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A key performance indicator (KPI) is only effective if you’re actively measuring it.
Key performance indicators can help provide insight into whether your marketing efforts are effective or you need to take a different approach. For example, if one of your campaigns is negatively affecting ROI, the sooner you know the better.
Marketers who measure their KPIs on a frequent basis can more easily identify bad campaigns and flip the switch before it affects the ultimate objective. Likewise, campaigns showing promise through positive key performance indicators can be further explored.
Cathy McPhillips, vice president of marketing for CMI, emphasizes the importance of measuring your marketing activities in A Simple Plan for Measuring the Marketing Effectiveness of Content.
“I can’t stress enough how critical it is to measure the results of your content marketing activities so you can continually learn what your audience likes and use that information to continually improve,” Cathy says. “The result? Happier prospects, happier customers, and happier management.”It is critical to measure the results of your #contentmarketing activities, says @cmcphillips. Click To Tweet
If you’re not actively measuring your KPI, then you’re missing out on opportunities to improve your business’s bottom line. Each KPI can also be a useful reporting metric for marketers wanting to strengthen support for their work.
The bottom line? Pick KPIs that you are going to actively measure and stick to it.
Link marketing goals to the right KPI
Not every marketing campaign starts off with a perfect goal set. In some cases, a little fine-tuning is necessary along the way. You will only know whether you’re chasing the right goals if you associate the right KPI with them.
In some cases, marketers create a bunch of random key performance indicators for show-and-tell, but they mean little in the long run if they don’t match your goals. If you’re only reporting KPI for reporting’s sake, you’re doing a disservice to your business.If you’re only reporting KPI for reporting’s sake, you’re doing a disservice to your business. @mikeonlinecoach Click To Tweet
“Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to identify the key performance indicators (KPI) you need to measure,” Sarah Goliger says in 5 Ways to Translate Your Content Marketing Goals into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). “To get the most out of your content marketing strategy, determine your specific goals and tie them to the right KPIs.”There’s no magic formula to identify the KPIs you need to measure, says @sarahbethgo. Click To Tweet
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Match Key Metrics With Your Content Goals
Use multiple ROI metrics to help paint a bigger picture
If you’re focusing on only one KPI, you could be negatively impacting other metrics without realizing it. Analyzing multiple key performance indicators can help paint a bigger picture.
TIP: Unsure of what KPIs to consider? Check out the list near the end of this post.
Neil Bhapkar offers some excellent perspectives in 8 KPIs Your Content Marketing Measurement Should Include:
So what if you have 15,000 unique views if the average time spent is 12 seconds for a 30-page white paper? Both bounce-rate percent and time-spent metrics are good early indicators of how engaged the traffic to your content is.”Bounce-rate % & time-spent are good early indicators of how engaged traffic to your content is. @NeilBhaps Click To Tweet
This can also apply to conversion rates. If your KPI shows high views with a low conversion rate, then you may need to reassess your content marketing strategy.
“The ultimate goal of content marketing is to increase your brand’s reach and bottom line. Thus, the ultimate indicator of success is often the number of leads generated from your content marketing initiatives,” Neil says. “However, by not overlooking these other marketing KPIs along the way to a lead or a sale, you’ll be in much better shape while getting more out of your content!”
Remember, no single KPI can effectively measure your entire marketing campaign. Rather, you should be measuring a diverse set of key performance indicators tied directly to your unique marketing goals.
Don’t forget to measure social media KPIs
Are you including social media metrics in your key performance indicators? When it comes to a KPI, it’s easy to get stuck measuring web metrics like conversion rates, traffic, and sales while neglecting your social media stats. But your social media performance is just as important to measure as your other metrics. Staying connected with your customers can help strengthen your brand and profitability.Your #socialmedia performance is just as important to measure as your other metrics, says @mikeonlinecoach. Click To Tweet
In 6 Ways to Measure B2B Content Marketing Performance, Derek Edmond notes that social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are great tools for generating brand awareness and gaining a valuable insight into your customer base:
Paying attention to the volume of social sharing happening across platforms can be an important indicator for establishing improvements in thought leadership and broader engagement levels.”
He recommends the use of Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics – built-in tools that allow you to export important social metrics for analysis.Use built-in tools like @Facebook Insights & @Twitter Analytics to export important metrics. @DerekEdmond Click To Tweet
And when it comes to social media metrics, you may want to pay attention to more than just your “like” and “follower” counts. Metrics such as follower counts often reveal little about your overall performance. You should measure a KPI to provide an insight into data such as how your customers engage with your content and if that content is converting.
By measuring your audience’s engagement, you can better focus your marketing efforts on strategies that positively influence your critical KPI metrics and less on activities that drag it down.
KPIs for your consideration
Hundreds of KPI categories can help marketers determine whether they’re meeting their goals or falling short. Here is a sampling of marketing, customer, and financial KPIs:
Marketing
Cost per acquisition
Market share
Brand equity
Cost per lead
Conversion rate
Click-through rate
Page views
Bounce rate
Share of voice (SOV)
Online share of voice (OSOV)
Open rate
Conversion rate
Opt-out rate
Conversion rate
Churn rate
Click-through rate
Delivery rate
SEO
Sales
Leads
Conversion rate
Visits
Time on site
Time on page
Landing pages
Keyword rankings
Page views
Bounce rate
Indexed pages
Increase in non-branded search traffic
Increase in branded search traffic
Referring websites (backlinks)
Domain authority
Page authority
Pay-per-click
Cost per click
Click-through rate
Ad position
Conversions
Conversion rate
Cost per conversion
Cost per sale (CPS)
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Wasted spend
Impressions
Quality score
Total spend
Social media
Amplification rate
Applause rate
Followers and fans (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
Conversion rate
Landing page conversion rate
Return on engagement (ROE)
Post reach
Klout score
E-commerce
Annual sales
Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly sales
Sales growth
New customer vs. returning customer sales
Conversion rate
Website traffic
Click-through rate
Bounce rate
Average order value
Shopping cart abandonment rate
Checkout abandonment rate
Average margin
Cost of goods sold
Product affinity (different products purchased at the same time)
Product relationship
Inventory levels
Competitive pricing
Miscellaneous
Site traffic
Texting subscribers
Chat sessions
Affiliate performance rates
Product reviews
General website analytics
Website traffic
Unique visitors
New vs. returning visitors
Time on site
Average time on page
Bounce rate
Exit rate
Page views
Page views per visit
Traffic sources
Geographic trends
Mobile visitors
Desktop visitors
Visits per channel
Customers
Net promoter score (NPS)
Customer retention rate
Customer lifetime value
Customer turnover rate
Financial performance
Gross profit
Gross profit margin
Net profit
Net profit margin
Operating profit margin
EBITDA
Return on assets (ROA)
Working capital ratio
Price earnings ratio (P/E ratio)
Additional resources
If you want to get more KPI ideas or study metrics in more detail, check out these resources:
Conclusion
Everyone from a new social media specialist to the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company has a different perspective about which KPI matters the most.
At the end of the day, it’s simply a matter of tracking what you’re trying to achieve. By creating this resource post for KPIs, my goal is to help you evaluate what you have in place and identify opportunities for the future.
But remember, no matter what KPIs you pick, there is one universal thing you must do – don’t forget to actually measure them.
What KPIs work well for you?
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