7 Webinar Metrics to Track in 2023

There are a thousand different ways to attract and engage your target audience.

You could, for example, write SEO optimized blog posts and drive traffic to your company’s website. Or create must-see social media content for Facebook and Instagram. Or jump on the video marketing bandwagon and publish videos to sites like YouTube for the world to see.

Here’s another idea: embrace webinar marketing. Customers love webinars because they can be super engaging and educational. Companies that use them often find amazing success.

Just remember, you need to track webinar metrics to get the most out of this marketing and sales channel. If you don’t, you won’t know how to improve your live broadcasts.

The question is, which webinar metrics actually matter? We’re going to answer that question for you in this article! Keep reading to learn about the seven KPIs you should track in 2023.

Which Webinar Metrics Should You Track?

It doesn’t matter which company you work for or the products/services you sell. Tracking the seven webinar metrics below will give you the information you need to enhance your events. 

Webinar Registrations

How many people registered for your last webinar? This is an important question to answer because it will tell you how effective your webinar marketing efforts are.

Your event might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if people don’t know about it, they won’t show up. That’s why you need to become an expert marketer. (Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. This blog is chock-full of marketing tips to help you out.)

The number of registrations you generate can also help you judge your webinar topics.

If you’ve marketed your event, but still can’t get people to register, you might have chosen a topic that your target audience isn’t interested in, which is valuable information.

Webinar Attendance

Webinar registrants are great—but only if they turn into webinar attendees.

You don’t want people to just register for your event, you want them to actually attend. For this reason, webinar attendance is one of the main webinar metrics you should track.

Now, make sure you account for both live attendees and those who watch the event recording after the broadcast takes place. There are tons of people who register for events with the intention of watching them at a future time of their choosing. This is totally normal.

If you only track live webinar attendees you’ll probably miss a large chunk of your audience.

Webinar Session Length

The webinar session length KPI measures the amount of time that your target audience spends watching your event. This is one of the most important webinar metrics.

You work hard to craft high-quality broadcasts for your attendees. Unfortunately, a chunk of your audience won’t stick around to watch all of them. Some will show up to your event after it starts. Others will watch until their specific question is answered. Then they’ll bail. Still others will register for your event, show up on time, and watch the first five minutes. Then they’ll realize that your event doesn’t actually speak to their needs and exit the webinar room.

Tracking webinar session length will help you learn about your audience For example, if a bunch of attendees exit your broadcast right after the introduction, you might conclude that you marketed the event to the wrong people. If people leave right after you cover a certain topic, you might conclude that only some of the information you shared was interesting to attendees.

Here’s what we recommend: track webinar session length. Then take note of where in your broadcasts people drop out. Used together, these two bits of information are a data gold mine.

Webinar Conversions

At this point, you’re tracking the number of people who register for your webinars, the number of people who actually attend said webinars, and the amount of time people spend watching your content. Now add a few conversion-oriented KPIs to your webinar metrics list…

Landing Page to Registrant Conversion Rate

This metric measures the percentage of people who navigate to your webinar landing page and register for your event. You can find it for yourself using this formula:

(Webinar Registrants) / (Landing Page Visitors) = Conversion Rate

So, if 1,000 people see your webinar landing page and 50 of them register for your event, your conversion rate would be 5%—because 50 divided by 1,000 equals .5.

If your landing page to registrant conversion rate is lower than you want it to be, consider adjusting your landing page so that it’s more appealing to your target audience.

Registrant to Attendee Conversion Rate

This metric measures the percentage of people who registered for your webinar, then actually showed up for the live or prerecorded broadcast. Find it for yourself using this formula:

(Webinar Attendees) / (Webinar Registrants) = Conversion Rate

So, if 50 people registered for your last webinar and 32 of them attended the event, your conversion rate would be 64%—because 32 divided by 50 equals .64.

If your registrant to attendee conversion rate is lower than the average of 35% to 45%, rethink the way you contact registrants before your events to remind them to attend.

