ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report: COVID-19 Special Edition

How Businesses Drive Digital Engagement in a COVID World

contentsEXECUTIVE STATEMENT 3

KEY CHANGES AT A GLANCE 4Methodology 5

KEY FINDINGS 6Webinars are the way businesses are engaging their audiences 6

Webinars are becoming more interactive 8

Webinars are engaging at scale 9

Webinars are bingeworthy content 11 Webinars are the method for creating human interactions 13

Webinars are providing experiences everywhere 15

Other highlights 16

CONCLUSION 18

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Executive StatementSince we last published our Webinar Benchmarks Report to provide an overview of webinar performance across 2019, the world has changed dramatically. The threat of COVID-19 has caused companies to quickly switch to remote working, with almost anyone who can work at home being asked to do so.

However, the sudden mass move to distributed working will have lasting impacts, even when the virus subsides. Major employers now see this as the new normal. Facebook announced it expects 50% of its staff to work remotely over the next five to 10 years, while Twitter announced its employees will be free to work from home forever. Even firms that did not embrace such practices before the outbreak are rethinking their models.

Furthermore, while face-to-face interactions offer a strong and personal way of connecting, major events have been canceled and the value of business travel is being questioned.

The result of these changes means that even once everyone can move freely, there will be a new normal in place. Digital interactions will command an even greater share of communications.

At ON24, we’ve seen first-hand the scale of this shift. In 2019, our platform handled 86,802 webinars, roughly equating to an average of 7,200 webinars a month.

But in April 2020 alone, 19,294 webinars were hosted on ON24—roughly more than 640 webinars a day.

We believe these figures represent the new ways in which people engage with online content, which is why we have updated our report to show you the trends at work.

In this new world, webinars are the answer to connect with your audiences wherever they are. When compared with almost any other alternative—from static written communications to one-way video broadcast—webinars are the only channel that allow you to offer two-way interaction at scale, in a way that feels personal and human. They allow you to engage on the terms of your audience, while providing a rich stream of data that can enable you to keep lifting the bar on their experience. And by lifting the experience, you’ll create content that your audiences will crave.

So come on in and find out how your peers are using webinars today. Welcome to the new normal.

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Audiences are craving webinars even more, consuming 295% more webinar content

than the 2019 daily average.

Webinar hours per day in April

42,9132019

2020

Businesses are turning to webinars to create connections. April 2020 saw a 167% increase in webinars run on ON24’s

platform compared to the 2019 average.

168,615Average

webinars per month in 2019 7,234

Number of webinars in

April 2020 19,294

Webinars are becoming larger and engaging at scale. More than half of all ON24 webinars now have 100 participants or more, while nearly one in four

(24%) have 500 attendees or more—up from 15% in 2019.

Webinars with at least 100 participants

Webinars are becoming more interactive, with more webinars overall taking advantage of engagement tools

that connect with their audience.

Q&A

81%2019

90%

Webinars are becoming more visual, with more than half of all webinars in April 2020 incorporating some type of video in their events, a massive jump

from 2019.

Video in live webinars

Audiences are choosing webinars even more than last year, as a higher share

tune in a�er registration. Overall, conversion rates for webinars have increased by six percentage points.

Registrant to attendee conversion rate

38%2019

55%April 2020

55%2019

61%April 2020April 2020

52%April 2020 41%2019

The below figures give a highlight of some of the key changes seen in webinar usage in April 2020.

key changes at a glance

This study examines statistics across a webinar’s lifecycle, including webinar promotion and registration metrics, interactivity metrics, audience viewing habits, and both live and on-demand attendance and conversion metrics. Unless otherwise noted, this study uses the following definitions:

Live webinars—Audio or video-based events streamed on a specific day and time.

On-demand webinars—Audio or video-based webinars attendees can view at any time, including archived live webcasts.

Registrants—Prospects registered to view an event.

Attendees—Prospects who registered to view an event and attended that event.

MethodologyON24®, the world’s leading webinar platform, compiled the data in this report. The events included in this analysis were selected from a random number of ON24 webinars conducted globally in April 2020.

ON24 measured 10,076 webinars in this analysis

All webinars were held between April 1 and April 30, 2020

All webinars had at least 100 attendees

Events represent a cross-section of more than 1,600 organizations

Companies range in size from Enterprise to SMB

Where quoted, figures for 2019 are based on a comparable analysis of all qualifying webinars between January and December of 2019.

