The truth is, there are a gazillion metrics (be it statistics, numbers, or analytical combinations) you can track to assess the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaign. However, not every metric is relevant or unique to your business which calls for customization.
That is, looking for metrics that best track your goal. Metrics that are objective, easy to monitor, relevant, and available continuously.
Psychologists suggest settling 5+2 metrics for easy processing – a logical start, huh?
That said, there’re a few important metrics to focus on in your digital marketing campaign. We’ll classify them in 3 broad categories for easy comprehension as below.
1. Visibility/Traffic Metrics
These metrics give you a glimpse of how visible your brand or business is within the market. They’re all about numbers and include:
Website Traffic
As the world changes, every business must have a website for professionalism’s sake. Luckily, you can also use your site as a measure of your marketing campaign success, making it a worthy investment. Here, you have to take into account the following:
- Total site visits
- Visits based on the source. For instance, how many web visits are by search queries, referrals, or direct input of your URL into the browser?
- Visits based on gadgets. Is it mobile traffic, tablet, desktop, or laptop?
- Number of repeat visits versus new visits
- Interaction per visit. That is, time spent by visitors on site, number visiting and leaving right away, as well as number leaving the site from a particular page (home, about, contact page, etc.).
- Site rankings
Social Media Followers
Your social media presence is essential to measure your brand engagement and awareness. Therefore, gauge the visitors who get to your site or engage with your brand based on what platform they use. Is it LinkedIn, Yelp, Facebook, or Twitter?
Email List
Check the growth of your subscribers, especially the mailable names; and gauge what ads bring in more subscriptions. In the end, determine the cost per visitor and the revenue per visitor to gauge your progress. For example, if an AdWords campaign generated 10 sales worth $15,000 in July, and 1000 visitors during the same period; your ‘revenue per visitor = 15000/1000=$15’. That means, your cost per visitor for July should be less than $15, otherwise you’ll be at a loss.
2. Expertise Metrics
These metrics measure how convincing your ad is at showcasing your expertise. They can be categorized into:
Content Metrics
Under content metrics, check the number of:
- Premium content downloads (white papers, courses, pdfs, etc.)
- Overall blog traffic per post
- Source of blog traffic per post (is it click-through or paid click)r
- Traffic per guest posts (or the earned media coverage)
Online Endorsements
These show how positively people are engaging with your digital marketing campaign. That is, how many social shares, inbound links (organic), or the number of people attending your live video sessions? The more endorsements, the better is the performance of your campaign.
Speaking Engagements
Every ad campaign aims at achieving a specific goal, correct?
Well, you can use the number of speaking engagements you’re involved in to measure the success of your marketing. Yes, there’s no telling whether they are directly as a result of your digital marketing campaigns, but in the end, it’s marketing that yields awareness. The beauty of this metric is that you can use it further advertise your products or services as you showcase your expertise in what you do.
Conversion Rate
It is the percentage of people who visit your ad and convert into whatever your goal is. Be it lead generation or sales conversions. For the latter, the target should be a 2% conversion rate and above. And when it comes to the lead generation type of business, strive for a 5 – 10% conversation rate or higher.
Under this, take note of the following:
- Total conversions
- Micro and macro conversion rates
- Conversion funnel rates
- Return visitor conversion versus new visitors conversions
- Cost per conversion versus revenue per conversion
3. Impact/Revenue Metrics
These show how impactful your digital marketing tactics are to the bottom line of your firm. They deal with prospects or paying customers. To gauge this, you can track the following:
Cost Per Acquisition
It shows you how much you have spent to convince someone to pay for your product or service. It’s a long-sighted version of cost-per-click helping you keep the big picture in focus.
Value Per Visit
Well, this is hard to quantify but it’s better comprehended when thought in terms of tangible or intangible value. Take e-commerce business for an example, a customer can add value to your business by spending their dollars purchasing your products or by leaving a review of your services on Yelp. They can also add value by sharing your promotional post across social platforms. The only difference is the tangibility of the value-added.
Lead to Close Ratio
It is an arithmetic metric. You just divide the overall number of leads by the overall number of closes or sales. While it shows your sales efficiency, it’s key in marketing ROI (return on investment) projections. When combined with the lifetime customer value, it’s easy to compute the amount you’re likely to get from ads by subtracting the amount invested in the ads from the returns.
Inbound Leads
As stated earlier, digital campaign ads are crafted to achieve various goals. Therefore, it is possible to measure the success of a campaign based on inbound leads, such as form fills, phone calls, and email responses.
Opportunities
Just like speaking engagements, the number of opportunities you receive following an ad can showcase its success or failure. Is it a chance to write copies, design bow ties for a wedding, or serve brunches at an event? The same goes for the number, value, and type of proposals you receive following a digital marketing campaign. Also, consider the wins (sales) from new and repeat clients. That is their number and cumulative value.
Firm Growth & Profitability
Probably the last metric for any organization and a sum-up of all the above metrics. And basically, it’s an evaluation of costs versus benefits.
In Conclusion
Regardless of your position on the digital marketing spectrum, it won’t be wise to use all the metrics at a go. As stated earlier, selecting metrics that are unique to your business is key. Luckily, you don’t have to go through the hassle of creating ads and determining what metrics to use to track them as we got you back! Chat with us today to get your customized digital marketing solution!