If you’re looking to improve your marketing performance, it can be difficult to know where to start.
One of the most important things you have is your data – but what does that mean? And how can you turn this into actionable insights?
This article will explain some fundamental concepts about defining marketing KPIs, and offer advice on defining these metrics for your marketing team.
But first…
Why do KPIs matter?
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘what gets measured gets managed’ before. This is true in multiple spheres of life, whether it’s weight loss or increasing productivity at work. The same goes for measuring marketing activity too! If you don’t measure results then there’s no way to tell which things are working, and which aren’t. This can mean you’re wasting time on activities that won’t help your marketing grow.
First of all, there are many performance indicators (PIs) you can track – not just conversions! Any number is technically a PI. Conversions are important of course, but your online marketing strategy is more about how people are interacting with your brand, products or services on your website. By tracking your website behaviours in addition to conversions you’ll be able to understand your user journey better – an essential part of asking better questions to create a strong measurement marketing strategy.
The key to deciding on what your marketing KPIs are lies in determining where you need to focus your attention (or actions). Is it your conversion rate that is off? Is it your revenue that is off? Is it your add to cart rate that has decreased? Your marketing KPI is based on what is broken. They are customized to your own user journey.
If you’re still unsure about what your marketing KPIs might be, let’s look at a few examples.
Marketing KPIs in action: 4 tips
1) Is it actionable? If not, don’t measure it. Otherwise, it’s just interesting which isn’t helpful or relevant.
2) Beef up your UTM strategy. In the wake of the iOS 14 updates from 2021, it’s more important than ever to use a proper UTM implementation across all platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, webinars, one-on-one email correspondence, etc. This will help give you a clearer picture of where your website traffic is coming from.
3) Use fewer numbers, and more behaviours – Numbers are a byproduct, but site behaviour is more important to understand user behaviour. Lots of marketers are so focused on the end-conversion event that they don’t give the opportunity to tell the story of the entire website user journey. This includes landing page behaviour (video viewership, time spent on the page, scroll activity and viewing key content, click activity), click-through rate to the conversion page, the add to cart conversion rate, etc.
4) Measure only what you can forecast. When you’re deciding which marketing activities are worth pursuing, choose KPIs that can help you measure results at least three months down the line – this could be anything from website conversions to social shares or even mailing list sign-ups. Examples of forecasting metrics are click-through rate (CTR), the conversion rate on the landing page, the add to cart rate, etc., which give an indication of how well your content works for readers once they’re on your site.
Overall, your goal is to move from flying blind to marketing reliably to scale your business. This is accomplished through doing a better job of listening to your marketing feedback loop which entails the entire user journey on your website, not just how many reach the goalposts. Each step builds upon the next and the behaviour reaches a point of predictability. That’s when the magic happens because you can scientifically isolate specific touchpoints to optimize the customer journey.
This is how businesses are able to scale because they know their key performance metrics to focus on improving. This incremental progress over time creates a culture of continuous improvement that is reflected in bottom-line revenues and results.
If you’re seeking a marketing team that will look beyond your ad results by measuring your KPIs and establishing a forecasting methodology for your business, you’ve come to the right place. Contact us today for a consultation to discuss your measurement strategy and how we can help.
