If you aren’t using event data, you’re missing out. From ticket sales to attendee engagement, every touchpoint you have with attendees can provide valuable insights.
But how do you collect this raw information and turn it into actionable strategies?
Learning how to leverage this data is the secret weapon behind successful, profitable, and unforgettable events. With event data analysis and advanced event data analytics, you can uncover hidden trends, predict attendee behavior, and raise the return on your investment.
At Eventbrite, we continuously collect and study event data from event organizers worldwide. Each year, we publish our Event Trends Report, packed with insights that empower organizers to make data-driven decisions. And because we understand the value of quality event data, we’ve designed our events platform to help you easily glean insights from your numbers. Let’s explore how you can leverage your event data, step by step.
Why should you care about event data?
If you’ve ever wondered what really makes an event successful, the answer often lies in the data. Event data is the comprehensive dataset generated by all the activities related to your event — before, during, and after it takes place. This can include ticketing details, attendee interactions, social media engagement, and feedback. Let’s break down the components of event data.
Event data encompasses everything measurable about your event. It allows you to understand customer behavior and work with it to improve your events. Some people only look at online interactions, but event data also includes information you can collect from your in-person and hybrid events.
That’s because event data isn’t just numbers on a screen. It’s a powerful tool to help you:
- Improve attendee experiences: By analyzing feedback form submissions and behavioral trends, you can design events that better meet your audience’s needs.
- Enable targeted marketing: Use demographic and behavioral data to tailor campaigns that resonate with specific attendee groups.
- Measure ROI and refine strategies: Identify which aspects of your event drove revenue or where costs could be reduced.
For example, an event organizer could use ticketing data to discover that VIP passes sell out faster when marketed via email rather than social media. This would allow them to make their marketing more effective and ensure that future events are even more profitable and engaging.
Using event data analytics to raise ROI
Event data can be a source of great insights that directly impact your bottom line. By using it, you can uncover trends, improve your strategies, and increase your return on investment (ROI).
How event data analytics can increase ROI
To boost ROI, you need to understand the relationship between your event’s activities and outcomes. With event data analytics you can:
- Link actions to revenue: Identify which marketing campaigns, ticket types, or sponsorship deals contribute most to your profits. For example, tracking ticket sales by promotion type can reveal which discounts truly drive purchases.
- Identify cost savings: Analyze underperforming areas, such as sessions with low attendance or marketing channels with weak conversion rates, to eliminate wasteful spending.
- Prioritize high-impact activities: Discover what resonates with attendees. If customer engagement data shows breakout sessions had higher satisfaction scores than keynote speeches, you can allocate more time and resources to interactive formats in future events.
Those are pretty good ways to raise revenue and lower costs, but they’re not quite as simple as they might sound. Let’s look at utilizing your data for direct insights and results.
Applying event data analytics
To access those benefits, you’ll need to learn to use your event analytics well. Here are some ways you can use your event data to maximize your ROI.
Track key metrics to measure ROI: To make data-driven decisions, start by focusing on the metrics that directly affect your event’s ROI. Key data points include ticket sales trends, marketing conversion rates, attendee engagement, and sponsorship value.
- Action: Use attendee demographic data to fine-tune ticket pricing strategies, tailoring offers for different audience segments.
- Action: Track the performance of email campaigns and social ads to see where your marketing budget is yielding the best results. Redirect resources accordingly to maximize your impact.
Segment and optimize marketing strategies: Use data to create targeted, high-impact marketing campaigns. Begin by segmenting your audience based on behavior (e.g., past attendance, interactions with promotional content).
- Action: Run A/B tests on email subject lines, then analyze open rates to identify what resonates with your audience and refine your messaging.
- Action: Leverage event data to identify the most effective promotional channels (e.g., Instagram vs. email) and focus your marketing spend where it has the most significant effect on ticket sales.
Refine event design using attendee feedback: Event data and post-event surveys are invaluable for improving future events. Analyze session attendance and guest feedback to fine-tune the event layout, scheduling, and content.
