You're probably here because you're trying to figure out what to expect on your webinars. A lot of people out there are saying start doing webinars, you're going to make a ton of money. And webinars work very well to share your message and make a lot of money. We're going to go through the stats that you should expect and, most importantly, how to raise those stats.
Set your expectations first
You have to either run ads or find places to deliver your webinar for free to start. If you follow the methods that I teach, you can sell a $2,000 item or a $1,000 item very easily over a webinar, because it gets your expertise in front of people. It helps you build the know, like, trust factor, you build some rapport, and it does make sales. The caveat is you either have to run ads or you have to get your webinar in front of people.
There are three numbers we're going to cover:
- What number you should expect for your webinar sign-up, and how many of those people should show up.
- Once you've got people to the webinar, how many people make it to the offer, because that controls how many people will actually buy.
- How well your offer converts.
Number 1: your sign-up and show-up rate
This has to do with your front-end funnels and how you are getting people to the webinar. Average numbers here, if you're running Facebook ads, are somewhere between $10 and $35 per opt-in. It depends what you're selling and what niche you're in, because some niches are obviously more competitive than others. It also depends on your ad copy, how great your ads are, whether you're running video ads or text ads, and whether you are running retargeting ads. $10 is on the very low end. When you're just getting started, I would expect $15 to $20 as your average, without knowing anything about you.
So how many of those people are actually going to show up to a live webinar? Industry standard is somewhere around 20%. That's not a huge number. That means one out of every five people. If you're spending $20 per person and you spend $100, you're going to have five people and you're going to have one show up. That means you're spending $100 to get somebody onto your webinar. If you spend $1,000, having 10 people show up live would be considered average.
How to raise your show-up rate
If you don't have an ads budget right now, that does not mean you can't do a webinar. You just need to find some Facebook groups that you can present your webinar in to start with. That is a great way to pitch to a semi-warm audience, where you're going to be introduced by somebody as an expert. This gives you a warm audience that you did not have to pay for. Reach out to group owners and start there.
Once you have some money to run ads, I would say plan on running $2,000 in ads. I would run some YouTube ads, because people on YouTube are looking for video. If you don't know how to do that, or it's too complicated, let that go. I would run Facebook ads then, and a retargeting sequence. Running great front-end Facebook ads with a three-step retargeting sequence will get people to opt in. Once they've opted in, you need to have a solid email sequence in place. I would recommend emailing them four to five times the day before and the day of your webinar.
The biggest single thing that will drive people to your webinar is showing them testimonials of people who have got results, testimonials that invoke curiosity. For example: this person did a webinar and they sold more than $30,000 to a cold audience on less than $1,000 of ad spend. Showing that and creating an open loop will drive people to your webinar. The more curiosity you have, the better your show-up rate. And the more follow-up you have to drive them to the webinar, with different testimonials and different curiosity hooks, the more your show-up rate will increase.
With some of my clients, we have been able to get them up to a 30% show-up rate just by changing their front-end sequence. One person we were able to actually get to 43% on one batch of ads. That is not normal, don't expect that out of the box. But the way that you raise it is raw curiosity, retargeting ads, and client testimonials that get people curious and say, "I want that outcome."
Number 2: how many people stay to the offer
This has to do with how well you present. How engaging are you? Are you telling amazing stories? If you've been on a webinar any time in the last six months, you know that a lot of them are a snoozefest. People are falling asleep, they're looking at Facebook, they're tuning into something else, they're tuning out of the webinar and they're dropping off.
Average numbers right now are somewhere around 50%. 50% of the people that are on the front end will stay to the offer point. I've definitely seen some that are like 30 to 40%. If you're doing an auto webinar, take about 20% off of these numbers, so 30% staying on is the industry average.
How to keep more people to the offer
Number one is open loops and creative storytelling. You want to create drama. Think about a great soap opera. If you've never watched a soap opera, I recommend you watch just a few of them so that you understand how open loops and drama work. The more stories that you can tell that create open loops and get people leaning forward, the more subtle drama that you put in, people enjoy that. That's why we love movies, that's why we love TV shows. At the end of the show they always leave you on a hook, so that you have to tune in next week. One of my favorites of all time was the first season of True Detective. Lots of open loops, lots of drama, lots of good storytelling.
I've been able to take people from the 50% average to over 75% of their people that come in the front end staying to the back end.
The other thing you can do is create a storyline that they care about. Instead of random pieces all over the place, or just teaching, teaching, teaching, create a story arc that meets them where they're at and what they're struggling with, takes them through their pain points, and shows them how to solve it in a very clear and linear fashion. By showing them something that gets them involved and gets them future pacing their results, they will lean in harder.
Number 3: how many buy (your webinar conversion rate)
Industry standard here is somewhere between 3 and 5% of the people who make it to the offer will end up buying. That's one out of 20 on the average end. So if you have 20 people make it, you will make one sale.
How to raise your conversion rate
The key is you have to have a great offer stack. People buy when you pile on so much value. The more value you give, the more somebody is apt to buy. Solving their problems is where you get somebody to buy. All the open loops that you create in the front end of your webinar should be closed with what you are selling them. By creating those open loops, you've created desire, you've showed that you can solve their problem, and you solve it when they buy.
You do not create value by talking about all the things that are in your program. I want to be very clear about that. I watch some webinars where people go on and on about their course and what's in it. You're selling a coach seat on a flight to Hawaii. That's not what anybody wants. What people want is to be sipping mai tais on the beach in Hawaii. So sell that. Sell the outcomes. People buy outcomes.
You should have your main course up at the top of the value stack, and then underneath it you should have at least five additional things and two bonuses. By building the stack correctly, building anticipation and using those open loops, you can get up to a 20% close rate. That's around the highest that I've seen to cold traffic. On average, we've been able to take our client closes from an industry standard of 3 to 5% to 10% or slightly better.
Key takeaways
- Facebook ads run about $10 to $35 per opt-in. Expect $15 to $20 when you're just getting started.
- About 20% of the people who register show up live (industry standard). Curiosity, retargeting ads and client testimonials have taken clients to 30%.
- About 50% of the people who show up stay to the offer, and about 30% on an auto webinar. Open loops and a story arc have taken people to over 75%.
- 3 to 5% of the people who make it to the offer buy, one out of 20. A great offer stack that sells outcomes has taken client closes to 10%, and 20% is around the highest seen to cold traffic.
Questions people ask
What is a good webinar conversion rate?
Industry standard is somewhere between 3 and 5% of the people who make it to the offer, one out of 20. With a great offer stack we've been able to take client closes to 10% or slightly better, and a 20% close rate is around the highest that I've seen to cold traffic.
What is a good webinar show-up rate?
Industry standard is somewhere around 20%, one out of every five people. We have been able to get clients up to a 30% show-up rate just by changing their front-end sequence.
Can I do a webinar without an ad budget?
If you don't have an ads budget, that does not mean you can't do a webinar. Find some Facebook groups that you can present your webinar in, reach out to group owners and start there.
Keep reading
- 7 Open Loop Strategies That Keep Your Webinar Audience Glued to the Screen
- Effective Ad Strategies for Events: Why Retargeting Ads Are Your Secret Weapon
- This 7-Part Offer Framework Is Behind $20M+ in Sales
Watch me walk through all three numbers in the video at the top of this page.
