The year I turned 30, I started a new job. The role was a leadership position with strategic responsibility for marketing, communications and PR – all things that excited me.
Also hidden in the job description? Event planning for a festival and various smaller events. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to take a crash course in event marketing.
Event marketing is the planning and implementation of an event with the aim of promoting a brand and its products and services. Events are opportunities to increase brand awareness, engage audiences including new and existing customers, and generate leads.
Since the goals fall into the marketing area, the responsibility usually lies with the marketing team. Planning an event that attracts prospects and has an impact starts with your event marketing budget.
I’ll show you how to create an event marketing budget and what should be included, along with tips from event planning experts.
Act? Let’s get started.
Table of contents
How much of your marketing budget should be spent on events?
First, how much of your marketing budget should you allocate to events? That’s what experts say Companies spend around 10-20% of their marketing budget on events average.
Found Gartner On average, companies spend 17.1% of their marketing budget on event marketing Found Amex The number is probably closer to 14%. This has been on the rise, particularly in the last two years. A Zuddl survey found that over 50% of marketers expect budget increases.
Of course, this number depends on many factors. What is your industry? What is the goal and ROI of each event? Is the budget balanced by ticket or sponsorship income? Is your event in-person, virtual or hybrid? Consider all of these questions when planning.
Event marketing budget formula
Let’s take a rough percentage of 16% and use that to calculate your event marketing budget.
Annual marketing budget x 0.16 = event marketing budget
So if your marketing budget is $1 million, calculate 1 million x 0.16 = $160,000 to estimate a good event budget.
What is an event marketing budget for?
Calculating a budget based on an industry average will only get you so far. To propose a realistic budget, you also need to research the estimated costs that will be involved in making your vision a reality.
According to Knowland State of the conference industry in 2023Rising event costs are one of the biggest concerns for organizers. Nearly half (46.3%) of event professionals said rising costs were their biggest obstacle when planning events.
Here’s how Zuddl found that B2B companies have broken down their event budgets.
Here you will find out what you should consider when planning your event.
1. Venue and food/drink costs
Venue and food/drink are typically the largest budget item for events, eating up 15-35% of your total budget. This goes far beyond the room rental. Don’t forget to check for any hidden costs that might pop up.
Here are some factors you should consider:
- Venue. Venues in major markets will price accordingly. While some organizers save costs by moving their events to secondary markets, this can impact attendance. Conference participants Evaluate venue location and travel/accommodation costs as two of their top three priorities when deciding whether to attend an in-person event.
- Food/drinks. Do you offer coffee, snacks and meals or do you expect participants to purchase them themselves? Your choice impacts the event experience, especially if attendees have to leave the event to purchase food. A Bizzabo survey found that catering alone accounted for 20% of the event budget.
- A/V requirements (Audio Visual). For any space you rent, you’ll likely need a lighting or IT technician to keep everything running smoothly. 55.4% of event planners expect A/V costs to rise increase by over 20% in the near future. Bizzabo reports that event planners spend almost 8% of their event budget on AV alone.
- Stage design. If you’re hosting a keynote stage, think about the stage design and costs to achieve the look you want.
2. Entertainment/Speaker Fees
Marketers spend an average of 15% of their event budget on speakers and entertainment. Be sure to budget for a fee and possibly accommodation for your keynote speakers, and consider booking a band or other entertainment to set the mood.
3. Technology
Technology has become an important part of the event experience. If you run a hybrid or virtual eventTechnology determines the experience and should make up a larger percentage of the budget.
Consider these event statistics:
Technology budget items to consider include registration and event management software, live or After event streamingand a mobile app.
4. Marketing
If your target audience isn’t there, your event won’t be able to increase brand awareness or offers. Therefore, marketing is key to ensuring the right audience hears your message. Consider these costs and channels to attract participants.
- Digital advertising campaigns. Digital ads are one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to market an event. For B2C events, consider location or interests when targeting your demographic for digital ads. In the B2B sector, use social media retargeting or keyword search to get in touch with relevant target groups.
- Direct mail campaign. Direct mail is more expensive, but can be very effective when inviting members or existing customers to your event. Printed invitations stand out from the digital noise and add a special touch to your event.
- Print and out-of-home advertising. If you are hosting a consumer event such as a food festival, consider local ad placement on billboards, buses, or in local magazines to reach interested parties.
