As part of an overall event marketing strategy, a webinar can be a great way to help you establish your organization as an industry leader, increase brand awareness and, if you use the right tools, generate qualified leads. The following webinar statistics demonstrate the proven value of webinars as a marketing channel.
These insights can also help you decide if the ROI you can achieve from hosting webinars is worth it to your organization. You’ll need to consider how long it takes to create a webinar, which webinar formats might be most effective, and what webinar software you’ll need to produce a professional and engaging webinar.
B2B webinar statistics
The following statistics show just how popular webinars can be for engaging with existing and prospective clients, vendors, and other businesses. They also highlight best practices when it comes to successful B2B webinar planning and execution.
- The market for webinars is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% from 2023 to 2032, reaching a value of USD 134.2 billion by 2032.
- Webinars are primarily a B2B marketing initiative, with 61% of webinars hosted by B2B companies.
- 61% of marketers leverage webinars as part of their content strategy.
- 54% of B2B professionals attend or engage with a webinar on a weekly or even daily basis.
- 51% of B2B marketers say webinars are the second-most effective distribution channel after in-person events (52%).
- Webinars were used as a distribution channel by 55% of B2B marketers in the last year.
- Virtual product launches and online training events are set to increase market share, reaching $52.2 billion and $26.6 billion, respectively, by 2032.
- In general, morning webinars are 93% more effective compared to those conducted in the evening.
- 77% of B2B customers are more likely to engage with a company that offers personalized experiences, so be sure your webinars and the marketing content you use to promote them are personalized for your prospective attendees.
- 70% of B2B professionals actively seek tips, tricks and best practices when attending webinars.
- 78% of webinar hosts use a dedicated webinar platform rather than a video platform (like YouTube or Vimeo).
Overall, B2B audiences are highly receptive to webinars, as long as they find the featured content useful to them. Once they’ve decided to attend, there are certain practices and engagement tools that webinar presenters should use to keep attendees focused and engaged, and to provide them with a generally positive webinar experience.
In other words, webinar presenters should be enthusiastic about their subject and able to keep their audience engaged with their presentation style and webinar engagement tools. The ability to present multiple webinars over the course of a year is made easier by presenting on a webinar platform that has webinar engagement tools already integrated and ready to go.
In short, B2B professionals find that webinars offer many benefits as part of a broader marketing strategy. The content created for a webinar can be borrowed for social posts, webpages, blog posts, and other content marketing efforts. Plus, as we’ll see next, they help to generate qualified leads.
Webinar lead generation statistics
This is one of the main benefits of webinars: their ability to generate leads. And, based on a number of available webinar lead generation statistics, it looks like those leads tend to be of relatively high quality and more apt to result in sales.
- The primary objective for hosting a webinar is generating high quality leads, as stated by 35% of respondents.
- According to 89% of marketers, webinars outperformed other channels in creating qualified leads.
- 73% of B2B marketers and sales leaders believe webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads.
- 52% of marketers say the quality of leads obtained from webinars are “above average” or “excellent.”
- Webinars held in the middle of the week garner the highest attendee engagement and conversion rates.
Why are webinars so effective for lead generation? Attendees choose to attend webinars and make a concerted effort to do so, which implies that they are at least interested in the content, and in turn, the products or services suggested by the host. That’s an impression backed up by the high webinar conversion rate and the proportion of attendees that enter the sales pipeline.
Webinar marketing statistics
A webinar is only successful if you can get people to view it and, if viewing it live, hopefully interact with the presenter. The statistics below show the most effective approaches when it comes to promoting and marketing your webinars and getting people to register for and attend them.
- 95% of marketers say webinars are essential to their marketing strategies.
- 92% of marketing professionals say webinars are the most effective way to engage a large remote audience.
- 77% of marketers say events are the most effective marketing channel for their organizations.
- 57% of marketers host up to 50 webinars per year.
- Webinars that include marketing materials convert 60 times better than those that do not.
- Webinar landing pages can have conversion rates up to 51%.
Using a multi-pronged approach to promoting webinars is essential for attracting the most possible attendees. You should market your webinars via email, social media, as well as your own website to get the word out effectively. At the same time, the breadth of your webinar marketing should be balanced by targeting the specific audiences that are most apt to attend.
- Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are most likely to see the highest attendance rates and responses to polls.
