Eventworth report · October 2026
B2B Event ROI Report 2026
Events are the channel marketers trust most and can prove least. What the 2025 to 2026 research says, and what to do before 2027 budgets are set.
B2B marketers rate events as their most impactful channel, yet most event budgets went flat or down in 2025. The gap isn't performance; it's proof.
This report pulls together published research for events and marketing leaders planning 2027. Every figure links to its source. The last section is Eventworth's view of what to do about it.
01 · The channel
Events are still the channel marketers trust most
Across four surveys, events rank at or near the top of what B2B marketers say works.
| Finding | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Say in-person events are their most impactful marketing channel | 78% | Event Marketer, 2025 |
| See events as a major source of revenue | 88% | Splash 2025 Outlook |
| Credit at least half their closed-won deals to events | 52% | Splash 2025 Outlook |
| Running a mix of formats, say in-person is most effective for revenue | 60% | Event Marketer, 2025 |
| Say in-person events deliver results in ABM, second only to email (92%) | 72% | Demand Gen Report, 2025 |
One caution: the 52% is a belief about credit, not a measured result. It is exactly the kind of claim finance now asks events teams to prove.
02 · The budget
Budgets went flat or down anyway
Most B2B events budgets were flat or cut in 2025
69% flat or down (blue), 29% up · share of B2B events leaders
Only 29% expected a rise, down from 32% the year before. Of the money that remains, 53% goes to hosting the company's own events and 47% to third-party events.
03 · The gap
The gap is proof, not performance
41% of marketers said they struggled to measure event ROI in 2024 (Splash 2025 Outlook). When a team can't measure an event, it falls back on influenced pipeline: every opportunity at every account that attended.
Influenced pipeline overstates events because it counts deals that were coming anyway. Finance knows this, so a large influenced number often lowers trust instead of raising it. The measure finance accepts is pipeline added: what attending accounts created, minus what similar accounts that didn't attend created in the same window.
Few events teams can report that today, for two practical reasons:
- No comparison group. Almost no team holds back a set of target accounts from invites, so there is nothing to compare attendees against.
- Attendee data that doesn't match the CRM. Personal emails, subsidiaries and duplicate accounts mean many attendees can't be tied to an account at all.
04 · The signal
Investors are betting on event data
In July 2026, Vendelux raised a US$50M Series B, bringing its total funding to US$71M, to help companies choose events and link participation to sales outcomes (Skift Meetings). Coverage of the round cites an estimated US$85B business meetings market. The money is following the same gap: events are big, and their results are poorly measured.
05 · What to do
What this means for 2027 planning
Eventworth's view: the teams that keep their budgets in 2027 will be the ones that replace influenced pipeline with a smaller number finance believes.
- Judge this year's events on pipeline added, before the budget is set.Compare attending accounts with similar target accounts that didn't attend, over 90 days. It is weaker than a planned holdout, and far stronger than influenced pipeline.
- Give every event a verdict: Repeat, Fix or Stop.Move money from Stop events to the formats that added the most per US$1, and name the one change for every Fix.
- Build the proof into 2027 from the brief.Hold out 1 in 5 target accounts at random, write the prediction down before invites go out, and set follow-up deadlines by sales owner.
Before your budget meeting
Get a verdict on every event you ran this year.
The Eventworth budget-season audit judges your last 12 months of events on pipeline added and hands you the one-page CFO summary, in about two weeks. Raw CRM files are read in your browser and never uploaded.
Sources
- Splash's 2025 Outlook on Events, Cvent press release, Mar 2025 (1,058 US marketers)
- 69% of B2B events budgets flat or down, Marketing Week, Aug 2025, reporting Forrester's Global State of B2B Events 2025 (269 respondents)
- 14 Datapoints on the State of the B-to-B Events Industry, Event Marketer, 2025, compiled from Bizzabo, MPI and Splash research
- 2025 Year in Review Surveys, Demand Gen Report, 2025
- Investors Bet $50 Million on Event ROI Data, Skift Meetings, Jul 2026