A successful marketing campaign always starts with selecting and defining marketing metrics. These metrics are the foundation of all marketing campaigns. These metrics are equally important for beginners as well as experienced marketers.
Marketing metrics help marketers understand their goals better. For running an effective marketing campaign, you need to track numbers, analyze data, and measure results. Some marketing operations can be successfully completed with the help of only the fundamental metrics, but not all.
It is essential to focus on these fundamental metrics, but they should never be a marketer’s sole focus. If you focus solely on these metrics, you’ll miss out on crucial insights and opportunities for progress.
To strengthen your campaigns, you’ll need to focus on all the important marketing metrics.
In this article, you’ll learn
- What are marketing metrics?
- Why are marketing metrics important?
- Is there any difference between traditional and digital marketing metrics?
- How can you set marketing metrics for your marketing campaign?
What are marketing metrics?
Marketing metrics are values that can be measured in numbers. Marketers use these metrics to record and calculate their progress over time. Marketing metrics can vary depending upon the platform.
There are many marketing metrics that marketers can choose to track their goals. However, every marketing campaign is different, and choosing the right metrics for measuring successes and failures according to the marketing campaign is necessary.
Without marketing metrics, marketers would never have a clear picture of whether the strategies they are implementing are working or not.
These metrics are measured using various tools and reports. The purpose of these metrics is to help marketers optimize their marketing strategies for achieving the best possible results.
Some of the most commonly used marketing metrics are Social media metrics, Email marketing metrics, website metrics, Leads, and organic search.
Using metrics for B2B vs. B2C marketing campaigns
Using marketing metrics for measuring the success of a B2B marketing campaign is a little more complex than using these metrics for B2C marketing campaigns—the reason being that a B2B sale cycle is very long compared to a B2C sale cycle.
In a B2B marketing campaign, waiting for the right time to measure the return on your investment is necessary.
According to RadekVanis, seventy-seven percent of B2B marketers measure ROI within the first thirty days of their marketing campaign.
More than fifty percent admitted that their sale cycle lasts more than ninety days out of all the surveyed marketers.
Measuring the ROI within the first month will only misguide these marketers.
Why are marketing metrics important?
Almost all leading marketers use these metrics to measure the success of their marketing campaigns. According to a study by MIT and Google, Eighty-nine percent of successful marketers use marketing metrics.
Marketing metrics are essential for any successful campaign because
- Metrics help marketers in making informed decisions based on data.
- Metrics help marketers in identifying the channels that have the highest ROI.
- Marketers can maximize lead conversions with the help of data provided by metrics.
- Marketers use these metrics to justify the money they have spent on marketing campaigns.
Marketing metrics help marketers optimize their campaigns and help the marketing department communicate their value to their organization.
Is there any difference between traditional and digital marketing metrics?
Marketers can look up digital marketing metrics anytime and anywhere because these metrics are measured using tools accessible almost 24/7. Since marketers are tracking these metrics virtually all the time, the end results are not very surprising.
As opposed to this, traditional marketing metrics can yield unexpected results because you are not always keeping track of them.
A significant difference between digital and traditional marketing is that digital marketing has more marketing channels. New apps are being introduced every single day, and the digital marketing channels keep on increasing.
It doesn’t entail that digital marketing is more important than traditional marketing. Both conventional and digital marketing are equally important. The critical thing to keep in mind is that you have to keep track of your marketing campaigns.
How can you set marketing metrics for your marketing campaign?
There are hundreds of marketing metrics, but a marketer can’t possibly track them all. In addition, every marketing campaign is unique and should be tracked with a different set of metrics. Another thing that comes into play when marketers are choosing metrics is their personal preference and experience.
You should choose metrics depending upon these two factors.
- Your goals
- Your focus
Goals
If your goal is to increase your brand’s social media following and engagement, tracking sales generated through email shouldn’t be your focus. Your priority should be monitoring the number of likes, comments, and shares your social media posts generate.
The marketing metrics you choose should link to your goals and desired outcomes. Your choice should also depend upon your strategy. By strategy, we mean how you’ll pursue your goals.
Focus
Always keep your focus on the metrics linking directly to your goals. There are tens and hundreds of metrics, and you can’t possibly keep track of them all.
The fewer metrics you choose, the more closely you’ll be able to monitor them. The more metrics you choose, the more divided your focus will be. It is better to track only the most essential metrics and not focus on the unnecessary ones.
Examples of three most used marketing metrics
As we have established, every marketing campaign is different and requires a unique set of marketing metrics. Having said that, there are some marketing metrics every marketer should know about.
CPA
CPA or cost per acquisition means how much money you spend to get one customer. CPA can vary depending upon the time of the year and marketing channels.
CPA is one of the most important marketing metrics, especially for digital marketing campaigns. CPA gives you an estimate of how much acquiring a new customer is costing you. According to the data gathered, you can determine if your strategy needs to be improved or not.
CPA is a financial metric. It helps marketers in measuring the revenue impact of their marketing campaigns.
Measuring CPA
To measure CPA, you’ll have to divide the cost of your marketing campaign by the number of conversions.
CPA= Cost of marketing campaign/ No. of conversion
Here’s a very plain example
Imagine you have a small online shop, and you have spent $100 on paid Instagram advertisements. At the end of your campaign, you have generated 20 sales.
Let’s calculate your CPA
CPA=100/20
CPA=$5
It means that you spent $5 to acquire one customer.
CLV
Customer lifetime value is the amount of money one customer is projected to spend on your business. CLV is calculated from a customer’s very first purchase to their very last one.
CLV calculation depends upon forecasts. It is a prediction of the future. These forecasts are based on the past customer experiences of your business.
Retaining customers is as if not more important than acquiring new customers. Successful Businesses earn more from recurring customers than they do from new customers.
Keeping track of CLV is vital for the success of any marketing campaign.
calculating CLV
CLV= ( Annual Revenue X Average Customer Lifespan) – Initial cost of acquiring customer
ROI
ROI stands for return on investment. This term is pretty self-explanatory. ROI is used to compare the amount of money you are spending to the amount of money you are generating.
For calculating ROI, compare CLV VS Customer acquisition cost.
Measuring ROI is crucial because no one wants to make an investment that will generate a loss. If your investment is not generating a good return, you need to modify your strategy.
Bottom Line
Designing a marketing campaign takes a lot of effort, but a marketer should never stop there. Tracking metrics and modifying campaigns according to the data collected is a tried and tested method of making a campaign successful.
Marketing metrics can be of many different types, and the metrics you choose to track should depend upon the nature of your campaign.
Marketing metrics help you in steering your marketing campaign towards success. With the help of these metrics, you can improve your campaign and rectify your failures.
Closely monitoring metrics can be a little hectic, but in the end, all this effort will prove fruitful.
Which marketing metrics do you consider the most important for any marketing campaign?
