Trade show ROI: how to work out whether a show paid for itself

A trade show's return on investment is the gross profit from the sales it led to, minus everything the show cost, divided by what it cost. That sounds simple, and most businesses still get it wrong in one of three ways: they count revenue instead of profit, they leave out half the costs, or they stop counting before the sales have closed.

Count the full cost

The stand space is the obvious cost, and it's the biggest single one. In the US, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research found space was 40.5% of exhibitors' spending in its latest survey. Its fuller 2012 breakdown shows where the rest goes:

One thing that list leaves out is your staff's time. Three people away for four days, including setup, is a real cost, so add it.

Count profit, not revenue

If the show leads to an order worth $45,000 and your margin is 30%, the show earned you $13,500, not $45,000. Measuring against revenue makes every show look several times better than it is.

A worked example

These numbers are made up, but the shape is typical.

What the show cost:

What came of it: 120 conversations at the stand, 40 of them genuine prospects, 12 quotes within three months, and 4 orders by six months at an average of $45,000 each, with a 30% margin.

At six months: 4 orders × $45,000 × 30% = $54,000 gross profit. ROI = ($54,000 − $28,700) ÷ $28,700 = 88%.

At three months, only one of those orders had closed. Gross profit was $13,500, so ROI = ($13,500 − $28,700) ÷ $28,700 = −53%. The same show looked like a loss.

That's the trap. In a business where a sale takes months, judging a show at the end of the quarter makes good shows look bad, and you end up cutting the ones that work.

The other numbers worth knowing, from the same example:

• Cost per conversation: $28,700 ÷ 120 = $239
• Cost per genuine prospect: $718
• Cost per quote: $2,392
• Cost per order: $7,175

Compare those with what you pay to win work elsewhere. I've written about what you can afford to pay for an enquiry.

Why most shows are never measured properly

You've probably heard that 80% of trade show leads are never followed up. I tried to find where that number came from, and it can't be traced to any actual study, so I won't repeat it. The real surveys are telling enough. In EXHIBITOR magazine's 2020 survey of US exhibitors, just 49% could track their show leads through the sales cycle. That was up from 28% in 2010. In its 2015 survey, 62% of show leads were contacted within five days, and only 22% of exhibitors replied within a day or two.

If you can't connect a show to the orders it produced, you can't work out its return. All you have is a feeling.

How to measure your next show

This is the method I'd use. There's no industry standard for it, but it works:

1. Before the show, add up every cost, including staff time.
2. At the show, record every lead in your CRM the same day, tagged with the show's name.
3. When a lead becomes a quote or an order, keep the tag on it.
4. Count at three, six and twelve months: quotes, orders and gross profit, each against the show's total cost.
5. Decide next year's shows on the twelve-month figure, not the three-month one.

Keep repeat business from existing customers you met at the show separate, so it doesn't flatter the numbers.

Work it out for your show

Take your last show's costs, count the orders it led to and their gross profit, and run the sum. The trade show ROI calculator does the arithmetic for you, at three, six and twelve months. If you don't know how many orders it led to, that's your first fix, and it's one I've covered in trade show marketing: before, at and after the show.

Setting up the follow-up and tracking for your shows is part of our trade show marketing work.

How we help with this: Conferences and trade shows →