Many businesses get bogged down in tracking too many metrics. What’s more important is monitoring the data that matters, things that point to marketing and sales success and business growth. This guide reveals the metrics that matter to most businesses so you can focus on them and not waste time tracking insignificant numbers.
Think about common marketing metrics, and click-through rate (CTR) probably comes to mind. But does CTR really matter? Of course, it indicates whether your marketing calls to action resonate with the people you’re targeting.
But does it tell you whether your campaign is delivering actual business results? Probably not.
Some later funnel or more comprehensive metrics may be more valuable for that.
Many businesses get bogged down in tracking too many meaningless metrics. Doing so isn’t necessary. What’s more important is monitoring the data that matters, things that point to marketing and sales success and business growth. This guide reveals the metrics that matter (more) to most businesses so you can focus on them and not waste time tracking insignificant numbers.
Marketing metrics are performance-related data that help marketers, sales professionals, and business owners monitor, track, record, and measure the performance of promotional campaigns. Metrics are invaluable and have become more robust and available across countless marketing platforms like Google, social media sites, and other sources over the last several years. There is practically nothing in a promotional campaign you cannot measure. Which is why we have ended up in a period of data overload.
What are the most important marketing metrics to focus on? It all depends on your business and its marketing and sales goals. Here is a list of those that are likely valuable for you to stay on top of.
Brand awareness metrics measure how familiar the people you want to do business with are with your company. Becoming aware of your brand is the first step in the buying process. Here are some metrics to help you determine how well consumers know your brand.
· Impressions are used to track the reach of digital advertising campaigns on search engines like Google and Bing and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other media outlets. Impressions can also be used to monitor organic searches. For example, you can see website impressions within a specified period using Google Search Console. Impressions are a reasonable baseline marketing statistic because they help you determine whether your brand is getting in front of enough consumers. If not, it will be impossible for you to achieve marketing success.
· Keyword rankings reflect the performance of your website and its pages on search engines like Google and Bing. Many companies live and die by their online search traffic, and it's critical for them to rank highly for the keywords and phrases people use to search for the goods and services they sell. As Google pushes traditional search results lower and lower on the first search engine results page (SERPs) because of its focus on AI overviews (artificial-intelligence-powered answers), Featured Snippets (answer boxes), and paid ads, it’s critical to rank in the top three for your key search terms. If you fall below, your brand is not earning enough awareness in search, and it's time to refine your SEO strategies.
· Brand mentions are how frequently your company is talked about online. This metric reflects how much “free” website traffic your company could earn through online mentions of it.
Social media plays a critical role in many companies' marketing programs. Here are some social media metrics you should consider tracking:
· Organic post metrics such as likes, clicks, and shares indicate whether people in your audience are reacting positively to the content you publish in your social media feeds. If you’re not getting enough positive activity around your posts, change up your social media content until you find a winning formula.
· Paid social media metrics can help determine if your campaigns are performing as intended. Most social media platforms and some marketing blogs offer benchmarks you can measure against. Some key paid social media metrics include:
o Click-through rate indicates whether the people you’re targeting are responding to your ads. If click-through numbers are lower than the benchmarks for your industry, it’s time to rethink your ads.
o Cost-per-click (CPC) is the price you pay for someone to move from a social media platform to your website or landing page. If your cost is too high, it could make it impossible to make an efficient sale, cutting into your profits.
Be aware: CTR and CPC are metrics that could be valuable to track for any digital advertising effort.
Here are some metrics you can use to determine whether your marketing campaigns are performing as you intend on your website.
· Traffic sources are a series of metrics that tell you where your website traffic is coming from, such as organic Google search, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, or other referral sources. This metric helps you better understand how traffic from different places behaves on your site. For instance, are visitors from LinkedIn more engaged than those from Facebook?
· Time on page can help you understand how much time visitors spend on a web page. If you expect it to be approximately one minute and it only averages a few seconds, people are likely having a negative experience on the page. If this happens, it could be time to install tracking software on your site to help determine what visitors are responding to negatively.
· Bounce rate is the percentage of users who leave a website after visiting only one page. A high bounce rate indicates visitors are not engaging with your site, likely due to navigation issues or other signs of a bad visitor experience.
· The click-through rate on your website is similar to the click-through in digital advertising. It’s the percentage of visitors to a page who click on a link, usually a call to action. If your CTR is low, you are putting in significant time, effort, and money to get people to your website only for them not to take the final action you want them to take, such as booking an appointment, downloading something, or buying an item. If this is the case, you must figure out why you’re not sealing the deal.
