Marketing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are vital factors to monitor, record and measure the success of marketing initiatives. They are a critical component of any marketing plan. Without them, marketing teams are unable to track performance and effectiveness. The most appropriate metrics and KPIs vary by organization, platform and campaign. By understanding the impact of marketing efforts, marketers can optimize current endeavors and plan for future programs.

Metrics vs. KPIs

When it comes to marketing performance, the terms key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics are often used interchangeably. While they are related, they have some very important differences. All KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs.

Essentially, KPIs measure performance based on specific goals.  Examples of marketing KPIs include sales growth, customer retention, conversion rate, social media engagement, referral rate and website traffic. KPIs are typically strategic.

Metrics, on the other hand, measure the performance of specific business actions or processes. Examples of marketing metrics include social media likes and followers, email open rate and content downloads. Metrics are generally tactical and indicate the success of specific marketing initiatives over a defined period.

Metrics and KPIs to Consider

When it comes to metrics and KPIs, determining the right ones to measure is essential to setting realistic, relevant goals that put a business on a path toward growth. For marketing metrics and KPIs to provide value, they need to reveal important insights about your company’s lifeblood: its customers. This is accelerated in today’s “Engagement Economy,” says Laura Patterson of Vision Edge Marketing. “Today the basic premise is that every organization needs to create personalized experiences that foster genuine relationships with customers. The Engagement Economy requires taking a different approach to measurement.” In today’s customer-centric marketplace, the Engagement Economy is less about lead generation and more about retention and loyalty, Patterson reminds marketers. “This has major implications to customer metrics.”

It’s important to better understand your clients and prospects and fuel the success of your marketing programs and organization. Consider the following metrics and KPIs:

1. Customer retention rate, also known as churn rate, refers to the rate at which customers stay with a business. Typically, a low churn rate means high customer retention and loyalty. To calculate your churn rate, you need to know the number of customers you had at the start of a given period (month, year or even campaign) and the number of customers that remain at the end of that same period. This formula will help you determine the churn rate:

(Lost Customers ÷ Total Customers at the Start of Time Period) x 100

For example, if your business had 250 customers at the beginning of the month and lost 10 customers by the end, you would divide 10 by 250. The answer is 0.04. The average B2B churn rate is five percent.

2. Value per customer, also referred to as customer lifetime value, is a measure of the total income a business can expect to bring in from a typical customer for as long as that person or account remains a client. To measure value per customer, it’s best to look at the total average revenue generated by a customer and the total average profit.

3. Share of wallet is a related metric to value per customer but helps envision value in relation to the relevant competition. Share of wallet is how much a specific customer spends on your brand rather than with your competitors. This metric requires customer feedback and market research. It can help marketers determine where opportunities exist to generate more revenue from existing customers.

4. Customer satisfaction can seem like an immeasurable concept, but with the right tools, customer satisfaction is another vital marketing metric. Utilize data collected from customer satisfaction surveys to uncover critical needs, reveal opportunities, strengthen relationships and enhance brand value.

5. Click-through rate (CTR) shows the number of clicks a marketing campaign receives compared to the number of times it is seen. It is often used to measure the success of ads. It can also be used to determine the effectiveness of blogs, newsletters, articles and other content. CTR can help gauge the success of certain campaigns along with keywords, topics, headlines, visuals and platform relevance.

6. Cost per lead (CPL) typically refers to a digital advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays a consistent price for each lead generated. For other types of content such as white papers, eBooks and guides, prospects provide contact information in exchange for a piece of content. To determine CPL, divide the amount spent on a campaign during a period by the number of leads acquired through that campaign for the same period.

7. Number of downloads can be a useful metric when longer content such as a white paper, annual report or case study is gated behind a landing page. This metric helps gauge the relevance of long-form content to highly targeted audiences.

8. Number of followers is a valuable metric across platforms such as social media to determine audience size. Engagement figures, however, are more important than number of followers. Consider the ratio of interactions to number of followers to evaluate audience relevance.

9. Organic website traffic is an important KPI to help marketers understand the number of visitors that come to your website organically or not through paid ads or posts. Free tools such as Google Analytics or Neil Patel’s website traffic checker can help track this number in relation to backlinks, time of year and other marketing campaigns.

10. Pages per session is another helpful website metric that shows user engagement by determining the number of pages a particular user visits before leaving your site. High pages per session show users are staying on your website. This indicates the website is easy to navigate and contains relevant internal links on each page.

11. Newsletter sign-ups are an important measurement of new email newsletter subscribers. This number can determine the effectiveness of website pop-ups, email campaigns and call-to-action buttons.

12. Email open rate is the percentage of subscribers who open a specific email out of your total number of subscribers. Open rate is impacted by the email subject line, sender name and visible content. Consider this figure in relation to click-through rate to identify what types of email content effectively persuades users to click through to your website.

13. Conversion rate refers to the number of users who click through to a piece of content and take the intended action of that offer. This action can be scheduling a call, making a purchase or signing up to learn more. Conversion rate is important to discovering viable leads. To calculate conversion rate, divide the number of total viewers by the number of users who took the desired action.

Valuable Insights Require Strategic Thinking

This list of metrics and KPIs can provide a great foundation to gauge the success of marketing campaigns. It’s vital to continue to review which figures are most important for your business and its goals. “There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all list for every company all of the time,” says Patterson. “It’s almost impossible to come up with one metric or a set of metrics that will be in place forever.”

When considering metrics and KPIs for your marketing efforts, understand that measurement alone does not offer valuable insights. To garner actionable insights about your customers and marketing outreach, combine metrics and KPIs with strategic thinking that responds to customer interest and constantly seeks to improve.