The report also features data from a survey of 100 ON24 customers along with key findings from ON24’s Experiences Everywhere report, based on a wider survey of professionals that includes those not using ON24. The data collection for both occurred in late 2019 but are included here to give further context.

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Key FindingsWebinars are the way businesses are engaging their audiencesIf the need to cut through to customers was ideal before the outbreak of COVID-19, it is now essential. B2B marketers face the challenge of creating real connections with customers and prospects right when both audiences are flooded with more content than ever before. As a result, marketers are turning to webinars as a channel for engaging audiences. And, according to our benchmark data, audiences are responding positively through consumption and engagement.

Monthly usage has risen 167% year-over-year.

What our data from April 2020 indicates above all is the explosive growth in webinar usage since the outbreak of COVID-19.

In 2019, our platform handled 86,802 webinars, roughly equating to 7,200 webinars per month. Then, ON24 users were already forecasting an increase in webinar production—55% of respondents in 2019 planned to increase the number of webinars they produced in 2020. However, our most recent data shows plainly that since the move to remote working forced by COVID-19, webinar growth is likely to be far more significant than anyone could have anticipated.

Compared to 2019’s roughly 7,200 monthly webinars, just under 19,300 webinars were hosted on ON24 in April 2020 alone. On average, this 167% uplift equates to webinars being run twice a week per company, with a webinar taking place once per minute on the ON24 Platform.

Viewers are watching three times more webinar content than in 2019.

Webinars are helping marketers bridge the gaps left by in-person events and keep up engagement, and it shows. We now see almost 169,000 hours of webinar content being watched each day—almost three times the average of 43,000 hours in 2019.

The average viewing time for webinars in April 2020 was 54 minutes, down slightly from 56 minutes in 2019, so these increased viewing hours arise very simply from thousands more attendees watching webinar content.

In April, webinars were attended every day of the week, with Friday’s attendance up slightly from 9% to 12% compared to 2019.

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of registrants in April 2020 converted to attendees—up from 55% in 2019.

Registrants to webinars are attending more.

April 2020 saw conversion rates rise significantly. Overall, 61% of registrants converted to attendees, up from 55% in 2019. For events with more than 100 attendees, the average conversion rate is now 53%, up 10 points from 2019’s 43%.

Though achieving a high number of registrations is the first step in a successful webinar program, attendance rate is more of a key performance indicator to gauge true effectiveness. A conversion rate between 35% and 45% is typically considered good, so these recent figures are just one indicator of how many more marketers are turning to webinars to deliver and receive key content at this time.

61%Webinars are here to stay.

We believe that not only are webinars proving to be crucial in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, but that in our new-normal world they will remain a key digital capability for companies, teams and marketers.

If our April 2020 data reflects the trend for the whole of 2020, organizations will hold an average of 144 webinars in 2020.

Reach a larger audience and create a more tailored experience by combining the impact of in-person events with the scale provided by webinars. Whether it is a hybrid event or a fully virtual conference, you can meet the needs of different personas and provide always-on content they can access on their terms. Check out our webinar on How Box Uses Digital to Boost the Impact of In-Person Events.

ON24 TipUse webinars to adapt your in-person events to a fully digital experience.

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Webinars are becoming more interactive

of all webinars in April 2020 offered resources for attendees to download or engage with.

Engagement has always been one of the best measures of success. Now, it’s a measure of success and vital human connection. Since the necessary reduction in face-to-face business, built-in interactive tools now play a key role in fostering meaningful two-way engagement and creating long-term customer relationships.

Integration of various engagement tools has increased.

The Q&A tool was the most popular engagement choice to drive audience interaction in April 2020, used in some 90% of all analyzed webinars—up from 81% in 2019.

Many key tools remain popular, including resource lists (offered by 69% of all webinars in 2020), surveys (38%), social widgets (21%) and polling (18.8%). Furthermore, the tools that have seen a slight increase in usage in recent data indicate how webinars keep communication lines open during this challenging time—for example, the call to action engagement tool rose in use from 6% to 15%, with ‘contact us’ widget use rising from 10% to 13%.

69%Engagement breeds solidarity.

In April, we saw the power of engagement at work. ON24 introduced the COVID-19 response engagement tool to enable our network—over 2,500 enterprises with a collective webinar audience of more than a half-million professionals per day—to join the fight against coronavirus and its consequences.

Through the tool, webinar audience members have been encouraged to make a donation to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, and for each engagement, ON24 has made a donation in turn.