Attendee to Qualified Lead Conversion Rate

This metric measures the percentage of people who attended your webinar, then became qualified leads for your company. To calculate this KPI for yourself, use this formula:

(Qualified Leads) / (Webinar Attendees) = Conversion Rate

So, if 32 people attended your webinar and 4 of them turned into sales qualified leads, your conversion rate would be 12.5%—because 4 divided by 32 equals .125.

Average attendee to qualified lead conversion rates are between 20% and 40%. If your webinars don’t meet this standard, choose webinar topics that relate more to your products.

Attendee Feedback

Next up, attendee feedback.

This webinar metric is a bit different than the others we’ve covered so far. It isn’t an actual number you view inside your webinar software of choice. It’s the comments your attendees express in the end-of-webinar surveys you send them. (You do send these surveys, right?)

Make sure you ask attendees what they liked and didn’t like about your broadcast, which parts they found most useful, and if they have additional questions about any of the topics.

Once you receive feedback, take it seriously. Use the advice your audience gives you to inform future webinars. This will help you craft better, more useful events down the road.

Webinar Cost

This is one of the most overlooked webinar metrics out there.

People spend so much time planning, promoting, and hosting their events, they forget to ask themselves, “How much are these shindigs actually costing us?” Big mistake.

You need to track every expense your webinars incur. This includes the cost of a webinar platform, the time you and/or your employees spend crafting content, the money you pay influential people to speak during your event, and anything else you can think of.

Fortunately, webinars are usually low-cost marketing tools. Most cost between $100 and $3,000 to produce. And if you use a tool like ClickMeeting, you can record the event, then use the footage to continue promoting your company and products for years to come.

Webinar ROI

Finally, track the return on investment (ROI) that your webinars produce. That way you know if they’re actually benefiting your business, or simply causing you unnecessary stress.

How do you track webinar ROI? That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish…

If you want to generate leads, track the number of quality prospects your events produce. If you want to close more deals, look at the number of paying customers who can be traced back to one of your online events. If you want to boost brand awareness, keep an eye on the number of attendees, social media impressions, etc. that your gatherings produce.

Then compare these things to the amount of time and money you spend hosting webinars and ask yourself, “Is the effort and expense worth the return I get?”

How Do You Track the Webinar Metrics That Matter?

The answer to this question will depend on the software solutions you have at your disposal.

If you host your webinars with ClickMeeting, for example, you can simply look at our platform’s analytics dashboard to learn how many people registered and attended your live broadcast, how long each attendee stuck around for, what they thought of your event, etc.

Of course, most other webinar tools have analytics dashboards as well. A quick peek at them should give you a good idea of where your business stands in terms of webinar metrics.

Here’s a more interesting question: what do you do with your webinar metrics once you have them? First you study the data. Then you use said data to improve your future events.

Maybe your landing page to registration conversion rate is subpar. Do your best to optimize this page before you host another webinar. Maybe your attendees didn’t like the way you handled your last Q&A session—and let you know in the post-webinar survey. Consider changing the way you give answers before you speak to a live audience again.

Webinar metrics will only help you improve your business if you use them. So don’t just look at the data. Let the information shape your webinar strategy in the future. 

Supercharge Your Business With Webinar Metrics

Webinars have the power to turn ordinary businesses into industry leaders.

Why is this true? Because webinars allow anyone with a bit of expertise to connect with and engage their target audience. Once this happens, they sky’s the limit.

But here’s the thing: to find success with this marketing and sales channel, you have to track webinar metrics. This will give you the details you need to improve your broadcasts and make sure that your attendees actually enjoy the content you work so hard to create for them.

So take a moment to study the KPIs mentioned in this article. You’ll be glad you did!

Looking for a webinar solution that’s both easy to use and will give you access to in-depth attendee data? Give ClickMeeting a try for free for 30 days. Our platform is jam packed with top-level features you can use to promote your business and drive more revenue.