These are the need to know KPIs that should be in your digital marketing playbook.
Website Engagement
If you have a website then you must realize that is your digital face/brand. And if you have an online brand or persona and your goal is to increase the number of prospects to embrace your brand then the following KPIs will provide you value by being able to measure if your digital marketing strategy is working:
TRAFFIC SOURCES
Understand which traffic sources are driving visitors to your website.
The Traffic Sources metric measures which traffic sources are driving visitors to your website, and provides a comparison of each of those sources. The three main traffic sources are direct, referral, and search, although your website may also have traffic from campaigns such as banner ads or paid search. In addition to measuring the number of visitors from each traffic source, consider analyzing the number of goal completions from each source.
Metrics to remember –
Success indicators-
- An increase in volume from any traffic source, while maintaining consistent traffic from other channels.
- A high or improving goal conversion rate related to any traffic source.
Online Campaigns – CPM, CPC, CTR, CPA
Measuring the performance for your online Campaign
CPM (Cost Per Mille)
Also called cost per thousand (CPT) (in Latin mille means thousand), is a common measurement used across all major forms of advertising including: Radio, television, newspaper, magazine, out-of-home advertising, and online advertising. Ad space is purchased on the basis of showing the ad to one thousand viewers. In online advertising, this view is called an impression.
When buying ad space on specific popular high quality, high traffic websites CPM is the most common form of purchase. The number of impressions will be based on the advertisers’ needs, the campaign time frame and the websites traffic volume. This is a good option for brand awareness in key ad positions and although it does not guarantee clicks it can be comparably effective with other buy types.
CPC (Cost Per Click)
Or Pay-per-click (PPC) is a buying model in which advertisers pay the publisher only when the ad is clicked.
This method is most popular with search engine advertising (Google, Yahoo & Bing) for keyword bidding however is also available across other display networks. The cost paid is either an agreed flat rate or bid based, meaning advertisers compete against other advertisers for the ad space.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign by analyzing the number of clicks that an ad received versus the number of impressions that were delivered.
The higher the click through rate, likely indicates the more engaging and relevant the ad has been.
The CTR is calculated as follows: Clicks/Impressions x100
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
Also known as Cost Per Action, Pay Per Action (PPA), or Cost Per Conversion is an online buying method, where the advertiser pays only for a specified action. This may be an online purchase or a form submission.
This buy type is less risky for the advertiser however the environments available to run this activity are generally less targeted can be of lower quality and costs can be high.
Cost per Lead
The number of leads alone does not designate a successful digital campaign. You want to keep lead acquisition costs low so that you can maintain healthy margins and see meaningful growth. By measuring cost per lead for different web sources, you can focus on digital activities that will be the most profitable for your business and reinvest your marketing dollars accordingly.
How to Measure Cost Per
Lead: (Total Spent on Campaign)/(Total number of Leads)
Social Interactions
Measure the engagement levels of your social media campaigns
You might be wondering what your social media reach and engagement have to do with your marketing KPI’s. Well, social media is a huge component of your inbound marketing strategy, allowing you to engage and share content with users. The Social Interaction KPI measures the effectiveness of your social media campaigns at fostering positive engagement. Key interactions can play a pivotal role in a post or story going viral, so it is very important to ensure that you are nourishing the right types of interactions. As well, a strong social media measurement strategy will map these interactions to other marketing goals, such as website conversions or new wins.
Terms to remember-
Interaction: A communication between an audience member and your brand’s social profile. This may take the form of platform specific interactions such as Mentions on Twitter, Likes on Facebook, or +1’s on Google+.
Success indicators-
- A high level of engagement that corresponds to the completion of key marketing objectives.
- Viral posts that require little or no nurturing on your behalf.
- Sustained engagement over a long period of time.
Landing Page Conversion Rates
Is your content generating conversions? A great well to tell if your landing pages are converting visitors is to see how many people are visiting each landing page and identifying how many of those visitors are actually completing your lead capture forms. One reason people might not be converting is your content. Are you creating remarkable content that will make your visitors convert into leads? If your conversion rates are hovering around 10% or under, you’ll want to revisit the page and learn how to write more persuasive landing page content as it relates to your audience.
Another great way to increase conversions would be to optimize your landing pages and call to actions by performing A/B tests.
Organic Searches
What percentage of your traffic is from organic searches?
The traffic to your site generated by organic searches can be directly correlated with your search engine optimization strategy. Some great metrics to help you identify where you organic search traffic is coming from include:
- Number of lead conversions assisted by organic search
- Number of customer conversions assisted by organic search
- Percentage of traffic associated with branded keywords
- Percentage of traffic associated with unbranded keywords
- Those are four really great metrics to help your company gain a better understanding of your brand awareness, content marketing effectiveness, as well as the impact of your SEO strategy.
Mobile Traffic
You cannot forget the increasing amount of traffic, leads and customers being produced through mobile devices like Smartphones and tablets. Is your website effectively optimized for mobile? One way you can tell if your company is generating traffic and leads through mobile is to calculate the following metrics:
- Number of lead conversions from mobile devices
- Bounce rates from mobile devices
- Conversion rates from mobile optimized landing pages
- You don't only want to see how many visitors are converting through mobile but you also want some indication of how effective your mobile presence is.
