Category: Budgeting

Trade Show Engagement Analytics and ROI

Just Released – new ExhibitDay feature to measure Engagement and ROI for all your trade shows and Exhibits.

Event-Specific Engagement Analytics and ROI

Under the [Analytics & ROI] tab of each event in your ExhibitDay workspace, you can now specify the following metrics:

  • Number of leads captured.
  • Number of impressions (booth walk-bys, sponsorship, traditional/social media.
  • Number of meetings (with new and existing customers).
  • Revenue attributable to the event (actual and forecast).

Based on these metrics and the cost of your event, ExhibitDay automatically calculates the following for you:

  • Average Cost per Lead.
  • Average Cost per Impression.
  • Customer Meeting Metrics.
  • Total Gross ROI.
  • Total Gross Realized ROI.

Engagement Analytics and ROI Across all Events

You can also view and compare Engagement Analytics and ROI across all your events for a given year under the [Annual Budgets] link.

Sign up for a free ExhibitDay account and start measuring the return on your investments in Trade Shows and Exhibits.

How to Allocate your Annual Event Budget Across your Trade Shows and Sponsorships

ExhibitDay’s new budgeting feature lets you set annual trade show budgets as well as more granular, event-specific budgets across all your trade shows for the year.

In this post, we will cover how you can allocate your annual budget across your events in ExhibitDay.

Your Annual Event Budget

Your total annual budget is pretty straight forward — it’s the total budget you have for exhibiting at trade shows, plus, your sponsorship budget.

Allocating Budget to an Event

Once you’ve entered the events you are considering for the year in ExhibitDay and you’ve set your total annual budget, it’s time to allocate that budget across your events.

Event-Specific Budgets

Under the [Budget] tab for each event, you can enter the planned budget for the event’s booth reservation, services, travel/lodging, shipments, miscellaneous expenses, and sponsorships. As you enter these numbers, the total planned budget for the event is automatically calculated in the summary section.

The Allocation Summary Box

The budget allocation summary box shows the total event budget in relevance to the total annual budget for all trade shows and sponsorships. As you enter the budget for each event, this is where you’ll get a lens into how much of the annual budget remains unallocated (or how over-allocated the annual budget is).

Event Allocation Breakdown 

After you have allocated your annual budget to all your events, you can go to the [Event Allocation Breakdown] tab of the annual budget page to see the details of how the budget has been allocated.



Sign up for a free ExhibitDay account and start tracking the budgets for your trade shows and exhibits. 

Tracking Miscellaneous Expenses in your Annual Events Budget

Based on user feedback, we just released new functionality to track non-event-specific miscellaneous expenses in your annual budgets. These are trade show and exhibit expenses that are incurred against your annual event budget that cannot be attributed to a single event — for example: new booth furniture, or, updated print brochures.

You can manage your miscellaneous annual expenses under the [Other / Miscellaneous Expenses] tab of the Annual Budgets page in ExhibitDay.


Create a free ExhibitDay account and start tracking the budgets for all your trade shows, exhibits and sponsorships.

Trade Show Budget Tracking

Just launched — the ability to track budgets and actual costs for your trade shows and sponsorships in ExhibitDay.

This new enhancement helps you get a better lens into your investments in exhibits and event sponsorships and gives you more clarity when planning for future events.

Like most things in life…

“If you can measure it, you can make it better.”

Event-Specific Budgets

Under the Budget tab of each event, you can now enter the planned budget for the exhibit booth, services, travel reservations, shipments, sponsorships, and other/miscellaneous expenses.

Event-Specific Trade Show Budget

Event Budget Summary

The planned and actual sums are automatically calculated in the top summary section:

Planned Budget Summary

Entering Actual Costs

A new “Cost” field has been added for:

  • Booth Reservation (under the event [Booth] tab)
  • Booth Services (under the event [Booth] tab)
  • Travel Reservations (under the event [Travel] tab)
  • Sponsorships (under the event [Sponsorships] tab)
  • Other Expenses (under the event [Other/Misc. Expenses] tab
Cost Field

Use the newly added “Cost” field to specify the actual cost for each expense. The costs that you enter get aggregated into the actuals under the event Budget tab.

Annual Budgets

We also added the ability to track annual budgets (for all your trade shows).

Annual Trade Show Budgets

Under the annual budgets tab, you can set your overall annual budget for your Exhibits as well as your event Sponsorships. The actual costs are automatically aggregated from the values you enter in the “Cost” fields of all your events for the year.

Access Control

You have the ability to control which users in your ExhibitDay workspace have access to view and update costs as well as budgets.

Budget Access Control

Sign up for an ExhibitDay account and start tracking the budgets for your trade shows and exhibits.

How to Exhibit at a Trade Show on a Low Budget

For many small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurial ventures, sometimes, a massive trade show just isn’t in the budget. If you’re just trying to break into a market, you may not have extra funds to spend on booth furniture, services and materials that are essential to trade shows. Many new businesses don’t even witness a profit within the first few years of operation – it’s totally normal.

Still, you need to get your business out there – people need to know you exist. If you are looking for prospects, partners then trade shows are an excellent way to get everyone in one room, learn more about you and your offerings.

Here are a few ways to exhibit at trade shows on a budget:

Startup Pavilions

Although not every trade show hosts a startup pavilion, definitely check to see if one is available before you pay full price for a regular booth. These pavilions are reserved for the newcomers that generally need a money break.

Small Spaces

You don’t need a massive booth to make a lasting impression. In this case, quality trumps quantity, which is why you want to book the smallest space possible while the discount window is still open for either the startup pavilion or the early sign-up period.

Say No to Electricity

You can get creative; electricity isn’t really necessary for a good startup booth. But, if you feel it’s dire, be sure to reserve your setup during the initial discount period.

Lead retrievals

Lead Retrieval systems are very costly. Consider collecting leads on a form that your prospects would complete. Give them incentives to fill it out by offering them a chance to win your product or subscription to your service in a drawing. Alternatively, you can collect business cards or use your laptop to record your leads.

Portable Display Vehicles

Budget trade shows can be a do-it-yourself kind of adventure, especially if you invest in a portable display vehicle that enables you to carry your entire display to the show all by yourself. These carrying cases can also double as the booth counter, and the back wall fits inside the case. The entire thing comes with wheels for ease of transportation so you don’t have to hire anyone else to help carry it.

Trade Show Accessories

For all extra seating, trash cans, flooring, and so forth, be sure to check big box stores for major savings. You could purchase flooring, chairs and other accessories from a local vendor such as Walmart, Home Depot or Ikea and save yourself shipping and rental charges.

Shipping and Handling

When it comes time to have your trade show material and booth shipped, elect to have your items shipped via shipping carriers, such as FedEx, that hold the packages at the destination for you to retrieve. Although less convenient, you will save money by handling the shipment by yourself and bringing your booth furniture on your own.

Plan Ahead of Time

Flights, train tickets, and other kinds of transportation are significantly cheaper if you book them ahead of time. Tuesdays at around midnight is typically the cheapest time to book a flight. And, the cheapest days to fly are Tuesday and Wednesday (you’ll save an average of $73 per ticket). Additionally, opt for an Airbnb over a hotel. Many decent Airbnb’s are only $50-70 per night.

Many small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurial ventures start out at trade shows with a low budget. Nothing to fear – just follow the tips above for saving the most amount of money when it’s time to exhibit at your next trade show.