Top performance is associated with engagement.

Data from the Experiences Everywhere study shows that in 2019, top-performers incorporated more multimedia elements into their webinars. These include PowerPoint slides (91%), Q&A sessions (88%), polls (78%) and surveys (73%). Around one in five (22%) also offered training certificates.

Even before COVID-19 made these tools all the more meaningful, engagement elements were showing results—in a separate 2019 survey, more than eight in ten ON24 customers (81%) said their audiences were engaged with their webinar content, with 15% “strongly agreeing” this was the case.

ON24 TipCustomize your webinar console to drive engagement.

Take advantage of the webinar environment to build a connection between the attendee and your brand. A fully branded, customized webinar console helps you set your program apart from the get-go. Read our Webinar Console Branding Guide to learn how you can achieve this.

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Webinars are engaging at scale Marketers must find new ways to execute strategy by replacing or rethinking experiences that might have had any number of audience members. To help address the need for both raw scale and scale across the buyer’s journey, marketers are turning to webinars.

Webinar benefits abound at any audience size.

Webinar content is enhancing business by allowing a wide range of companies to run sessions with a wide range of purposes. Based on recent data, size is no limit to the potential for a highly successful webinar.

More than half (52%) of the 19,294 webinars hosted on ON24 in April 2020 had more than 100 participants. This is up from 41% in 2019 and 34% in 2018. Of these, almost one-quarter (24%) hosted 500 or more attendees and 10% hosted more than 1,000 attendees.

Marketers are also using a wide range of webinar formats to market their products and services across the funnel. In a 2019 survey of ON24 customers, these formats included creating educational webinar courses (60%), providing demos (53%) and giving technical deep dives (50%).

100-199

200-299

300-499

500-599

1,000+

40%

19%17%

14%10%

Breakdown of webinars with 100+ attendees.

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In the fallout of COVID-19, companies are being forced to consider whether elements of business that previously were face-to-face can be carried out in alternative ways. As many organizations have already exhibited, this is likely to be long-term. Webinars offer a unique opportunity for businesses to creatively adapt to the new normal and reimagine the way they execute strategy.

How to achieve webinar success at scale.

The content of your webinar is a key element, but so is the way it’s promoted. Getting people to be aware, if not excited, about webinars, should be a concerted effort that starts at least two weeks before launch, or even earlier.

Longer promotional campaigns translate to more registrants. While more registrants signed up at short notice in April 2020, the use of webinars in marketing and content delivery campaigns will be prolonged, if not permanent. In any case, a longer promotion cycle can boost registration rates and increase the likelihood of converting registrants into attendees.

Promotional emails shouldn’t just be reminders though. Hit the ground running by including supporting content and building up excitement ahead of your webinar. Read more in our Webinar Registration Best Practices Guide.

ON24 TipRun your webinars around the middle of the day.

The best time for a webinar is one fitting in with your audience’s schedules, but as a rule, lunchtime to early afternoon works well. If in doubt and you’re in the US and covering multiple time zones, shoot for at 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET).

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Webinars are bingeworthy content

of top-performing marketers used simulive features in 2019—allowing them to record first, but interact live.

Webinars are not just serving the needs of marketers right now—they are becoming bingeworthy TV. Professionals are now spending more time interacting with digital channels, and many are actively looking to consume educational content or learn new skills in preparation for uncertain times.

As discussed above, in April 2020 viewers watched three times as many hours of webinar content as the 2019 monthly average. Not only

50% that, but registration and viewing data indicates that consumption of webinar content is looking more and more like that of must-see TV.

More viewers are signing up last-minute.

Based on April 2020 data, three-quarters of registrants (75%) sign up in the week of the webinar. This is a marked difference from the behavior in 2019, where 43% of registrants did so. In particular, the share of day-of sign ups has almost doubled, from 10% in 2019 to 19% in April 2020.

Moreover, the share of early registrants has gone down, and webinars are increasingly functioning like on-demand TV:

19% 10%Day of

8-14 days before 16% 29%

56% 33%1-7 days before

More than 15 days before 10% 28%

2020 2019

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Live viewing is not the only way to watch.

Data from April 2020 showed a slight increase back towards live-only webinars, with 60% of attendees choosing this option (up from 57% in 2019). However, one-third (34%) of attendees accessed the on-demand version only, demonstrating the need to make webinars available to audiences on their terms.