- Webinar promotional emails are also likely to perform best on the same days—Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
- 17% of attendees register for webinars on the day of the event.
- The most effective ways to drive virtual event registration, according to marketers, are event websites (80%), emails (76%), and social media (60%).
- 47% of webinar views come within ten days after the actual event of the webinar.
While you will get some registrations right away, many other potential webinar attendees need time to think about it. This means that you shouldn’t just promote a webinar once and be done with it.
On your webinar checklist, make it a point to market an upcoming webinar frequently to keep the webinar front of mind for your target audience and to net the most registrations and highest possible attendance rate.
- 75% of marketers prefer to host live webinars, and the immediate engagement is the main reason.
- 94% of hosts make their webinars available after the live event.
- About 50% of the videos people watchinclude informal and formal training videos, live streams, and webinars
- 66% of people say they watch at least one instructional or informational video per week.
- 67% of people would watch a 60-minute video or longer to learn a new job skill, or to increase their knowledge on a certain topic.
- When asked what keeps someone engaged in watching online video content, respondents said ease of following along (57%), relatable and current content (55%), and a knowledgeable and engaging speaker (51%).
- 22% of people will stop watching a video they find boring or uninteresting.
Live webinars are great opportunities for engagement in real time, but not all attendees can be there for the live event. So, you should plan on making your webinars available on-demand to continue to gain views and build up attendance.
As much as possible, you should also make webinar engagement features and contact information readily available for on-demand viewers. That way, they can continue to have their questions answered, and you can continue to generate leads and increase your webinar’s ROI.
Webinar ROI statistics
Are webinars worth the effort? Your webinar goals could be lead generation, improving brand awareness, or simply educating attendees on the products or services in which you specialize.
You’ve already seen how high a lead generation rate you could get from a webinar. The statistics below include the other elements that can help you determine the ROI you could expect from hosting webinars.
- 62% of webinar attendees express interest in sales demos.
- 78% of marketers said webinars helped lower their cost per lead.
- The average webinar cost per lead (CPL) is $72. In contrast, search engine marketing (SEM) averages about $92, while at trade shows and other live events, the CPL can be as high as $811.
- Nearly 60% of webinars are designed to cater to the entire customer lifecycle.
- 60% of webinars focus on nurturing customer loyalty.
- 83% of peopleprefer to consume instructional or informational content by watching a video, which means webinars are the perfect channel for product demos, trainings, and other content intended to inform.
- On average, 80% of marketers use just 1-10% of their marketing budget on webinars.
- 32% of marketers said their organizations would increase their investment in webinarsin 2025.
If executed well, a webinar can achieve an excellent ROI, both in direct sales as well as brand reach. Webinars tend to take up a fairly low percentage of an overall marketing budget, which means for the effort required to host them, the cost for each lead generated is less than many other marketing channels.
Plus, beyond helping to gain new potential partners and customers, webinars can also provide value to current customers and partners. This helps to keep them happy and continually engaged with your brand.
Should you conduct free or paid webinars?
Clearly, a webinar can be an effective marketing tool. The webinar statistics we just covered prove that. So, the question now isn’t so much if you should host webinars but when, and how often.
From there, you’ll need to decide if the webinars you host should be free to attend or require a fee. Your time and knowledge are valuable and important, which might mean it makes sense to charge for admission.
On the other hand, free webinars will certainly gain more traction, and depending on the types of webinars you’re hosting, attendees could be more or less apt to pay to participate. Ultimately, it’s up to you and what your overall goals are and whether you think you can achieve an acceptable ROI by charging for your webinars.
Free webinars
If you want a big, broad audience, you would do best to conduct a webinar for free. Free webinars are good for top of funnel lead generation and for increasing your brand’s reach. However, you should expect that your actual number of qualified leads and conversions will likely be low in comparison to the overall number of attendees.
Paid webinars
Fewer people will want to pay for webinars. However, those that do are genuinely interested in the subject and have some intention of following up on what they learn. That means that, while the audience is smaller, it is likely to produce a greater percentage of qualified leads.
Having a mix of paid and free webinars can be a good event marketing approach. It can allow you to draw in interested parties for free and then, if they decide to go even deeper with your paid webinar offerings, really help you to determine their interest and draw them into your sales pipeline.
