25 Webinar Statistics and Online Event Facts

Webinars offer the unique opportunity to connect to potential clients, organize large meetings, coach or train staff, and ultimately, add value to your users. But how do you host the perfect webinar? Luckily, webinar statistics do exist to help you decide which day of the week works best for invitations, when to start promoting, how to pick the right date and how to engage your audience. Are you wondering whether to include Q&As at the end of your webinar? The answer is a resounding yes. Read on for some more winning statistics you should consider if you want to host a successful webinar. 

Webinar Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

• 60-minute webinars attract more viewers than 30-minute ones. (WorkCast)
• Thursdays are the best days for webinars. (MegaMeeting)
• 57% of marketers run up to 50 webinars a year. (on24.com)
• 24% of all webinar registrations happen on a Tuesday. (GoToMeeting)
• Communication webinars have a conversion rate of 67.05%. (bloggingX)
• Q&As happen at 81% of webinars. (on24.com)
• More than half of marketers rely on webinars for promotion. (OptinMonster)

General Webinar Stats

1. Most marketers see webinars as vital.

Webinars are a treat for marketers, with a total of 95% of respondents seeing them as important for their marketing efforts. On a scale of one to five, marketers rate webinars at 3.08 points in relation to how nifty webinars are to their digital communications. 

(on24.com, bloggingX) 

2. Customers rank on-demand viewing as the most valuable addition to webinars. 

When it comes to additional functionalities, customers prioritize flexible viewing experiences. Webinar marketing statistics further reveal that besides being able to view it at any given time, viewers also value receiving slides as a part of a presentation, downloading additional resources, and the “watch later” functionality. 

(ThriveMyWay)

3. More than half of marketers rely on webinars for promotion.

Research shows that 58% of marketers use webinars as a promotion tool. Studies show that between 2% and 5% of webinar attendees eventually make a purchase at the end of the webinar.

(OptinMonster)

4. 89% of marketers believe webinars outperform other channels in creating qualified leads. 

Industries use webinars for generating leads. So if you have concerns about meeting demand goals, just consider these webinar lead generation statistics. A total of 66% of businesses say their sales teams prioritize leads coming from webinars, while 72% confirm a direct influence of webinars on pipeline and revenue. A further 78% say they help lower the cost per lead. 

(Business Wire)

5. Use of webinars/virtual events among B2B marketers increased to 67% from 57%. 

Surveys show that B2B marketers rely more on webinars and other virtual events of sorts more than their B2C counterparts. 67% of B2B companies have hosted webinars in the past year, as opposed to 39% of B2C businesses. B2B webinar statistics further reveal that B2B companies ranked webinars/online courses/virtual events and blog posts/short articles (tied at 22%) as the best-performing content marketing channels. 

(CMI B2B Report, CMI B2C Report)

6. 33% of marketers prioritize the use of interactive tools while hosting a webinar. 

Digital activity peaked after the COVID-19 outbreak and remains at all-time high levels as professionals embrace a hybrid system of online and in-person workflow. Marketers have been racing to find the best practices for webinars to cut the noise and stand out among the crowd. Webinar statistics demonstrate that most marketers choose to improve audience interaction via polls, questions, and votes, followed by simplicity and ease of use (28%), and flexible formats (27%). 

(Marketing Impact Report)

7. 57% of marketers run 50 webinars per year.

The percentage of marketers who run up to 150 webinars per year is satisfactory and amounts to 29%. 80% of organizations hosting training webinars produce as many as 100 webinars per year, while a total of 93% of webinars for continuing education are organized 150 times per year, according to a webinar benchmarks report.

(on24.com)

8. The pharmaceutical industry leads with a 63% live attendance rate.

Webinar marketing statistics reveal the average attendance rate to be 46%. The attendance rates of the financial services sector come close to the percentage of the pharmaceutical industry at an average of 61%, followed by the consulting industry with 50%. SaaS stands somewhere in the middle with a 46% participation rate. Surprisingly, the advertising industry is near the bottom with only 33%. Some of the companies developing webinar software meanwhile report an attendance rate of 30%.

(Livestorm)

9. 93% of webinar participants prefer desktops.

The majority of webinar attendees prefer to use traditional desktops, with only 7% favoring mobiles or tablets. 80% of the desktops used by webinar participants run on Windows and only 20% run on Mac, iOS, or Android, webinar stats show. 

(MegaMeeting)

10. The average cost of webinars ranges from $3,500 to $5,000. 

There are several key factors impacting the budgeting of webinars, including software, cost of equipment, promotions, and staff. Experts recommend spending 40-60% of the allocated budget on promotional efforts, and the cost varies greatly depending on whether you are hiring a guest speaker. In any case, if you are on a tight budget, the least you could do is invest in good webinar software. 

(My Own Conference, Workcast)

Game-Changing Webinar Facts and Stats

11. 24% of all webinar registrations happen on a Tuesday.

Lure them in on a Tuesday but do not even think about bothering them with registration emails on weekends. Saturdays and Sundays, as you can imagine, rank poorly. Mondays and Thursdays come after Tuesdays with 17% and 16% of registrations, respectively.

(GoToMeeting)

12. Email is rated as the most effective webinar promotion tool.

And why wouldn’t it be? Emails are free and are a great way to promote any event, including webinars. Recent surveys show that solicitations through email account for 73% of webinar signups. So, while you are at it, exploit the company website and blog since they too could deliver you up to 14% of the registrations. Webinar attendance statistics further indicate that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media could get you up to 15% of webinar registrations.

(GoToMeeting, Inc.com)

13. 33% of registrations occur on the day of the webinar.

