Virtual event budgets The template is free and includes a guide

In addition the event planners have to deal constantly changing expectations. They must compete for attention spans while working with ever-eroding budgets. Additionally, they need to demonstrate that they've earned a return on investment (ROI) of their events, and they're generally expected to generate the same type of engagement like you'd experience at events that are held in person.

Below, we'll cover how to budget for the virtual event you're planning, which line items you can strike in your spreadsheet, as well as how you can track the results of your event -- in order to get more substantial budget for the next one!

Create copies of our complimentary budgeting templates for events.

In this article

1.    What is the reason to have an budget for your event (especially in hybrid and virtual occasions)
2.    The average cost for hosting the virtual event
3.    Cost breakdown for virtual events
4.    What are you required to pull off an effective virtual event
5.    What is the best way to gauge the impact of your virtual event
6.    Incorporate human-like touches to make your virtual event feel IRL
7.    FAQs about budgeting for a virtual event
8.    It's time to start started with event planning

The reasons you should have an estimated budget (especially for hybrid and virtual events)

Virtual events can be far cheaper to organize than traditional occasions. After all, there's no need to rent chairs or space at an event and printing equipment. You can also sort accommodation, or even set up charcuterie boards.

But, establishing an appropriate budget will allow you to make strategic decisions about the event that you're planning online -- from where you can cut expenses to locating possible sources of sponsorship as well as cash flow.

When you budget for your event prior to the date, you can decide which line items are mission critical, which can be cut, and in which areas it is possible to come up with a new way of surprising and delighting attendees.

The average cost for hosting a virtual event

The cost for hosting a virtual conference is dependent on a number of factors -- from the length of the event and the number of participants and speakers.

Later on in this post, we'll go over the different costs involved in hosting a virtual event, to help you better estimate the cost for hosting your own event. However, for now, we'll outline the information you should expect to pay to pay for hosting a virtual event

• If you are hosting a smaller webinar, with more than 500 participants, you can generally be prepared to spend between $2000 and $10,000.
• A single day virtual conference that includes sessions and virtual breakout rooms, expect expenses to be between to $4,000 to $25,000..
• For a multi-day virtual conference with multiple sessions, break-out rooms, discussions as well as recorded material You can anticipate to pay between between $50,000 to 150,000.

You can see it's quite a large variation.

Let's look at the various elements to be considered when planning the budget for your virtual event, to help you estimate the costs more accurately.

Cost breakdown for virtual event

Cost breakdown examples to plan a virtual event

What are the steps you must take to create a memorable virtual event

It is technically possible to organize a virtual meeting with little less than an online meeting space, a camera, and a microphone. But, if you're trying to ensure an seamlessand successful virtual experience, there are a few expenses that you might want to consider making.

Gear

It's not that difficult to find equipment to make online speakers look polished and professional -However, it will take some.

Instead, have presenters set in advance, preparing the following:

• Microphones that ensure your viewers can be heard each phrase ( prices start at $40)
• Video cameras that are crisp ( prices start at $24)
• Ring lights are used to regulate any lighting issues ( prices start at $30)
• If needed, green screens are available ( prices start at $18)

If you're running an event on a budget that's less expensive You may be able bypass one or two of these items -- just make sure to check speakers' pre-existing setups ahead of time and instructing their staff on ways to maximize their lighting as well as levels of background noise during the celebration.

Learn more about gear

Virtual Event Hosting Software

You can think of event hosting software as the virtual venue in which your event will take place. Similar to physical venues various platforms provide a range of different features.

According to Markletic Here's the amount you could expect to spend in virtual event platform costs each month:

• Between $50 and $250 , you can hold small virtual meetings with up to 100 attendees per conference.
• Between $600 and $8,000, you can host larger virtual events with 500-2,500 guests.
• Between $25,000 to $40,000 is the minimum amount needed to host larger events with over 3,000 attendees.

Virtual event platforms typically charge per user, and have different pricing levels according to your virtual event needs. (Think the number of guests, marketing and promotion features and security measures, for instance.)

Make sure to take note of exactly what features your platform for events comes with. Though some platforms could appear to be more expensive on a surface scale -- appear to be higher priced than other platforms however, they might have extra features that actually will make them cheaper over the long term.