The majority (95%) of these on-demand-only attendees register a week after a live event.

Consider a content hub.

To facilitate the increasing demand for on-demand viewing, consider placing your webinars and other content within a content hub. On average, organizations using the ON24 Engagement Hub hosted an average of 36 pieces of content within these platforms in 2019, providing multiple opportunities to drive engagement.

Right now, professionals are interacting almost exclusively with digital channels. Rather than letting your webinar lead to a dead end, give prospects and customers access to bingeable playlists of content and drive inbound leads.

Live only Live and on-demand

On-demand only

60% 6% 34%

ON24 TipProduce a regular stream of webinar content.

Don’t fall into the trap of seeing webinars as just a tactic to add on to the end of your marketing campaigns or education and training efforts. Instead, make them a regular and frequent part of your marketing activity. As you run more sessions, you’ll find out what works for your audience—allowing you to continuously improve performance.

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Webinars are the method for creating human interactions

of all webinars in April 2020 featured some type of video.

One of the key elements missing from professional life in the wake of the coronavirus crisis is human interaction. From water-cooler talk to meetings with key partners and accounts, face-to-face interactions have disappeared, straining mission-critical communications between professionals. Webinars provide a medium for these connections to take place, allowing professionals to continue the interactions they need to make to keep business going.

In April, webinars were larger and more frequent.

Data from April 2020 indicates that webinars are increasingly being used to their full potential with a view to getting as close as possible to these missing interactions. As well as the significant increase in the number of webinars taking place, average attendee rate per webinar is up.

55%Some 52% of ON24 webinars in April 2020 attracted at least 100 attendees, up significantly from 2019 (41%) and 2018 (34%). Furthermore, almost one-quarter (24%) of ON24 webinars in April 2020 hosted 500 or more attendees. By comparison, just 15% of webinars did so in 2019.

Evidently, webinars have the power not only to connect disparate or remote workers in general, but to replace larger in-person interactions like events with great success.

Integration of video and webcam is up in 2020.

Another key way that webinars have been able to contribute to a sense of human interaction at a time when many have been working from home, and are likely to continue to do so, is through video integration.

More than half (55%) of live webinars in April 2020 featured some type of video—this is up from 38% in 2019, and a significant 16-points higher than in 2017. This suggests practitioners have become increasingly comfortable with the use of video technologies over recent years, but recent events have taken this important integration to the next level.

In the long-term, video is likely to remain unprecedentedly useful as companies reevaluate the necessity of all face-to-face interaction.

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Video is one of the most effective forms of content you can use to convey your message, and adding video to webinars has been proven to increase audience engagement and viewing times. Turn passive viewing into active engagement by integrating relevant video content into your webinars. For more tips, read our guide on Five Ways to Integrate Video Into Your Webinars.

ON24 TipUse video in your webinars to drive engagement.

There are multiple ways to integrate video.

simply use a webcam to record video—so don’t be put off by a perceived need to use expensive cameras or equipment.

For ON24 webinars, videos include:

Studio produced

Webcam presentations

Integrated video clips

Streaming and screen sharing

50%Marketers wanting to ease the loss of human interaction should feel confident in joining their peers and increasing their use of video integration.

In a separate survey of ON24 customers in 2019, half (50%) of respondents just used a webcam to record video, while 7% used their phone and 2% used a hand-held video recorder. This should reassure the small fraction that say they “don’t have the appropriate equipment” to use video in their webinars, particularly as many more professionals now have to work from home. In fact, 8 in 10 claimed that adding video to their webinars is easy.

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Webinars are providing experiences everywhere

of ON24 customers integrate webinar data with their tech stack.

Webinars are perfectly placed to deliver content in a professional world where, more than ever, those running sessions cannot anticipate when and where their audience might need to tune in.

Remote work is today’s new normal and looks likely to remain that way. With digital channels becoming the only way for many professionals to consume and interact with content, businesses are casting an increasingly wide net. Audiences, more than ever, are always-on, and we are seeing virtual interaction with them becoming a core strategic practice.

‘100% virtual everything’.

In April 2020 we saw an increase in viewers using smartphones to attend webinars. Some 12% of attendees tuned in on a mobile device compared to 9% in the last quarter of 2019. Webinars aren’t just providing a pandemic-proof solution to engagement—they are part of a longer

56%story wherein the nature of work becomes far more dependent on virtual channels in a post-COVID future.

