How to Choose a B2B Event Marketing Agency

Seven questions to ask before you hire a B2B event marketing agency, with what a good answer sounds like and the warning signs to watch for.

What a B2B event marketing agency should actually do

A good B2B event marketing agency fills your event with the right people, runs it well and gives you the data to follow up. A poor one sells you a room and leaves you to find the audience. The two can look identical in a proposal, so it helps to ask direct questions before you sign anything.

These seven questions are the ones that separate agencies that create pipeline from those that create activity. For each, we have set out what a good answer sounds like and what should make you pause.

1. Who builds the audience?

Delegate acquisition is the hard part of any event, and it should be built around your target accounts and job titles. Ask whether the agency recruits guests against your ideal customer profile or simply invites its own database.

A good answer: the agency agrees your profile with you first, then recruits against it through several channels, and can explain how it will reach your target accounts.

Warning sign: a vague promise of a large database. A big list is not the same as the right people.

2. Is attendance agreed in writing?

Ask what number of attendees is contracted and what happens if the event falls short. A contracted number gives you something to hold the agency to, and a report at the end shows whether it was met.

At ELN, sponsored events carry a contracted attendance number and we report the result against it. Across our sponsored dinners, 306 guests attended against 267 contracted seats.

Warning sign: an agency that talks about reach and impressions but will not commit to a number of people in the room.

3. Can you accept or reject registrations?

You know your market better than any agency. For invitation-only events such as dinners and one-to-one meetings, you should be able to review each registration and approve the guests you want before they are confirmed.

Open-registration formats such as webinars work differently. They are built to reach a wider audience, so the value comes from the size and quality of the pool rather than from approving each name. A good agency will explain which approach applies to which format.

Warning sign: an agency that confirms guests without showing you who they are.

4. What delegate data do I receive?

An event without data is a one-off. Ask what you receive after the event, in what format and how soon. Your sales team needs the list to follow up while the conversation is still fresh.

A good answer: a clear delegate list, supplied after every event, with attendance marked against registrations.

5. Can the agency run more than one format?

Dinners, roundtables, webinars and one-to-one meetings each suit a different goal. An agency that offers one format will recommend that format, whether or not it fits your objective.

ELN runs private dinners, virtual roundtables, webinars, Meet the Buyer summits and one-to-one meetings, so the recommendation follows your goal. Our guide to B2B event marketing explains how to match format to objective.

6. Can it work across regions?

If your market spans countries, ask whether the same team can run events in several regions, and whether it understands the differences between them. Running one programme with one partner is easier to manage than coordinating several.

ELN runs events across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

7. Do other sponsors come back?

Repeat bookings are the clearest proof that a programme worked. Ask any agency for its repeat booking rate, and ask to speak to sponsors who have worked with it more than once. A sponsor who books again has seen the results first hand.

Warning sign: case studies with no numbers, or references the agency is reluctant to share.

A quick scorecard

The audience is built against your ideal customer profile.
Attendance is contracted and reported.
You approve guests for invitation-only events.
You receive the delegate data after the event.
More than one format is available.
Several regions can be covered by one team.
Past sponsors will speak to you.

If an agency scores well on all seven, you are in a strong position. If it scores poorly on the first three, think twice, because those decide whether the right people are in the room.

Frequently asked questions

How do I compare B2B event marketing agencies?

Ask each one the same seven questions and compare the answers side by side. Pay most attention to who builds the audience, whether attendance is contracted and what data you receive.

Should an agency guarantee attendance?

It should agree a contracted number with you in writing and report against it. A clear number is a sign the agency is confident in how it recruits.

Can I use an agency just to fill an event I already run?

Yes. ELN provides delegate acquisition as a standalone service for B2B marketing teams, agencies and other organisers. Read more in our guide to delegate acquisition for B2B events.