Why Free Summits Make More Money Than Paid Ones
I get asked about free vs paid summits more than almost anything else, and there's an assumption I hear a lot:
If people don't pay to register, they're not committed, and they won't buy.
It sounds logical. It's just not what the data actually shows.
What I've seen over and over again, in my own experience and from clients who have experimented with both free and paid summits, is that free summits make more money than paid ones.
I know that sentence doesn't even make sense on the surface. But when you dig deeper, the numbers don't lie.
So today I'm breaking down the real numbers behind free vs paid summits, including a few client stories that make the case better than I ever could on my own!
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Why Free Summits Make More Money Than Paid Ones
Wait, free summits make more money? They sure do!
Just a couple weeks ago, I was hosting a training and someone asked, "What about skin in the game with free events? Do people actually show up? Are they gonna buy anything if they can get in for free?"
So let's look at what's actually true here.
There's an assumption floating around that if people don't pay to register for something, they're not committed, and therefore they won't buy. It sounds logical, sure. It's just not what actually happens (if you set up your virtual summit correctly).
A lot of the people teaching you that free leads are "low quality" are usually also selling you a paid alternative. Of COURSE they want you to believe free doesn't work! On the flip side, I teach free events, so of course I want you to believe free events do work. But that's exactly why I want to look at the actual data instead of just opinions, mine included.
The Math Between Free and Paid Events
Free events are, obviously, WAY easier to get people to sign up for. The barrier to entry is just entering a name and email address. If someone isn't willing to do that, they probably don't need or want what's inside anyway.
But the second you add a ticket price, even a low one, registrations drop significantly. We've seen charging to attend a virtual summit typically drop registrations by 90%, consistently. If you'd get 100 registrations with a free event, that same event with a ticket price would probably bring in about 10.
We've tested this ourselves, too. Here at Summit in a Box®, we've hosted a paid event first, then followed it up a few months later with a free event. The paid event brought in about 200 registrations. The free event brought in over 2,000!
A lot of people also assume the people who pay for a ticket must convert higher on the back end. We haven't consistently seen that hold true.
Back in 2022, that paid event I mentioned DID convert into back end sales at a higher conversion rate, but it was no comparison on the revenue from the free event. The free event had so many more people that it generated significantly more revenue from back end sales, even if the conversion rate was lower! More recently, we tested it again, and the paid and free events converted to program sales at exactly the same rate, which meant the free event made 10 times the sales because it had 10 times the people.
We've seen this pattern repeat across a lot of different niches and with a lot of different clients, too. Some come to the Launch with a Summit Accelerator® after their paid event underperformed, switch to a free summit model, and the 10X difference holds true. Other clients host free events, decide to try paid, and come back saying, "Oh, you were right."
That said, paid events DO have their place. If you're looking to convert your existing audience rather than grow a new one, a paid event might be the better call for you.
Now let's look at some of the objections that may be coming to mind for you.
Objection 1: "They Won't Be Committed Enough to Buy"
Someone's commitment level isn't actually set by what they paid to get into the event. The people who are ready to commit right now are the ones most likely to buy the paid ticket, and maybe even your offer during the summit itself.
But down the road, a paid ticket model means you're missing the 90% of people who weren't ready immediately but are becoming ready because of your content, your emails, and what you post on social.
More important than someone's commitment level is how well your event is positioned. Are you targeting the right person with the right problem who wants your solution? If you're not doing that, it doesn't matter if your event is free or paid. It's not going to work. But if you are doing that well, a free summit lets you call in a lot more of the right people, because there's no barrier stopping them from getting to know, like, and trust you before they hand over any money.
The intent of the people who register is about your topic, not your ticket price.
Objection 2: "If They Don't Pay, They Won't Show Up"
There's is actually a lot of truth to this one. Show-up rates are absolutely lower for free events. But the people who do show up are genuinely interested in your topic because it's solving a real problem for them. And even with a lower show up rate, you're still going to have more people there overall, simply because there are 10 times more people registered in the first place.
Objection 3: "Okay, But Where Does the Money Actually Come From?"
With a paid event, the monetization strategy is usually the ticket price itself, and the goal there is often just to offset ad spend. Profit comes later, when you sell your offer.
A free summit works differently. You've got free registration up front, but then you're also selling an all-access pass during the event. You can bring in sponsors. You've got your offer launch after the event. AND you've got the people who don't buy right away but come back and buy down the road.
That's four layers of monetization instead of one. The money is absolutely still coming in when you host a free summit, just not through a ticket price at the door. For example, we've had the all-access pass alone bring in $121,000 for us in a single free summit. And we just had a client break $500,000 in revenue from a free summit recently. Free doesn't mean low-revenue with the right strategy in place.
The Long Game Nobody Talks About
In our very first summit for Summit in a Box, we launched our signature program, and about 2% of attendees bought our offer (which was at $1,500 at the time). That was a $63,000 launch and $78,000 total in summit revenue, which was, at that point, the most I'd ever made at once.
But I didn't write off the other 98% of attendees. I kept nurturing them with consistent emails and challenges in between summits, inviting them to join Summit in a Box when the time was right. That same group of attendees brought in an extra $180,000 over the following 18 months. Those people weren't low quality leads. They just weren't ready yet.
Not everyone buys the same way. Some people (like me) will find someone on Instagram and join a $5,000 program the same day. Others just need a lot more time to warm up. The great thing is, the free summit model works for both types of buyers.
A client in the parenting niche hosted two paid summits that brought in $1,800 total. She was disappointed and decided to try the free model instead. Her first free summit made $18,000, literally 10 times the revenue, using the exact same positioning and topic. She's since grown that to over $50,000 per summit. The data holds up!
So What Should You Actually Do for Your Next Event?
If growth is your goal, I haven't seen a situation where the free event model doesn't come out ahead. The commitment level of the people who register isn't determined by what they paid up front. It's determined by how relevant your summit is to what they're facing and what outcome they want, and that's the biggest thing you can actually control.
Paid events still have their place, especially if you want to convert your existing audience rather than grow it, OR if you don't have a nurture strategy that brings in sales between launches. But for most of you, free is where the real opportunity is.
If you're curious what this could look like for your specific audience, niche, and offer, I offer a free Summit to Sales Audit to help you see what's possible. DM me the word AUDIT on Instagram @summitinabox, or reply AUDIT to any of our emails, and we'll get you a custom breakdown of what a summit could realistically do for your business.
Resources
- Episode 74: Comparison of Free vs Paid Virtual Summits with Cara Harvey
- Episode 184: Why We're Hosting a Paid Conference Instead of a Free Summit
- Episode 195: What's the Difference Between a Free Summit and Paid Conference?
- Episode 197: "Free Summits Attract Low-Quality Leads and Freebie Seekers"
- Summit Host Hangout® Facebook group
- Launch with a Summit Accelerator®
- 6-Figure Summits Workshop Bundle
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