It’s not only ON24’s data that tells this story. In a recent study, TOPO identified an emerging tech stack trend since the pandemic: ‘100% virtual everything.’ The research firm has seen that webinars and virtual conferences are becoming the fastest growing demand generation investment since the loss of physical events caused a massive blow to many organizations’ pipeline.

Elsewhere, a McKinsey study found that among B2B buyers as well as B2B company customers, the importance of digital sales interactions vs. traditional ones has risen 40% and 30% respectively. Just below 8 in 10 (79%) of their respondents said their company was somewhat or very likely to sustain changes made to their business model during the pandemic for 12 months or more. Some 80% have already adjusted incentives in response to the crisis.

Whatever stage of digital transformation organizations were at when they entered this period of change, webinars can be a cornerstone for increasing the reach of digital and virtual channels in the years to come.

Make sure to collect and use data from your webinars to find out what works well—and what doesn’t. Also look to integrate your webinar platform with your CRM, marketing automation or e-learning systems—this will help those not directly involved with webinars to be able to see how each one of your customers interacts and engages. Find out how ON24 Connect can help you with this.

ON24 TipUse webinar data to close the loop and improve performance.

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Other highlights

of ON24 customers integrate webinar data with their tech stack.

Webinars can be evergreen in the marketing and sales cycle.

Webinars, along with the engagement data they create, are valuable. In fact, as of the end of 2019, at least half (56%) of ON24 customers integrated webinar data with the rest of their marketing technology. Coincidentally, this percentage almost mirrors the share of survey respondents (55%) which say that sales prioritize leads from webinars.

Some 38% of these respondents also consider the quality of leads generated through webinars to be above average (4 or 5 on a five-point scale).

56%Personalized webinars go further.

In a separate study of ON24 customers, more than 8 in 10 (83%) said they added custom design elements such as imagery, icons and backgrounds to their webinars in 2019.

Taking advantage of the webinar environment by creating a fully branded, customized webinar console helps set your program apart. For specific key accounts or general account-based marketing activity that might have previously been very dependent on face-to-face business, a higher level of personalized engagement builds a long-lasting connection.

Mid-week promotional emails perform best.

Data from April 2020 matches previous benchmark reports in its indication that emails sent on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the strongest performers.

Mon

21%18%Tues Thur

21%Fri

13%Sat/Sun

5%Wed

22%

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On-demand viewers watch for less time.

In April 2020, the on-demand viewing time averaged 29 minutes. This may indicate that as professionals work increasingly from home, those hosting them should look to pack as much value as possible into the first half hour of their on-demand sessions.

Conversion rate varies industry to industry.

Overall, conversion rate from registrant to attendee was up to 61% from 55%. In April 2020 as in 2019, communications and training saw the highest conversion rates.

2020

68.97% 68.78%

2019

Communications

54.75% 43.52%

Training

47.63% 39.29%

Marketing

58.61% 36.82%

Continuing education

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ConclusionThe data from April 2020 shows how vital webinars are, not just to modern communication but to communication in a changed world. As employers everywhere shift to remote working, the number of hours spent watching webinars has increased dramatically to almost three times the average in 2019.

Two people now enter an ON24 webinar every second, and every minute there are 24 questions being asked.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen not only an increase in webinar volume but also great webinar experiences. There’s been a significant increase in the use of video, more attendees are tuning in via mobile, and technology is providing even more ways to engage with audiences. The response on our platform to recent events has shown that this is just the beginning.

The ON24 Engagement Score is a 10-point scale that assesses an individual attendee’s engagement with your webinar and content based on their average webinar viewing minutes, questions submitted, polls answered, surveys completed and more. As an aggregate across our four major webinar concentrations the ON24 Engagement Score remains near all-time highs:

Average ON24 Engagement Score per Channel Type.

Marketing: 3.8

Training: 3.9

Continuing Education: 4.7

Internal Communications: 3.6

Our survey data also shows that the worldwide community of Webinerds is brimming with enthusiasm for what webinars can offer, helping them to extend their brand, scale their marketing efforts and look more professional.

But we also see that there is work to be done to convince others about the benefits of webinars. According to our survey of ON24 customers, some 24% said that getting buy-in from stakeholders is the most difficult challenge they face. Now more than ever, we need to make the case that webinars are the ideal channel for reaching our audiences and engaging them in real human ways.

In a noisy world, webinars are how we deliver human engagement at digital scale, wherever our audiences happen to be.

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