- Action: Review session attendance data and adjust the schedule if data shows attendees leave early. Move high-impact sessions (like keynotes or workshops) to earlier in the day to ensure better attendance.
- Action: Use feedback on session lengths or content preferences to tweak future event formats for higher engagement and satisfaction.
Use data to strengthen sponsorships: Attract and retain sponsors by showcasing the value of your event through data. Build detailed attendee profiles and share insights such as demographics, purchasing behaviors, and job roles to highlight the event’s relevance to potential sponsors.
- Action: Provide potential sponsors with insights on audience engagement, showing them which segments (e.g., decision-makers, young professionals) are attending your event and how their sponsorship will reach these key groups.
As you can see, event data analytics has great potential to optimize your event’s performance. There are many types of event data you can collect so let’s focus on the specific types of data you should be collecting at each stage of your event.
Types of event data
Understanding the types of event data you can collect is the first step to unlocking its full potential. Each phase of your event — pre-event, during the event, and post-event — offers unique information that can drive insights and inform your strategy. Let’s break it down.
Pre-event data
Pre-event data includes all the information you gather before your event begins. This is crucial for shaping your marketing and operational strategies. Key types include:
- Registration data: Platforms like Eventbrite allow you to collect and analyze event data during registration, such as names, demographics, and preferences. Customize your registration forms to gather data on attendee interests or dietary restrictions so you can tailor the event experience.
- Marketing metrics: Analyze which channels (email, social media, ads) drive the most registrations. Eventbrite’s integrated tools let you track campaign effectiveness and adjust strategies to maximize reach and conversions.
- Audience demographics: Use data to segment your audience. For instance, sending early bird promotions to returning attendees or VIP offers to high-value customers can improve sales and engagement.
Organizers like Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center might discover that targeted social media ads attract more VIP ticket buyers than general email campaigns. With this insight, they could invest in the channels that provide the highest ROI.
Ready to make your event marketing even more effective?
During-event data
This type of data gives you a real-time view of how your event is performing. Examples include:
- Attendance metrics: Tools like Eventbrite’s real-time data dashboards allow you to monitor attendance for sessions and activities. This data highlights which parts of your event are most popular.
- Engagement rates: Track interactions such as app user engagement, social media activity, and networking. For example, RFID technology can show which booths or sessions attendees gravitated toward — that’s why it’s becoming increasingly popular.
- Feedback collection: Gather input through live polls or on-site surveys. For instance, catering staff might track comments about food quality and portion sizes during a dinner event. One great way to do this is by emailing your attendees through Eventbrite.
Example: At high-end events like the wine bar symposia hosted by Post Oak Hotel, organizers can track social media mentions during the event and adjust services in real time to improve attendee satisfaction.
Post-event data
After your event wraps, post-event data helps you measure success and identify areas for improvement. Key types include:
- Surveys and feedback: Send out post-event surveys using tools like Eventbrite to gauge attendee satisfaction. Ask targeted questions about content, logistics, and overall impressions.
- Long-term metrics: Review ticket sales trends over time to refine your approach for future events. Combine this with engagement data to see if attendees return or recommend the event to others.
- Revenue and ROI analysis: Use platforms like Eventbrite to export financial reports and analyze gross sales, net revenue, and promotional performance.
Organizers that have hosted hundreds of events on Eventbrite, like Tribe Networking, can use historical trends to tweak factors like timing and event descriptions for better overall results. The best way to do this is by combining your event reports for multiple events. Then, you can see key information like registrations and attendance with a much larger data set.
Best practices for collecting and managing event data
Collecting and managing event data effectively is essential for making informed decisions, improving attendee experiences, and maintaining compliance with data regulations. Eventbrite provides a range of tools that make this process seamless, giving organizers the insights they need to deliver successful events while staying ahead of the competition.
Pre-event data collection
One of Eventbrite’s most powerful tools is its customizable registration forms. These allow you to collect essential attendee details such as names, email addresses, and demographic information. You can even add custom fields to gather specific information like meal preferences or professional roles.