Any other software needs

If you opt for one that doesn't offer these functions, however, make sure you have included the following expenses within your budget to cover the following:

• Landing page hostingstarting at $39/month for an online landing page that is hosted under your own domain. Enterprise plans, for companies that host multiple events of a large scale, may cost you up to $469/month.
• Event registration forms: free for free events, otherwise expect to pay an ticketing fee (for example, $0.99 and 2% of the cost for tickets) per ticket or an annual subscription that starts with $39.90 per month.
• Email management software: beginning at $3 per month to send 500 emails per month. Enterprise and premium plans generally cost between $136-150 per user for a month.
• software for engagement of audiences beginning with $ 8 per month for audiences of up to 50. Pricing for the Enterprise plan ranges from $199/month all the way to 1,000 per month.

Speakers

Since virtual events require less time and travel than in-person events, most keynote speakers charge about 50percent of their live fee for virtual events. What exactly a speaker will charge you, though, will usually depend on their experience and how well-known they are.

Based on the Big Speak, you can expect to be charged:

• Between $2,500 and $5,000 to a relative new expert in the space
• Seven,500-$10,000 to an experienced keynote or keynote speaker
• Between $10,000 and $30,000 for a thought leader with huge following or previously published books
• Between $20,000 and $75,000 for the most famous.
• $100,000 to $200,000 for well-known celebrity

Content

If you're planning to record any video or audio for your occasion, it's important to factor production costs into your budget.

For example, to pre-record at a studio, anticipate to spend anywhere between 375-$500 an hour for filming. If you're pre-recording from a remote location the cost will drop by $125-$200 an hour.

Either way, warns Zephan Blaxberg, the CEO of ZMBMedia, the video production studio ZMBMedia, expect that your costs for production will at least three times more than you initially anticipated. If you want to edit your video post-production Budget between $100 and $200 for an hour.

"Keep an eye on a 1:3 ratio of pre-event recordings: for every minute of recording, you will receive approximately three times as much amount of time charged. While your host may speak for only 60 minutes, the livestream tech is expected to arrive one hour before to setup the studio and begin preparing. They will also be staying for at least an hour following the recording has been completed to back up footage before beginning the editing process."

Marketing and advertising

Do you ask yourself (and your team! ):

• What amount of time the marketing team of our company will be able to devote to the event?
• How can we advertise the event to prospective attendees?
• Will we spend money on promotions on social media?
• What is our marketing email going to look like?
• We will work with influential people to get the word out regarding the event?
• What is our post-event advertising strategy? be like?

Remember that advertising and marketing can be some of the biggest expenses when hosting a virtual occasion.

"The largest expenditure we make is for advertising as well as the thought leaders/experts we bring on as speakers," says Miles DePaul Director of Demand Generation at Superside. "This is where the worth of the Superside brand is realized. Once people get more acquainted with the Superside brand and take advantage of our information, our participation improves, and the event budget will begin to decrease. Advertising costs are reduced since the cost per click decreases with increased brand recognition, as well as more organic promotions pay off. We save on speaker fees because great speakers want to work with us, or they are willing to give discounts."

After you've developed an idea, you'll know better where you can use your current resources (such as your marketing staff and existing email marketing software) or the areas where you might need to spend extra (for instance, on partnership with influencers, or on landing pages hosting).

Swag or gifts

• A notepad with a brand name that allows note-taking ( $4.66)
• Custom socks ( $9.78)
• A custom tote bag ($3.99)
• A plain mailer bag ($0.87)

Although shipping costs will differ depending on the location of attendees and the contents inside, each of these swag bags would cost you $19.30, or just under $20.

Sponsors or partners

It is a good opportunity to reduce the costs of your virtual event budget. (We would love to know.)

Opportunities for sponsorship may be distinct for virtual events as those for live events however, they are still available. In the days leading up to your event begins, sponsors may be highlighted across the marketing for your event prior to it, including your event web page and social media pages, company newsletter, and reminder emails. It is also possible to send attendees email notifications of any offers from partners or sponsors.

