Whether you think your business is doing fantastically well at marketing or seriously struggling, you could be wrong if you’re not looking at the correct key performance indicators (KPIs). Tracking the appropriate marketing KPIs will shine a light on your marketing achievements so you don’t have to wonder what’s really working. But how do you know where to look first?
Of course, if you’re not familiar with marketing KPIs (or haven’t done much work yet tracking them), you need some tips and tricks to get it right. Read on for all there is to know about marketing KPIs and how keeping a close eye on them will help you grow your business.
What Are Marketing KPIs?
Marketing KPIs refer to any data that relates to your marketing strategies. They help you to know (with great certainty) which of your marketing moves are working, and which are not.
Relevant KPIs differ between businesses! You really can’t copy another business’s exact KPIs in the hopes that your business will similarly thrive. You really have to get to know the ins and outs of your niche to determine which marketing KPIs are most relevant.
Reflect on your business goals to determine which marketing KPIs are most important to your business. For example, if your goal this year is to improve your website traffic from social media, you need to keep a close eye on your site visitors from various social media platforms.
7 Marketing KPIs Your Business Needs to Track
On your journey to become fluent in the language of marketing KPIs, there are a number of metrics you can use to get started. Take a look at seven key performance indicators that will give you a clear picture of your business strengths and weaknesses.
Once you have a good handle on how and when to lean into different data points, you’ll be able to specialize a unique growth plan tailored to your business!
Customer Lifetime Value
How much money you expect to make off a single customer over the course of their life depends on what type of services you provide. For instance, if your business is tailored to pregnant people, you can only expect business from a concentrated portion of the population (think about age, how many children, etc.)—and only when they’re pregnant.
On the other hand, if your business offers grant-writing services to nonprofit organizations, you can expect a longer relationship with your clients. Create a realistic estimate of how much money you can make per client. From there, you can adjust your budget and better plan your marketing efforts.
No matter your niche, your customer lifetime value will increase if you form strong relationships with your clients. Personalize your brand experience and stay true to your values each time you take on a new client!
Return on Marketing Investment
This marketing KPI reveals if your advertising budget yields enough business to justify it. All entrepreneurs need to spend money to make money. Obviously, you need to make more than you spend in order to grow.
There is short-term and long-term data to consider for return on investment (ROI) data. While short-term data measures how much money you make from a single campaign, long-term data considers other factors.
Your long-term ROI marketing data might reveal that one particular strategy generates a lot of conversation about your business. Even if it doesn’t draw in big bucks, it might be worth the investment if it sparks greater awareness about your brand.
ROI accounts for the total amount spent on a particular piece of marketing, including things like paying your team members or outsourcing design for an ad.
Return on Ad Spend
Return on ad spend breaks down the dollar-for-dollar worth of your specific marketing campaigns. Most businesses communicate this marketing KPI as a ratio! For example, if you make $5 for every $1 you spend on a campaign, your return on ad spend is 5:1.
ROAS differs from overall ROI because it focuses on the impact of one specific campaign at a time. It also only considers the monetary figures involved. The most challenging part of piecing together your ROAS is collecting cost values from every corner of your campaign! Otherwise, your ending ratio will be off.
One of the main differences between ROI and ROAS is that your return on ad spend only looks at the amount spent on a particular ad platform for a particular campaign, as opposed to all of the elements that you invested in for a particular campaign.
Marketing Qualified Leads & Sales Qualified Leads
These marketing KPIs work together to communicate vital information about your marketing effectiveness. Marketing qualified lead (MQL) data indicates when potential clients are engaged with your business (but not quite ready to make a purchase).
Sales qualified lead (SQL) data reflects those (former MQL) potential clients who are ready for a more assertive sales push. Since marketing qualified leads become sales qualified leads, it’s important for businesses to track the turnover from one to the next. Businesses who are able to move more traffic down the qualified-lead highway experience more success.
Related: Qualifying Your Prospects
Followers, Shares, and Engagement
These marketing KPIs relate to any online content (on your website, social media, blog, etc.) produced by your business. You have a number of followers for every platform that your business maintains an account with. Your combined audience makes up informative data about the hype of your brand (or how many people have “liked” or interacted with your content).
Content interaction is crucial to the success and growth of most businesses! Whereas some of your clients will find you via Google search, most others will come across you on social media or just crawling around the digital web.
Marketing KPIs that reflect how (or how often) and who you are reaching with your content marketing strategies help you predict the usefulness and attractiveness of your brand.
Web Traffic to Lead Ratio
The way in which your potential clients navigate your website says a lot about the effectiveness of your content. Are visitors reaching your landing pages but bouncing away quickly? There could be a disconnect between your advertisements and subsequent information pages.
You can isolate data for each page of your website and track patterns to pinpoint weak spots. Once you have eyes on the problem areas, you have the power to make improvements!
Tapering your service introduction or changing up the style of your content (from text to video, for example) might be the answer to your problem. Obviously, the fewer people that turn away from your business, the better.
Organic Entry Pages
Organic entry pages are those that your visitors find using search engines. Increased data on your searchable landing pages is a sign that your search engine optimization (SEO) is working beautifully!
Organic entry is desirable because it doesn’t cost your business any money to show up in a Google search. Once you carefully craft your content with SEO keywords, you’re good to go.
If your organic page-entry data is low, it signifies that you need to choose better keywords for each website page. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential clients to figure out what words or phrases they type into their search engines when they need you (as the answer to their problems)!
Understanding and effectively using your marketing KPIs takes some practice. But knowing how much your business will grow definitely helps to get your head in the game! Use the tips in this post to target and make the most of your marketing KPIs.
Want to maximize your marketing without having to figure out your KPIs on your own? Fractional marketing is the perfect option for you!
