Virtual event budget Template and Guide for Virtual Event

In addition, event planners are dealing with ever-changing expectations. They have to compete with shorter attention spans, while working on ever-shrinking budgets. Also, they must prove the ROI (ROI) of the events they host, and are typically expected to create the same type of engagement like you'd experience at an in-person event virtually.

In the next section, we'll discuss how to budget for the virtual event you're planning, which are the line items that you can eliminate from your spreadsheet, and how you can track the results of the event so you can get a larger budget for your following one!

Make copies of our complimentary templates for budgeting your event.

In this article

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

Why you need an event budget (especially for hybrid and virtual occasions)

Virtual events are far cheaper to organize than traditional events. In the end, there's no need to rent chairs or a space for an event, print materials, sort accommodations, or set out boards of charcuterie.

Setting a budget can help you make informed decisions regarding your virtual event -- from where to reduce costs, to discovering potential sources of sponsorship and cash flow.

When you budget for the event in advance You can determine 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 creating a memorable experience for your guests.

The average cost for hosting a virtual event

The cost for hosting a virtual event depends on several factors including the duration of the event and the people who will be speaking and the number of attendees.

In the next piece, we'll discuss the various costs associated with hosting an event online, 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 in terms of the approximate cost for hosting an event online:

• If you are hosting a smaller webinar, with up to 500 attendees typically, be prepared to spend between $2,500 and $10,000.
• If you are planning a one-day virtual conference, complete with the ability to present and even virtual breakout rooms, expect costs to range from to $4,000 up to $25,000..
• If you are planning a virtual conference that lasts for a long time which includes multiple sessions break-out rooms, discussions and recordings, you can expect to pay between $50,000 and 150,000.

It's clear it's quite a large variation.

We'll look into the many line items to consider in planning your budget for your virtual gathering, so you can estimate cost more precisely.

Cost breakdown for virtual events

Examples of cost breakdowns for virtual event planning

What you need to pull off a successful virtual event

It is technically possible to organize a virtual meeting with little less than an online meeting room along with a camera a microphone. But, if you're trying to provide an seamless, successful online experience, there are several expenses may be worth investing in.

Gear

It doesn't take too much equipment to make speakers online look polished and professional -however, it takes some.

Instead, set presenters up ahead of time with the following:

• Microphones that ensure the audience is able to hear each phrase ( prices start at $40)
• Cameras with crisp video ( prices start at $24)
• Ring lights are used to regulate the possibility of poor lighting ( prices start at $30)
• If required, green screens are available ( prices start at $18)

If you're running an event on a budget that's less expensive it's possible to skip one or two of these items -- just make sure that you're checking your speakers' existing setups ahead of time, and coaching the speakers on how to improve their lighting as well as levels of background noise during the event.

Learn more about gear

Virtual event hosting software

You can think of an event-hosting software program as the venue virtual in the which your event takes place. Just like the physical venue, different platforms offer you various features.

According to Markletic Here's the amount is expected to be paid in virtual event platform costs each month:

• Between $50 and $250 , you can hold small virtual meetings that can accommodate up to 100 participants per conference.
• Between $600 and $8,000, you can hold larger virtual events that have 500 to 2,500 attendees.
• Between $25,000 to $40,000 is the minimum amount needed to hold larger events that have more than 3000 attendees.

The majority of virtual event platforms be charged per participant, and have different pricing levels according to your virtual event needs. (Think the number of guests, marketing and promotion features as well as security features, for instance.)

Take careful stock here of what functions your event platform provides you with. Although some platforms might -- at the surface at a glance -- appear more expensive than others, they may come with added features that can make them more affordable over the long term.