· Conversion rate is a key way to track the performance of your digital marketing activities. Tracked in Google Analytics (GA), it is a metric used to measure the rate of users reaching an end goal, a conversion set in GA, such as an online purchase, form fill, or download. If your conversion rates fall, consumers may be tiring of your marketing program or finding better alternatives.
· Value per visit allows you to improve the dollar value of each visit to your business website. You simply assign each conversion on your website with a dollar amount in Google Analytics. For example, if you estimate that a form-fill to request a demo lead is valued at $500, you can add that action to the value of a website visit. Value per visit is an early indicator of whether your marketing program is cost effective.
· The average order value is the amount you earn per order from new customers through your marketing. If your initial purchases don’t cover your marketing costs, your promotional program could be inefficient.
· A marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is someone who has indicated an interest in a product or service and is viewed as likely to become a customer after being evaluated by the marketing team against defined criteria. Marketers then pass them on to the sales team. An increase in the percentage of leads that qualify as MLQs indicates improved targeting and overall marketing performance.
Once you’ve built brand awareness and got consumers to learn more about your business online, it’s time to start determining the quality of your leads and the effectiveness of your sales process. Here are some metrics that can help you do that.
· Second-stage meetings are virtual or in-person meetings with sales leads after they have been qualified. These meetings could be anything from a product demo to a formal business meeting with your sales staff. Earning a significant number of second-stage meetings is a sign that your business is targeting the right consumers and presenting the right messages so they are willing to advance in the sales process.
· Sales-qualified leads (SQLs) are highly likely to turn into business. If you find that you’re bringing in leads that are not qualified and seem like poor sales prospects, you’re just wasting time and money on your marketing efforts, and you should make adjustments.
· Deals closed from marketing are the number of sales generated by marketing activities. A high number indicates whether your marketing is targeting the right audience with the correct tactics and messages.
· Pipeline progression (close rate) is the average time to close a deal. It indicates how efficiently a sales representative or team performs to close deals. If one sales professional closes opportunities faster than another, it could be worth finding out what they’re doing so you can apply it to the rest of the team.
Performance metrics allow you to analyze your marketing funnel. They provide a bottom-line, profit-based view of how healthy and effective your marketing program is. In short, they help you figure out if your promotional efforts are paying off.
· Cost per lead (CPL) measures how much it costs to bring in a lead. It is a critical component of determining marketing efficiency. CPL is calculated by dividing the amount spent on a marketing tactic by the number of leads generated because of it. A low CPL is a sign of efficient marketing.
· Marketing return on investment (ROI) is the revenue earned from a marketing plan, campaign, or activity. It is calculated by dividing the amount spent on one or more marketing activities by the revenue earned. Marketing ROI is the simplest way to determine if your efforts are paying off. If the value is over one, you’re spending more on marketing than you earn from it.
· Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the cost of acquiring a new buyer. To calculate CAC, simply take the total cost of a marketing effort and divide it by the number of new customers it brings in. A relatively low CAC demonstrates a more efficient marketing campaign.
· Customer lifetime value (CLV) allows you to understand the efficiency of your marketing programs more completely than marketing ROI. CLV calculates how much a customer is worth to your business from their first purchase through their last. You can calculate it by determining the total amount a representative set of your customers purchases from you during their entire lifetime relationships. Considering this will help you see a more complete picture of your marketing value.
While attracting new customers is essential, retaining them is more so. Customer retention metrics reflect how well you keep your buyers engaged and active. Retention can be more important than attraction because selling more to a current relationship costs less than bringing in a new client. Here are some customer retention metrics that can help you understand whether you’re serving customers well and laying a solid foundation for doing more business with you.
· Customer churn is the rate at which customers stop buying from your business over time. This is a crucial metric for subscription-based businesses such as SaaS companies because lowering churn means predictable revenue, which is critical for the success of a business.
· Net promoter score (NPS) is, on a survey scale of one to ten, how likely a customer is to recommend your business to someone else. It reflects customer loyalty and points toward highly efficient business growth. If customers are likely to promote your company, you will bring in more new business at a relatively low cost.
Leverage this guide to determine the metrics your organization must track to succeed. The only way companies can achieve this is to consistently measure, learn, and adjust their promotional tactics based on what the numbers show. If you need help figuring out which metrics are right for you and how to monitor them, contact the experts at Jarrah Growth Marketing.
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