 50 percent is excellent. High five! 

  • A CTR of 25 to 33 percent is on target but could use some improvement. Your landing page may need a stronger CTA. 

  • A CTR of less than 25 percent means your landing page needs some significant amount of improvements. 

 

Having an excellent registration click-through rate is ideal, but what about actual attendance? 

 

2. Attendance Rate 

Comparing the number of people who attended your webinar against the number of registrants is essential. It will tell you if you need to send more event reminder emails or adjust your marketing strategy to make your virtual event more enticing. 

 

According to Agron, you can observe how many of your registrants attend on the big day.  

  • Above 50%: More than 50 percent of your registered attendees should be showing up on the day of the event. 

  • Less Than 50%: If only 40 percent of your registrants showed up, you might need to send out another event reminder email right before your event begins.

  • Less Than 30%: If less than 30 percent of your registrants are showing up, you may need to rethink your marketing strategy entirely. 

 

Remember,  your pre-webinar marketing strategy is just as important as the actual content of your virtual event. The marketing will get them to show up to the event, but your actual webinar will still need to engage your audience to keep them interested. 

 

3. Audience Retention

Getting your target audience to show up is only half the battle. Now you need to keep them wanting more of your high-quality content. 

 

One webinar analysis people tend to overlook is audience retention. Keeping your audience engaged throughout the duration of your event is essential to determine whether your topic and speaker delivered what the audience expected. 

 

Accomplishing this is a strong indicator that you choose a webinar topic that leads to a successful event. 

 

It's relatively common for attendance to drop off a bit towards the end of your webinar presentation, but Agron believes 80 percent of your audience should still be there when the Q&A portion begins. 

 

So keep an eye on your attendance numbers during the event itself to gauge how engaging your topic, speaker, and promotions are. 

 

 

4. Brand Awareness And Interactions

Marketers know that, while difficult to measure, marketers know that brand awareness is an essential component of any webinar marketing strategy. 

 

Social media is an excellent tool for measuring brand awareness. You’re probably using social media platforms during your webinar promotion period, but they can offer critical insights after the event has concluded. 

 

Increased traffic to your social media channels after your webinar means that your brand has made an impression on attendees and inspired them to connect with your company or product. 

 

Pay attention to increased web searches and traffic directly to your landing page. This is another key indicator that your webinar was a success.

 

5. Attendee To Qualified Lead Conversion Rate

The purpose of your webinar is to have your target audience interact with your company in hopes of them converting. 

 

Take a look at how many webinar attendees signed up for your email list, asked for more information, or made a purchase. 

 

By seeing how many attendees convert to qualified leads, you’ll know how well your content hit the mark or what you may need to adjust to increase this metric at a future webinar. 

 

6. OnDemand Content Interaction

If you provide your registrants with a recording of your event, you can also analyze the data from your OnDemand viewing. Some OnDemand analytics worth exploring include:

  • First Time Contacts

  • Repeat Viewing By Registrants

  • Email Forwards Or Shares On Social Media Platforms

  • Unsubscribe Rates 

 

Don’t forget to share the link to these resources in the follow-up letter of your webinar’s email marketing strategy. 

 

These essential metrics will help you analyze your webinar performance and help to inform the decision-making process for future webinars. 

 

How To Take Action Using Webinar Metrics

Once you’ve gathered all the data on the most crucial webinar metrics, you’ll need to sit down with your marketing team or sales team to determine the big picture. 

 

Start by looking at each metric individually. Consider webinar registration vs. attendance rates. Check if your company’s LinkedIn page has seen an increase in traffic. Comb through the attendee feedback to see what insights they offer. 

 

This will help you to see how the webinar performed on its own. 

 

But if you want to know what needs adjusting or why your webinar didn’t perform as expected, you’ll have to compare the metrics to each other, as well as the times in which they occurred. 

 

Here are some examples of what your metrics are trying to tell you. 

 

Results In Your Analytics

Results Could Mean

CTR Is High, But Registration Is Low...

  • Your Registration Page Needs Work

  • Your Messaging Needs Adjustment

  • You Need A New Marketing Strategy

Your Audience Engagement Is Low….

  • Your Webinar Topic Isn’t Hitting Right

  • You Need To Add Interactive Features 

  • You Need To Adjust Your Format

Your Audience Drops Off During The Webinar...

  • Your Intro Wasn’t Strong Enough 

  • Your Presentation Isn’t Concise

  • You Need To Adjust The Run Time

You Don’t Get Any Feedback 

  • Your Webinar Didn’t Wow Your Target Audience 

  • Your Webinar Didn’t Engage Your Audience 

 

It’s crucial to not only track webinar metrics but to pinpoint the exact times during your presentation where attendance dropped, or your CTR went cold.

 

This will help you and your marketing team determine what changes need to be made before future webinars are launched.  

 

Use These Important  Metrics To Measure Webinar Success

The metrics you gather before, during, and after your online event hold the secrets to successful online events. 

 

As you continue to plan and produce webinars for your target audience, your metrics will tell you where you can adjust your strategies for the most significant impact. 

 

Are you looking to produce a webinar? BeaconLive can help.  

 

Our webinar software and platform offer scalable, customized solutions perfect for any company looking to host a single webinar or a series to boost your brand awareness and anything in between. 

 

Contact us today for more information on how webinars can enhance your business strategy. 


 

Topics: Marketing, Webinars & Webcasts, Webinars: Best Practices

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