Is that trade show booth worth it?

Is that trade show booth worth it, and which shows should you buy?

A booth fee is the small part of the bill: travel, staff days and swag often double it. Paste the shows you could exhibit at — costs and the leads you expect — and set your funnel (lead to qualified, qualified to deal, deal value, margin). See cost per lead, cost per qualified lead, expected deals, ROI and the break-even lead count for each show, and the exact set of shows that earns the most under your yearly budget.

For small manufacturers, software firms and local-service businesses. Nothing is uploaded: the text box is analysed in this browser and never leaves your device.

1. Paste your shows

One row per show: name, date, booth fee, travel and lodging, staff count, staff days, cost per staff day, swag and collateral, expected leads, optional note

Lead to qualified (%) Qualified to deal (%) Average first-year deal value ($) Gross margin (%) Sales cycle (months) Lifetime-value multiplier (1 = first year only) Yearly show budget ($, 0 = none) Most shows per quarter (0 = no limit) Weak-show leads (% of estimate)

2. The plan

Every show, ranked by ROI

#	Show	Cost	Per lead	Per qualified	Deals	Gross profit	ROI	Break-even leads	Break-even close	Break-even deals

Buy

Skip

Plan against the usual shortcuts

Rule	Spend	Net gain

Prefer a CLI?

Same logic, zero dependencies, one command — reads a file or stdin:

node cli.mjs plan shows.csv --lead-qual 30 --close 20 --deal-value 12000 --margin 60 --budget 40000 --json
cat shows.csv | node cli.mjs plan - --budget 40000

Get cli.mjs and engine.mjs — Node 18+, nothing to install, no network call. More: Is a trade show booth worth it? Cost per lead and break-even math.

What's recognised

Input	Handling

The plan is exact for the numbers you type (search over every allowed combination, up to 40 shows). Brand awareness, existing-customer meetings, speaking slots and deals that would have closed anyway are not modelled; enter costs as they will really cost you and leads as you will really log them.

Common questions

Does it upload my show list?

No. The browser page works on the text you paste, in your own browser, and never sends it anywhere. The CLI reads a local file or stdin and makes no network call.

How is ROI worked out?

Expected leads x lead-to-qualified % x qualified-to-deal % gives deals; deals x average first-year deal value x lifetime multiplier x gross margin gives expected gross profit. ROI is gross profit minus total cost, divided by total cost. Every rate is your estimate.

Why skip a show that is profitable on its own?

The budget (and the quarter limit, if you set one) can only buy so many. The tool compares every allowed combination and keeps the set with the highest total net gain, and states what swapping a skipped show in would cost.

Is the plan guaranteed to be best?

It is the exact best answer for the numbers you typed, found by branch-and-bound and checked against trying every combination in the tests. Leads and conversion rates are your estimates, so the result is a decision aid, not a forecast. The page also re-checks the plan with leads cut.

Who is it for?

Small B2B exhibitors, manufacturers, software firms and local-service companies, deciding whether a booth pays back and which shows to buy in a year.