All other software requires

If you select an option that does not include those features but you must ensure you add the following charges included in your budget when needed:

• Landing page hostingstarting at 39$ per month for an online landing page that is hosted under your own domain. Enterprise plans for organizations who host multiple large-scale events may cost you up to $469 per month.
• Registration forms for events: free for free event, however, you'll need to be charged a ticketing charge (for for example, $0.99 and 2% of the ticket price) per ticket or an annual subscription that starts at $39.90 per month.
• Email management software: beginning at $3/month to send 500 emails each month. Premium and enterprise plans typically cost between $36 - 150 per user per month.
• software for engagement of audiences Starting from $ 8 per month for audiences of as large as 50. Enterprise plan pricing ranges from $199/month to 1,000 per month.

Speakers

Because virtual events need less time and travel than in-person events, most keynote speakers charge about half of their in-person fees for virtual events. The exact amount the speaker is going to charge but it will typically depend on their experience as well as how popular they are.

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

• A range of $2,500-$5,000 to a relative new expert in the space
• $7,500 to $10,000 to an experienced keynote presenter
• Between $10,000 and $30,000 for a thought-leader who has an extensive following, or who has written books
• From $20,000 to $75,000 for famous people
• $100,000 to $200,000 for well-known celebrity

Content

If you're pre-recording any content for the celebration, be sure include production costs in the budget.

For example, to pre-record in a studio, you can expect you to shell out anywhere from $375 to $500 an hour to film. If you're pre-recording from a remote location it's likely to cost less by $125-$200 an hour.

Whatever way you go, warns Zephan Blaxberg who is the CEO of the ZMBMedia, a video production company. ZMBMedia Be prepared for that your costs for production will at least three times more than you initially anticipated. For post-recording edits Budget between $100 and $200 for an hour.

"Keep your mind on a 1:13 ratio for pre-event recordings: for every minute of recording, you will receive roughly three times the amount of time charged. Although your presenter may have a brief talk lasting only 60 minutes, your livestream engineer will arrive an hour early to set up the studio, and then prepare. They will also be staying for at least an hour following the recording to backup footage and begin the editing procedure."

Marketing and advertising

You can ask you (and your team! ):

• What amount of time does our marketing team plan to devote to this particular event?
• How can we advertise the event to attendees who might be interested?
• How much will we invest in social media promotion?
• What is our marketing email going to take on?
• Do we collaborate with influencers to spread the word regarding the occasion?
• What is our post-event advertising strategy? take on?

Remember that marketing and advertising could be among the most expensive aspects of hosting an online event.

"The biggest spend we have is on advertising and the thought leaders/experts we bring on to give talks," says Miles DePaul, Director for Demand Generation at Superside. "This is where the power of the Superside brand comes in. Once people get more acquainted with our brand and learn from our content Our participation increases, and event costs can start to regress. It is cheaper to advertise because the cost per click decreases with better brand awareness, as well as more organic promotions pay off. We can save money on speakers since great speakers are eager to work with us, or they are willing to give discounts."

Once you've come up with an idea, you'll have a better understanding of the best ways to utilize the resources you already have (such for example, your advertising staff and existing email marketing software), and where you may require additional funds (for instance, on collaborations with influencers or landing page hosting).

Gifts or swag

• A branded notepad 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 dependent on where the attendees are located, the materials within the bags would cost you $19.30 that's less than $20.

Partners or sponsors

Fortunately, this is an aspect where you are able to reduce costs from the budget for your virtual event. (We would love to know.)

Sponsorship opportunities might look different for virtual events than those for live events however, they are still available. In the days leading up to your event begins, sponsors may be featured on every aspect of your marketing prior to the event like your event's website and social media pages along with your newsletter for the company, as well as reminder emails. You can also send registrants emails with details of special deals by sponsors or partners.

During the event, you can feature the logo of your sponsor on slides, run sponsored polls in their name or host a panel discussion with sponsors, or feature their short-form videos. If your sponsors would like to provide merchandise from sponsors to guests, you can include these inside your swag bags.

Finally, don't forget to include sponsors in your post-event content which includes on-demand video as well as post-event emails, social media postsas well as short video clips. By doing this, you're adding benefit to your sponsors because they will continue to get broadcast time long after the event has ended.

