Successful marketing is both an art and a science. And while many content managers would argue that creativity is king, one of the most essential elements of any campaign is the ability to measure performance. Tracking marketing metrics is the best way to gauge how well a campaign works toward reaching key performance metrics (KPIs,) but which ones are most important? With hundreds of datasets at your disposal, knowing what to benchmark can quickly become overwhelming. Don’t worry, though; we’ve got your back! In this article, we explain the 10 marketing metrics to monitor for success.
Marketing Metrics Explained
Marketing metrics collect quantifiable data on the actions taken by an audience within a campaign. Tracking this information measures the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and its impact on your business.
Since each metric provides a particular insight, the stats you track should align with each of your marketing strategies; here are just a few examples:
- Content marketing: blog views, shares, downloads
- Digital marketing: CTR, impressions, leads
- Email marketing: opens, clicks, unsubscribes
- Quality: Quality Score, reviews, monthly recurring revenue
- Revenue: amount generated by each channel
- Sales: rep response time, call volume, call reviews
- SEO: keyword average rankings, search volume, organic traffic
- Social media: follower count, reach, engagement rate
- Video: impressions, views, total viewing time
- Website: traffic, bounce rate, conversions
Why Marketing Metrics Matter
Marketing metrics matter because they not only determine if your current campaigns are successful but also inform you of the best way to optimize campaigns in the future.
By tracking the precise metrics of your marketing efforts, you glean insight into what is (or isn’t) working to achieve your goals, making it easier to adjust budgets, channels, targeting, and copy in real-time.
Many companies also use marketing metrics as a factor in allocating annual budgets for marketing, advertising, and staffing.
Marketing Metrics to Monitor
As discussed, the metrics you monitor depend on the KPIs for the campaign. But since each KPI can produce many metrics, we’ve narrowed down the ten to measure to keep your campaigns on track.
Clicks
Clicks is a marketing metric that records how many times someone clicked on an element in your marketing asset that resulted in an action. Clicks are tracked on search engine and social media ads, organic posts, email links, form submission buttons, and all forms of digital calls-to-action (CTAs).
In addition to measuring the effectiveness of your campaign, this metric is a helpful tool when budgeting for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Tracking the click-through rate (CTR) allows you to gauge the engagement and quality of your campaigns. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. A higher CTR indicates that your audience finds your marketing assets persuasive enough to continue their journey to your landing page, white paper, case study, etc.
A “good” CTR depends on many factors, including the marketing platform. For example, Google Ads lists 3.17% as an average CTR for most industries.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is an efficiency metric used to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of clicks. Tracking this metric tells you if your offer resonates with your audience and can point to a disconnect between your marketing assets and the landing page.
Conversions
Conversions are the gold standard of campaign success! Tracking the number of times someone completes your desired final action lets you know that your message is not only landing but also turning prospects into clients and customers.
Conversion tracking is different on each platform—often requiring you to monitor the customer throughout their entire journey—and gives you the best indication of the campaign’s return on investment (ROI).
Examples of conversions include:
- Online purchases
- Booking appointments
- Content downloads
- Starting free trials
- Video views
- Newsletter subscriptions
- Lead form submissions
Cost per Conversion
It’s imperative to track the cost per conversion (CPCon) of your campaigns as an efficiency metric. CPCon is calculated by dividing the total spend by the number of conversions.
Tracking this metric tells you if you’re spending too much for too few returns and provides insight into the best way to tweak underperforming campaigns. Use CPCon to decide if changing marketing assets is the answer or if a different channel might work better.
Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) measures the average amount paid to convert a prospect into a paying customer within a certain time period. This is an important metric to track to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and to gain insight into what drives your business model. CAC is calculated by dividing the marketing cost by the number of customers acquired.
Here’s a very simple example:
Your company has an average CAC of $100. If a new customer spends an average of $3,000 per purchase, that’s an optimal CAC level. But, if the average customer spends only $50 per purchase, that CAC is unsustainable in the long run.
Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the total monetary value a customer generates over their entire lifecycle with a business. In addition to measuring customer loyalty, tracking CLV zeroes in on which strategies work best for your business while lowering new customer acquisition costs.
CLV is calculated by multiplying the average customer value by the average customer lifespan.
Impressions
Impressions is a marketing metric that records how many times your campaign content was displayed to your target audience on a marketing channel. Impressions are typically tracked on search engine and social media ads, and organic posts.
Tracking impressions is the best way to determine if a platform algorithm deems your content valuable to its users and how far the channel really reaches.
Return on Ad Spend
Measuring return on ad spend (ROAS) is considered the ROI for paid campaigns. Tracking ROAS sheds light on the effectiveness of your ads and the impact of these strategies on your bottom line. ROAS is calculated by dividing ad revenue by ad spend.
When the statistics are broken out by platform, ad, or campaign, it’s easier to understand which assets generate the highest profits. ROAS metrics can also combine with other stats—cost per acquisition, cost per lead, cost per click—to gather intel on the KPIs needed to reach your revenue target.
Search Impression Share
Search impression share is a performance marketing metric that records how often your campaign assets were served during searches for high-value keywords. The value is given as a percentage and is calculated by dividing impressions achieved by the estimated number of searches.
Example:
A 74% search impression share means that your content served 74 times out of 100 searches.
Tracking search impression share is used to determine the caliber of your ad copy, the impact of your budget, and the relevance of your keywords to the campaign.
Need Help?
If you’re intimidated by the thought of tracking your own marketing metrics or need help developing successful marketing strategies and campaigns, let’s talk! Top Fox Marketing specializes in equipping businesses with a dedicated, outsourced marketing department using laser-focused strategies that deliver extraordinary results.
