
While hosting webinars is no longer just an option, businesses should also check whether the time and effort that goes into the planning and execution of a webinar has paid off. For that, it is absolutely critical to review certain metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that define the success of a webinar.
In this blog post, we have listed some important metrics and KPIs to know and measure the effectiveness of webinars. Let’s dive in and explore this further.
What are Webinar Metrics and KPIs
Webinar Metrics and KPIs are those data points that businesses use to assess the success of a webinar.
Although the terms ‘webinar metrics’ and ‘KPI’ are different, they are inter-connected. In simple terms, a metric is a way to measure the impact of a particular task, action or strategy, whereas KPIs are certain metrics that help us understand how well an activity has performed.
Why Track Webinar Metrics and KPIs
Webinar metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are vital for hosts to get an overview of everything that has occurred before, during, and after the webinar. From gauging the registration rate, attendance rate, and engagement rates to post-event follow-up activity, it provides valuable insights into every aspect of the event that webinar hosts need to be aware of.
Let’s say your webinar attracts a lot of attendees, but some of them don’t interact with your webinar content at all. How do you, then, find out about this? By tracking and analyzing your webinar metrics and KPIs.
Now assume you get tons of webinar registrations from your promotional campaigns, but the number of people who end up attending the webinar is comparatively low. Your webinar metrics and KPIs will help you dig deep and understand why this may have been the case.
Remember that tracking metrics and KPIs are just as important as hosting the webinar itself, because they allow you to constantly improve the experience and maximize the ROI of your webinars.
Top 13 Webinar Metrics and KPIs to Track
1) Number of Registrants:
The most fundamental metric to track, measure and improve is the registration rate i.e. the number of people registering for the webinar. This registration comes from your website/event landing page and the efforts you put into marketing.
If your webinar has a high registration rate, it means that you have succeeded in attracting your target audience. It is a must-track metric for hosts, as it directly reflects the effectiveness of the promotional efforts.
2) Total Cost of a Webinar:

You host the webinar, create content for it, market it, and undertake a variety of other tasks to make it successful, right? But all of this comes at a cost, literally, so it is important to estimate the cost and play by the budget you assign for it. Tracking webinar costs gives you an idea of areas where you may have overspent, where you fell short, and where additional efforts were needed.
To estimate the total webinar costs effectively, you’ll have to track a variety of expenses incurred along the entire webinar journey.
Evaluate the cost of webinar advertising and promotions across different channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Also factor in the cost of other tools and platforms that are involved in the process like email marketing tools, webinar platforms, etc. Include the cost of any additional gadgets or equipment you will need – special mics, headsets, camera, lighting solutions, etc.
Make sure to also include additional expenses you may incur like speaker fees, fees paid to any specialists that you may need to bring in for the webinar, and any other expenses you incur along the way.
3) Email Open Rate:

Since email marketing continues to play a crucial role in webinar marketing, businesses rely heavily on this strategy for webinar promotion and boosting registration. This is why you need to keep track of how many people open your webinar invitation and how many interact with the content.
If you witness high email open rates, it means that your subject line was impactful, the topic was of interest to people and that your email marketing campaigns were effective. Tracking this metric allows you to continuously improve your email advertising campaign, resulting in more effective campaigns.
4) Attendance Rate:
The attendance rate is the percentage of your registered participants who actually attend the event. It is also called the ‘attendee turnout ratio’. This metric helps you understand how many people were genuinely interested in attending your event.
Attendance at physical events is traditionally tracked manually, whereas at online events, it can be tracked automatically using a robust webinar software.
Here is a simple formula for calculating attendance rate:
Attendance Rate = Number of Attendees Number of Registrants X 100
For example, If 100 people registered for an event and 60 of them attended the webinar, then
60100 X 100 =60%
5) Attendee Dropout Ratio:
This metric shows the percentage of attendees who leave the session before the webinar ends. To calculate the dropout rate, divide the number of dropouts by the total number of registered participants and multiply that by 100.
For example, if 100 people registered for your webinar program and 10 of them left the session midway, then the dropout rate would be:
10100 X 100 =10%
Analyzing dropout rates helps you understand why some people may have dropped out mid-session. It could be that the content wasn’t engaging, the presentation wasn’t appealing, the webinar was too lengthy or any other factor.
6) Engagement Metrics:

This is a crucial metric that allows you to know how well your audience interacted with your content, speaker, brand, as well as overall session.
Polls, Q&A, and chat options are some metrics that you need to look at to gauge participants’ engagement levels. With engagement metrics, you get to better understand whether your audience asked questions, showed interest in polls, and interacted with you through the chat feature, during the entire session.
7) Webinar Session Watch Time:
Webinars use engagement tools to create an interactive environment for people, but it is still important to measure the time people spend watching the webinar.
After all, it is ideal that your audience will be part of the entire session, as in, they should be attending the entire session without abandoning it midway, right?
In fact, webinar viewing time reflects how engaging your content, presentation, and speakers were.
A high viewing time indicates that attendees found the content valuable and engaging, while a low viewing time indicates that the webinar content was too lengthy or not as engaging as it should have been.
8) Conversion Rate:
Conversion rate is the percentage of the audience who complete a desired action, such as purchasing your product or service, downloading a resource, signing up a contact form, etc.
If your conversion rate is high, it means your webinar strategy and all your efforts worked and your business goals are accomplished.
9) Attendee Feedback:

If you want to know how your webinar went overall, it pays to collect feedback from attendees, post-webinar. Feedback from your guests will give you valuable insight into various aspects of your webinar such as presentation quality, the relevance of content, the speaker’s engagement tactics, and more.
You can get a better understanding of what the audience likes and dislikes. Plus, you get to know what aspects of your webinar hit the mark and where it can use some improvements.
10) Follow-up Engagement:
Just because your webinar concludes, it doesn’t mean that you no longer need to stay connected with your audience. Even after the event ends, audience engagement should ideally continue.
Strategies and tactics used to communicate with attendees after a webinar ends include sending ‘thank you’ emails, sharing event recordings, providing additional resources like ebooks, white papers & more, and encouraging them to stay connected with your brand through social media or online communities.
And yes, well-crafted follow-up techniques provide opportunities for B2B lead nurturing, building long-term relationships with them and converting leads into customers.
Also by following up with attendees after the event, you can build brand loyalty by continuing to deliver value even after the event has wrapped up.
11) Cost Per Lead (CPL):

Cost per lead (CPL) in webinars is the average amount of money you spend per lead. It is usually calculated by dividing the total cost of your webinar campaign (including marketing, production, and more) by the number of leads generated.
For example, if you spend $5,000 on a webinar and generate 100 leads in return, your CPL will be $50.
12) Webinar Replay:
Webinar replays are pre-recorded clips shared with the participants after the live session ends. These are recordings of live webinars made available as on-demand videos.
Its main purpose is to allow the registrants who could not attend the live session to gain access to the webinar content. That’s why it is important to track the webinar replay metric, as it helps you understand whether people who were unable to attend the webinar live, watched the recording and found value in it.
The webinar replay metric gives you insights into:
- Total number of attendees who viewed the replay
- Their average viewing duration
- Number of replay views
- Where the audience stopped watching the recording
13) Webinar ROI:

This is the ultimate and most essential metric you need to track. Hosting a webinar typically requires an investment, so it is crucial that you measure the Return on Investment (ROI) from it. While your webinar goals may vary, measuring ROI is crucial for long-term webinar success.
To know how to calculate the return on investment of your event, check out this complete guide.
Conclusion
Webinar metrics and KPIs are all about gaining in-depth insights into each aspect of your webinar’s performance to measure its success and identify areas for improvement. In order to make data-driven decisions for future events, you must track key metrics and KPIs to evaluate the effectiveness of your webinars.
Remember, careful tracking of webinar metrics is important because it helps you understand whether you were successful in engaging your audience, if or not your attendees derived real value from the content, whether or not you were successful in accomplishing your primary goal, and so much more.
From attendee registration rate and total event cost to engagement rate and conversion rate, every metric will provide valuable insights into the return on investment of your program.
Frequently asked questions
Webinar duration cannot be referred to as a direct metric, but it can be an indirect one. It indicates whether your audience was fully paying attention throughout the live online session. However, restricting the webinar to under 60 minutes will reduce the chances of people leaving the event midway.
To increase your webinar registration rate, follow these steps:
- Define your ideal attendee
- Keep the registration page user-friendly
- Offer discounts to encourage signups
- Highlight the distinct benefits participants will gain
- Leverage multi-promotional channels
- Run paid ads