Additional event-related information and resources

How do you measure the impact of your virtual event?

You're probably aware that there are plenty of expenses that go to hosting an excellent online event. To prove the ROI of your event , and ensure the funding needed for future events, it is crucial to monitor and document the results of your event.

A few metrics you might consider tracking include:

• Brand awareness is measured by the number of registrations for events, traffic on websites, event impressions, and engagements on social media.
• Leads and customer generated: tracked through event sign-ups, responses to surveys for events as well as any action taken by new leads (such such as launching a free trial).
• Education of the audience is measured by the average number of sessions attended by guests and the level of attendee engagement with discussions, questions and answers and chats.

"Our event strategy works the best when it is delivering worth across all channels, influencing buyers to become aware of issues as well as to drive more sales engagements and, ultimately the revenue" states DePaul.

He adds:

"The key metrics we examine for any occasion, regardless of whether it's online or in-person, include (1) the total number of registrants of the ideal profile of our customers (ICP), (2) the total number of participants of our ICP, (3) opportunities generated by accounts following engagement at an event and (4) the revenue generated by accounts that have been engaged at an event.
 
  Certain lower funnel indicators, such as design subscriptions won, often will take a while, and it's only just one aspect of the ROI calculation. The most reliable indicator is whether or not we are able to get event participants back to our site to consume additional content and take the bottom-of-funnel actions like viewing our pricing pages or asking for demonstrations."

Add human touchpoints for your virtual events to seem IRL

When you're running the event via a computer It can be very difficult to remember that actual people are sitting behind their screens in the crowd and it's easy for guests to lose focus or be distracted.

DePaul and the Superside team recognize the value of thoughtful, and even personal elements as they plan their events online. "Throughout this whole process, we increasingly try to add a human touch by using things such as direct mail, gifting and user-generated content or even videos," he says.

Here are some methods to make your audience be more engaged with the event, other viewers and speakers.

• Utilize tools for engagement with the audience -- like a online chat or interactive survey, and Q&A sections -- to make sure that your event will be an interactive conversation, not a monologue.
• Allow attendees to get together and chat in breakout rooms, and set up a LinkedIn group to ensure attendees are able to connect to one another after the occasion. This helps bring a networking component (and extra value!) to your virtual event.
• Send out swag bags, as well as use giveaways to encourage participation. Small things like this can to keep the crowd entertained and keep' energy up all through the day.

DePaul's continues:

"For example, our largest summit in 2022 called Momentum Summit is heavily advertised by short videos of our speakers. We utilized in our ads as well as customized 1:1 emails. If visitors visit our landing page you'll see videos from the speakers and from our team talking through the issues we'd like to address at the event instead of an unchanging landing page with lots of text.

We invite a few of our VIP attendees to attend and invite their colleagues using things such as snack boxes, or to buy their lunch at the time of the event. In the actual event the focus is on peer-to peer connections through discussion in the event chatroom, roundtables for executives with smaller groups, or inviting them to the Superside Communities in which conversations go on throughout the duration of the event."

Budgeting questions for virtual events.

Do you have lingering questions concerning budgeting your next virtual event? Here, we'll address a few commonly asked questions and link you to further resources to help you plan your event.

What's the average budget for virtual events?

According to Statista the survey found that 34% of marketers claim they will spend between $500 to $1,000 per person for an online occasion.

How can you plan your budget for virtual events?

What is the best way to host virtual events? generate income?

What do I need to be looking for in a virtual events platform?

It's time to start planning your event

Planning a virtual event isn't easy however, it gives you unique opportunities to expand your following, work with both speakers and sponsors who are creative, and delight attendees. Aside from hosting, 's platform makes it easy to design a beautiful landing page, send the sending of reminder emails for your event, interact with the audience, incorporate your existing marketing platforms, and dig into after-event data.