- Sponsorship and cross-marketing. Work with industry groups or local partners to market your event to similar audiences. This can be free (the best part!) or involve sponsorship costs, e.g. B. placing an event advertisement in a relevant email newsletter.
- Agencies and consultants. Accordingly, almost half of event planners work with a marketing agency for their events Amex 2024 Global Meetings and Events Forecast. An event marketing agency can market your event through creative design, promotional strategies in markets you don’t know well, or PR for media coverage.
- Own and organic channels. Keep in mind that some of the best tactics like email marketing, organic social media marketing, and word of mouth have little to no cost.
Keep in mind that new events require more marketing effort than established ones because they don’t yet have brand awareness and repeat attendees.
Consider allocating 10-15% of your event budget to marketing a recurring event and 15-20% of your budget to marketing a new event.
5. Signage and Swag
Don’t forget the little things! Printed signage helps attendees navigate your event smoothly and can drive more traffic on the street for ticketed events.
Name tags, logo pop-up banners, and other small touches serve both a functional and aesthetic purpose.
Giveaways and giveaways help build excitement for your event and give attendees a reason to remember the event afterward.
6. Accessibility and sustainability
Nearly 60% of event marketers have a plan to promote accessibility and inclusivity. Zuddl found. Extras may include subtitling and interpretation for sign language and multiple languages. Other costs may go into technology or venue choice to achieve your inclusivity goals.
While sustainability is still a lower priority (is prioritized by 34% of organizers), it grows. B2B event participants rate sustainable practices as the fifth most important factor when attending an event by exceeding registration costs, exhibitors, and speakers/content.
Strategies may include choosing eco-friendly venues, sourcing locally, or hosting virtual events. Another strategy could be to invest in a refillable water station and branded water bottles instead of plastic bottles. Like accessibility, sustainability can affect multiple budget categories such as venue, food and beverage, and swag.
7. Emergency and insurance funds
It happens. Snowstorms, venue damage, speaker cancellations, or higher-than-expected costs can cause you to go over budget or even have to cancel without recouping the costs. Allocate at least 5% of your budget to an emergency fund and insure your event in case you need to cancel and issue refunds.
How to create an event marketing budget
Now that you understand the main categories, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. If this is your first time creating an event marketing budget, follow these steps.
1. Define your event goals and objectives.
First, discuss your goals and objectives for the event (or events). Saying your goals out loud will help you formulate a vision and get approval from higher-ups for the budget you need.
2. Research and cost estimation.
Next, put on your research hat and research how much it will cost to implement this vision. You may have already been given a budget from above and would like to check whether this budget is sufficient to achieve your goals.
Review the budget items listed above and contact vendors to estimate your costs. Some of these investigations may be informal, while others may be necessary a formal RFP process.
Although you can do some of this research online, Googling will only get you so far. I’ve found that calling a vendor or visiting a venue can be much more effective than researching online. Call other marketing professionals in your network and ask them about venues and tips for a good experience.
3. Determine fixed and variable costs.
When it comes to event planning, some costs are fixed while others are variable.
For example, the room rent is fixed, while the food per person varies depending on the number of registrations. Identifying these variations will help you understand how much money you need
This is also a good time to differentiate between must-have budget items and wish list items. For example, you might specify that a mobile app is non-negotiable, but a flower budget might be a wishlist item that you only add if you reach a certain sales threshold.
4. Identify potential revenue streams.
When creating your budget, estimate how much you want to bring in to cover your costs. The most common sources are ticket revenue, sponsorships and merchandise. Estimate your target sales and the minimum amount you need to bring in to break even.
5. Write a budget proposal and finalize your budget.
After all of the steps above, write a formal budget proposal outlining your event goals, budget breakdown, expected revenue, and fixed and variable costs.
If you have already received a budget number from management, you will need to present convincing arguments for increasing this amount. Meet with leadership, answer questions about the proposed budget, and consider creative adjustments until all parties are satisfied.
6. Track your budget.
Once your budget is approved, you can start executing! Planning an event takes months or even years, so tracking your expenses is crucial to success. There are different ways to track your budget.
Use a spreadsheet to track your budget.
The simplest method is sometimes the best. Create a detailed budget spreadsheet with all projected expenses and income and add your income and expenses as they come in.
