Measuring the ROI of trade fair content: metrics that count

Why show content is hard to measure

The success of a trade fair is usually measured in leads and orders. Content is part of that, but rarely the direct trigger for an order. A customer who buys after the show may have seen your video on LinkedIn, the photos in your follow-up offer and the conversation on your stand (booth). How much of the decision is down to the content cannot be calculated exactly.

That is no reason not to measure. It is a reason to measure the right things: what was used, whom it reached, what it triggered and what it would have cost to get the same material another way. If you can answer those four questions, you can show head office whether the production was worth it.

The starting point is a goal. Without a goal there is no meaningful metric. Decide before the show whether the content should mainly support visibility, leads, sales, press or recruiting. Our guide to setting trade fair goals shows how.

Four levels of measurement

1. Usage

How many of the delivered pictures, videos and clips were actually used, and where? This number is easy to collect and says a lot. Material that sits in a folder earns nothing.

2. Reach and engagement

Impressions, video views, watch time, clicks and comments on LinkedIn, Instagram or in your newsletter. Compare posts with show content against your own usual posts, not against other people's averages. For the motifs that tend to work there, see trade fair photos on LinkedIn.

3. Impact

Meeting requests, replies to follow-up emails, clicks to product pages, applications after a recruiting clip. UTM parameters on every link let you see in your web analytics which visits came from show content.

4. Savings

What would you have spent without the material? A separate product shoot, stock photos, an extra shoot day for a recruiting video, or pictures your distributors would otherwise have produced themselves. If show content replaces such items, it belongs in the calculation.

Metrics by goal

The table links each typical show goal to a metric and a source. Pick two or three that fit your main goal.

Ten metrics that nobody reviews do not help. Two metrics collected the same way after every show quickly show whether things are improving.

Cost per asset used: a simple calculation

One metric every management team understands is the cost per asset actually used. Divide the production cost by the number of pictures, videos and clips you really published or used in sales.

A worked example with assumed figures: you book the Trade Fair Full Day package at €1,990, with at least 120 images, a highlight video, a 90-second film and three vertical clips. In the three months after the show you use 40 pictures, both videos and all three clips, 45 assets in total. That comes to around €44 per asset used, before internal time. Every further use during the year lowers the figure at no extra cost, because our packages include unlimited usage rights.

Compare that figure with what a separate product shoot, good stock images or an extra shoot day would cost. The calculation is not exact, but it shows whether the material is being used. If the figure is high, look at distribution first: who has access to the pictures, and do sales, press, HR and your distributors know they exist?

When to measure: after 7, 30 and 90 days

• During the show and up to day 7: reach of the posts published during the show. This is where fast delivery shows its value, especially if head office sits in another time zone. At Pixer, the first pictures usually arrive the same day, and everything else within 24 hours after the show ends.
• After 30 days: replies to follow-up emails, meeting requests, press coverage. Our guide to trade fair follow-up shows how to organise this phase.
• After 90 days and at year end: reuse in catalogues, on the website, in sales decks and job ads. Show content often works all year, see reusing trade fair content all year.

Record everything in a simple table: asset, where it was used, date, metric. After two or three shows you have your own baseline, which tells you more than any outside benchmark. Also decide who measures: one person in marketing who fills in the figures after 7, 30 and 90 days is enough. Without a clear owner, the spreadsheet stays empty.

Common mistakes

• Counting only likes and reading business success into them.
• Crediting all show leads to the content, or none.
• Sharing links without UTM parameters and later not knowing where visits came from.
• Starting to measure months later, when nobody remembers which posts used show content.

The short version

Related guides and services

Common questions