If you want to increase attendance, you should definitely send a reminder email on the day of the event. Sounds like a no-brainer, but planning reminder emails on the day of the event can be overlooked while busy with promotional emails sent weeks ago to have people register to attend webinar events. 

On that note, webinar stats suggest that the best time of the day to send your promotional emails would be between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. If your goal is to score, aim for 9 a.m. which is the “happy hour” of webinar registrations with a 14% success rate. It could be wise to invest in email marketing software to automate your messages to attract and keep people’s attention. 

(GoToWebinar)

14. Just under half of attendees sign up more than a week before the webinar.  

The best time for webinars to be announced is two weeks before the official date or even earlier. The greater the promotional cycle, the better the results. Webinar effectiveness statistics show that 47% of attendees register at least eight days before the webinar date, while about a quarter (24%) sign up more than two weeks earlier.  

(Marketing Charts)

15. Thursdays are the best days for webinars.

Mondays are generally busy days at work, so they are probably not the greatest day of the week to host an event. Thursdays are ranked as the most popular days of the week for organizing webinars with 19%. Wednesdays are a good choice since they are ranked lower than Thursdays by only 1%. Basically, webinar attendance statistics suggest that any day between Tuesday and Thursday will potentially get you the traffic you need for your webinar. 

(MegaMeeting)

16. 2, 3, and 4 p.m. are the prime times for hosting a webinar. 

What makes webinars amazing is that you can connect to people from coast to coast and even participants from across the globe. Setting the best time to host a webinar, however, can be tricky, especially if you have participants from different time zones. Afternoons are considered to be the prime time to accommodate viewers from various time zones, webinar stats show.  

(Click Meeting)

17. 60-minute webinars attract more attendees than 30-minute webinars. 

While the general belief points to an hour as the optimal duration, some reports suggest that the longer the webinar, the bigger the crowd. In essence, 90-minute webinars are more suitable for sharing presentations with attendees who wish to broaden their knowledge. 15 to 20-minute webinars meanwhile have proven successful for start-ups aiming to integrate them on a more frequent basis. 

(WorkCast)

18. Too marketing-focused or “salesy” webinars put off 78% of buyers. 

While there are various reasons why buyers won’t register for a virtual event, webinar statistics single out too marketing-focused or product-oriented content as the primary reasons for audience dissatisfaction, both tied at 78%. Buyers also often complain about content depth misalignment, length, and presenters lacking authority or relevance, all at 56%.

(BrightTalk)

19. Communication webinars have the highest conversion rate at 67.05%.

Conversion rates are highest in communication webinars, followed by training webinars with a solid percentage of 44.79% and marketing webinars with 39.10%. Education-oriented webinars, while growing in popularity, have the lowest registrant-to-attendee conversion rate of 30.79%, according to webinar conversion stats.

(bloggingX)

20. 48% of B2B marketers say webinars work the best with their lead nurturing initiatives. 

Webinars are seen as the most effective way to nurture leads among marketers as they show expertise on the subject matter and technical compatibility. Other content types that are used within lead nurturing programs include thought leadership articles (41%), email newsletters (40%), and customer content like reviews or case studies (39%). 

(Demand Gen Report)

21. 51% of marketers use demand metrics to assess a webinar’s success. 

When it comes to putting together webinar metrics to assess the success of the event, research finds that marketers rely more on on-demand metrics over content engagement data. Webinar engagement statistics further point to demand metrics as lead quality (23%), pipeline conversion (16%), and lead volume (12%).

(BrightTalk)

22. 62% of buyers will request a demo from sales after a webinar. 

89% meanwhile will go on and check additional content on the vendor website after webinar review, 86% tend to download resources or attachments, while 83% would share the content with colleagues. 80% will, however, view a competitor’s content webinar statistics show.

(BrightTalk)

23. Q&As are used in 81% of webinars. 

Q&As are the foundation and the all-time favorite webinar engagement tool. 92% of attendees expect a live Q&A session at the end of the webinar. Live Q&As are ranked high because they offer a fun way for attendees to interact with the presenter. 69% of webinars supply downloadable resources to engage their attendees. Webinar engagement statistics further point to surveys, polls, and media as adequate engagement tools.   

(on24.com, Medium)

24. Webinars with videos rated at 7.8 out of 10. 

Integrating videos in your webinar will make it more compelling and more engaging which will ultimately scale your viewing time. Good, right? Unfortunately, 32% of hosts that don’t use videos in their webinars say they lack the skills to integrate them into their presentation and 27% see this undertaking as too expensive. 

(bloggingX)

25. Always-on webinars show an increase in popularity by 36%.

Webinar watch stats show that live broadcasts are still the most favored webinar types with 59% ratings while always-on only webinars are slowly but surely gaining traction as registrants can access them at their convenience. Webinars that are live and always-on rank low at 5%. This means that recording your live webinars and making them on-demand is the best thing you can do to keep your registrants satisfied. 

(on24.com)

26. Webinar trends show that 79% of webinar data is video.

For a host or an attendee to connect to a webinar, the average bandwidth should be at 380Kbps. Bear in mind that the right connection is important for a high-quality video. A lot of the data you will be sharing with your attendees at your webinar is video and only 21% is audio. 

(MegaMeeting)

FAQs 

Source

• WorkCast
• MegaMeeting
• on24.com
• GoToMeeting
• bloggingX
• OptinMonster
• ThriveMyWay
• Business Wire
• CMI B2B Report
• CMI B2C Report
• Marketing Impact Report
• livestorm.co
• My Own Conference
• WorkCast
• GoToMeeting
• Inc.com
• GoToWebinar
• Marketing Charts
• Click Meeting
• FounderJar
• Demand Gen Report
• Medium

By Idil Woodall