Not only that, you can even include a consent form for personalized outreach as a simple step in the signup process.
This personalization improves the attendee experience and streamlines event logistics. For example, knowing dietary restrictions in advance ensures catering meets expectations and reduces complaints and waste. You can get that information without overwhelming your registrants because Eventbrite’s streamlined interface makes the whole process a breeze.
Eventbrite integrates with marketing platforms like Hubspot, allowing you to track the effectiveness of your pre-event campaigns in real time. It also lets you organize registrants into contact lists, so when you follow up with them or engage in future communications, you can access the full context of your past interactions.
Additionally, Eventbrite offers a “lead scoring” feature, which assigns a numerical value to each contact based on how well they match your event’s target audience. This helps ensure that your marketing budget is spent on the efforts that will deliver the highest return on investment (ROI).
Post-event data collection
After the event, you’ll want to send out a post-event survey through Eventbrite’s email functionality. Sending post-event surveys is effortless with Eventbrite, and you can quickly collect feedback on everything from favorite sessions to overall satisfaction.
Just make sure to keep the right balance between demographic and feedback questions, like you would on any feedback form. For example, you might want to ask where they live and how old they are, and then ask a few questions about their level of satisfaction with different aspects of the event and their overall experience.
These insights, when combined with engagement data from the event, offer a holistic view of your event’s success. For instance, if surveys highlight dissatisfaction with a keynote speaker, comparing this feedback with attendance data can help you understand the full impact and plan better for future events.
Once you have the data you need, you need to consider best practices for handling data responsibly.
Responsible data management
Data management doesn’t stop there. Eventbrite’s data compliance helps you meet data protection laws like the CCPA by enabling you to control who accesses attendee data and storing it responsibly.
Centralizing your data on a secure platform like Eventbrite reduces the risk of breaches and ensures easy retrieval for reporting. Regular audits are also simplified with tools like the Audit Report, which allows you to review, refine, and even delete outdated information to stay compliant and organized.
The platform gives you actionable insights to improve your events while storing that data responsibly.
By following these best practices, you’ll be better prepared to spot new event trends as they emerge.
Emerging trends in event data and analytics tools
Event data analytics is changing so quickly that it can feel tough to keep up. But by using a cutting-edge platform, you can ride the waves of these trends for even better insights into making your event everything it can be.
One major trend is the growing use of AI and machine learning. Generally, AI is the most popular it’s ever been, being used in 72% of businesses. Platforms like Eventbrite already integrate AI to simplify complex tasks, such as creating marketing emails or event pages.
These tools let you experiment with different approaches and gather valuable data on what resonates with your audience, ultimately optimizing your marketing efforts and selling more tickets.
Another key development is real-time data dashboards. With tools like the Eventbrite Organizer App, you can monitor ticket sales, attendance, and engagement metrics during the event.
This enables on-the-spot adjustments, such as reallocating staff to busier areas or extending ticket sales if demand spikes, ensuring smoother operations. It also improves the attendee in-app experience and event experience. You can use event apps for innovative marketing — one of the trends we identified in our trends report — possible.
Hybrid event analytics is also on the rise as hybrid events remain popular. Major conferences for companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce include livestreams, accepting that the hybrid format is the future.
Combining data from in-person and virtual attendees provides a holistic view of your event’s performance. Eventbrite’s all-in-one platform allows you to track ticket sales, generate customized reports, and analyze engagement across formats, making it easier than ever to adapt to the growing demand for hybrid experiences.
By embracing these emerging trends, you can stay competitive and deliver data-driven, impactful events.
Analyze event data more easily than ever
Event data is the key to transforming events into impactful, data-driven experiences. By understanding what event data to collect and applying event data analysis to uncover actionable insights you can improve attendee engagement, optimize operations, and maximize ROI. The future of successful events lies in using data not just to measure success but to shape it.
Eventbrite makes this journey seamless. With industry-leading tools and expertise, we empower event organizers to collect, analyze, and act on data with confidence. Whether you’re planning your first event or refining a series, Eventbrite is your partner in unlocking success.