During the occasion, you may display sponsors' logos on the slides, run sponsored polls on their behalf, host a discussion between your sponsors or feature their short-form videos. If they'd like to offer sponsored products to attendees they can be included in your swag bags.

Finally, don't forget to feature sponsors on your post-event material which includes on-demand video as well as post-event emails, social media updates, as well as short video clips. This way, you're actually giving value to your sponsors, because they will continue to get broadcast time even after the event has wrapped.

More event sources

How do you measure the impact of your virtual event?

You're probably aware by now, there are many expenses involved into hosting a great virtual event. To prove the ROI of your venture and to secure funding for future events, it's critical to track and demonstrate the effectiveness of your event.

A few metrics you might consider tracking include:

• Awareness of brand determined by event registrations, website traffic, event impressions, and social media engagements.
• Customers and leads generated by events: tracked via event sign-ups, responses to survey questions or any other actions performed by new leads (such as starting a free trial).
• Audience education Measured by the amount of time that guests attend and the level of attendee engagement during discussions, Q&As and chats.

"Our strategies for events are the best in delivering benefits across the entire funnel and influencing customers to not only become problem-aware but also to influence more interactions with sales and ultimately the revenue" DePaul says. DePaul.

Then he adds:

"The most important metrics we analyze when it comes to any event, whether it's virtual or live, are (1) the number of people who register from the ideal profile of our customers (ICP), (2) the number of people who attended from the ICP, (3) opportunities created from accounts after engagement at an event and (4) the revenue generated by accounts with engagement at an event.
 
  A few of the factors that are down the funnel, such as designs subscriptions, will typically will take a while, and this will just be just one aspect of an ROI calculation. The most reliable indicator will be if we can bring visitors back to our website and consume more of our content as well as take actions at the bottom of the funnel such as visiting our pricing pages or asking for an demo."

Incorporate human-like touches to make your virtual experience feel IRL

When you're running a virtual event It can be very simple to overlook the fact that real viewers are behind screens in the crowd, making it easy for guests to lose focus or become distracted.

DePaul and the Superside team understand the importance of thoughtful, personal elements as they plan their events online. "Throughout the entire process we are always trying to include a human element by using things such as direct mail, gifting or user-generated content or videos," he says.

Here are a few methods to make your audience feel more connected to the event, other viewers and speakers.

• Utilize tools for engagement with the audience -such as online chat or interactive survey as well as Q&A segments -- to make sure that your event will be a two-way conversation rather than an unison monologue.
• Invite attendees to meet and chat in breakout rooms. You can also create a LinkedIn group so attendees are able to connect with each other after the conference. This can add a social aspect (and additional value!) to the virtual event.
• Send out swag bags, as well as use giveaways to encourage people to participate. Small things like this can foster excitement and keep attendees engaged all through the day.

DePaul's continues:

"For example, our largest summit in 2022 called Momentum Summit is heavily advertised using short video selfies from our speakers. We used in both ads and personalized email messages that were 1:1. If visitors visit the page for landing you'll see videos from the speakers as well as from our team talking through the issues we'd like to address during the summit, not just a static text-heavy landing page.

We also encourage our most VIP participants to come along and invite colleagues to join them using things such as snack boxes, or the lunch option at the time of the occasion. In the actual event We encourage peer-to-peer interactions through discussion in the event chatroom, roundtables for executives with smaller groups or inviting them into our Superside community, where conversations continue well beyond the event."

Budgeting questions for virtual events.

Have a few lingering questions concerning budgeting your next event online? Below, we'll tackle a few commonly asked questions and link you for additional resources that can help in your preparation.

What is the typical budget for virtual events?

According to Statista 34% of marketing professionals say they spend between $500 and $1,000 per person for an online conference.

What is the budget you can use for virtual events?

How does hosting virtual events earn money?

What should I look at in a virtual events platform?

It's time to start planning your event

Planning a virtual event could be a lot of work However, it gives you unique opportunities to expand your audience, partner with both speakers and sponsors who are creative as well as delight guests. Aside from hosting, 's platform allows you to create a stunning landing page, automate email reminders for events, connect with your guests, connect with your own marketing software as well as analyze event post-event analytics.