Start by downloading the eight from HubSpot You can find free budget tracking templates here.
Use budgeting software.
Dedicated budget and financial management software can help you track your budget plan, expenses and income in one place.
While common accounting software like QuickBooks can meet your needs, a special event tool like Planning capsule, EventProor Cvent can also manage budgeting in addition to registrations, project management and other event functions.
Integrate it into your marketing tracking.
Since event marketing is part of your overall marketing strategy, there is a good case to be made for incorporating spend tracking and ROI into your broader marketing tracking.
For example, if you use HubSpot to manage your marketing campaigns, this is possible Manage a campaign budget in the Marketing Hub to promote your event. The tool tracks your total budget, total spend, and remaining budget in real time – and how many conversions resulted from the campaign.
7. Track and measure ROI.
Event ROI can be very difficult to measure. Registration numbers, attendee satisfaction surveys, session/booth engagement, and social media mentions are good metrics to measure success.
But something is even more valuable than reporting event registration numbers or budget totals: tracking the effectiveness of events on your KPIs like leads and sales.
If your goal is to market your brand and drive growth, you need to look deeper. When you track ROI, the results can be impressive. Participants of the Zuddl survey reported that 44% see 1x to 2x ROI, while 56% see greater than 3x ROI.
When it comes time for next year’s event budget cycle, you’ll need to demonstrate that the event had some impact to justify the cost. Here’s one way marketers do Ryan Gunn used HubSpot to track the impact of in-person events on their pipeline.
“Measurements are always difficult because events typically do not produce immediate results,” he shared Drew BushSenior Events Marketing Manager To drive.
“The impacted pipeline and positive feedback from customers and attendees will help drive future events and budgets, but it is difficult to define. I typically measure ROI by attendance and pipeline, deals and upselling influenced by the people who attended our event.”
Tips for creating the right event marketing budget
I know I needed inspiration and mentorship to become a successful event planner. I asked experts for their best tips for event planning and budgeting. Here are the nuggets they shared.
1. Align stakeholders.
Creating an event marketing budget is often a collaborative, cross-departmental effort. It requires collaboration with stakeholders in the initial budgeting process and continuing throughout the event lifecycle.
“One of the biggest challenges is aligning the priorities of an event with key stakeholders,” Bush said.
“A good way to align on key priorities is through kickoff meetings with stakeholders. In some cases our teams followed suit In the RACI model and others, we had weekly syncs with leaders to track progress.”
2. Limit your ICP.
Understanding your audience is important for a successful event.
For example, knowing your audience values networking hours may lead you to prioritize food and beverage budgets when networking.
Conduct surveys year after year so you have the data to create the event your audience wants – and increase engagement and results.
Knowing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) can also help you market your event more effectively and cost-effectively.
“Our product team has worked really hard to determine our ICP so we know who to contact,” Bush shared. “I’m a big fan of social media, especially LinkedIn. This works well for our current team as we have our ICP established.”
3. Consolidate suppliers.
“When looking for a venue, choose a venue that has all the other vendors in-house.” recommended Lady Jane AcquahSpecial Events Manager for Integral Care.
“In my experience, if you have a venue and have to bring in people to bring in furniture, do the flower arranging, do the audiovisual or even catering, it’s expensive. But if you have a venue that can offer all of those services, it definitely brings the price down.”
The same goes for technology. The more you can consolidate technical platforms for registration, event management, budgeting, advertising and analytics, the more time and money you can save.
4. Leverage relationships.
Even though some costs are fixed, never underestimate the importance of relationships in creating an effective event marketing budget. Always work with good providers and don’t be afraid to negotiate additional services or cost reductions.
Relationships and partnerships are also a free or low-cost way to market your event. Consider cross-marketing and strategic referrals or event promotions from partners and long-standing contacts to generate interest in the event.
Increase the impact with a well-planned and executed event.
In the years I’ve been planning events, I’ve learned, above all, to remain flexible.
No matter how well you plan, there will always be obstacles and unexpected expenses.
Detail orientation is important, but an event planner who is aggressive, creative, and good at negotiating will be successful in managing the event budget.
From determining how much to allocate to tracking expenses to measuring ROI, creating a comprehensive event marketing budget prepares you for a seamless and impactful experience.
Remember to be flexible, consult experts when necessary, and always keep your event goals and audience in mind.