The 29 Most Important Online Marketing Metrics
Management Summary
Key figures make successes, developments and processes tangible and comparable. That’s exactly why these are so important. Especially when it comes to reports in which you try to make your work progress transparent to an outsider or management, logically comprehensible and evaluable data and figures are of enormous importance.
Because what actually applies to all marketing strategies is particularly true in online marketing.
Components of the online campaign
A fundamental and essential part of every good online campaign strategy implies functioning cooperation between all areas that online marketing includes:
- Website content / onsite
- Email marketing
- E-commerce
- Social media
- Cost models
Are these areas treated like separate floating islands or individually as “traffic channels” and not the larger onecommon goal of attracting and retaining visitorsYou will not achieve the desired result, e.g. an increase in sales, even using tangible key figures.
Budget determination
In contrast to classic advertising, in online marketing you don’t have to live with monstrous wastage, but you have the opportunity to say almost, down to the individual visitor, how much they are worth to us. In order to set a budget for online marketing, it is fundamental to know what, on average, each individual visitor is worth. If you don’t know this, you are faced with a virtually insoluble problem. This is where the controlling circle closes.
Important questions like
- Who are my visitors?
- Where do they come from and for how long are which information offerings used?
- Who are the most loyal visitors and where do they come from?
- What is being purchased?
- How much is a visit from a newsletter worth on a monthly average compared to a visitor who comes via the Facebook page?
should be clarified.
This is where the technology comes inWeb analysis and conversion optimizationcomes into play, which in turn shows how important it is for the different departments to work together in online marketing.
Measure success
Today, more than ever, it is important that all online marketing disciplines work together to create a suitable overall result for the user and the search engine.
You shouldn’t think narrow-mindedly, because number one rankings on Google do not equate to successful online marketing.
Neither “Likes” nor “Mail Open Rates” represent a business benefit or a direct connection to sales.
The most profitableSelling product with the highest conversion rateand thus through the traffic purchased therehighest contribution marginTo achieve that is success in online marketing.
Analyze numbers
“Analyzing means breaking something under the pretense of wanting to see how it works.” – Source unknownIn order for this quote not to come true, you have to learn to see key figures in a networked aspect and be able to evaluate them that way.
Billions are invested in online marketing every year, but in the end the question still remains: How often and where are these costs really profitable?
The aim of analyzing investments made in marketing is to achieve better control and overview of all activities. The efficiency of individual measures can be determined with the help of business figures. Traditional marketing controlling and analysis of online marketing have the same purpose, but measure different key figures.
The most important key figures by area
Onsite KPIs |
|
Visitors |
This refers to the number of visitors to a website. This key figure is usually used in relation to a specific time frame, e.g. visitors per hour, per day or per month. A high number of visitors is of course desired here. |
| (Unique) Visits | Number of (unique) visitors to a website. The unique visitors result in the net number of total visitors. |
Page views per visitor / page impressions |
This key figure shows how active the visitors to the website are. An indicator that speaks for high quality is the longer stay and the viewing of different content. It can be concluded that the content is of greater use to the visitor the longer he stays on the site and the more pages he visits. If the number of page views per visitor is low, you should get to the bottom of the cause. |
Bounce rate /Bounce rate |
This online marketing key figure is used to look at the ratio of visitors who immediately leave a website after viewing just one page. When we talk about a high bounce rate, it is always a signal that something needs to be done. Maybe the visitor couldn’t find what they were looking for. For individual pages with a high bounce rate, a revision is a good idea. |
Conversion rate |
The term conversion refers to a website visitor who carries out a desired (trans)action on the page.
The conversion rate then illustrates the ratio of conversions to visitors. |
ROAS (Return on Advertising Spending) |
The ROI for online advertising shows the relationship between advertising costs and the resulting sales. Thanks to this key figure, the ongoing success of an advertising campaign can be recognized at a glance. |
Duration/stay time |
The length of time a visitor spends on a page is a measure of the quality of the content of a website. This online marketing key figure shows whether the content is appealing enough and encourages the visitor to take an action, or whether the page is quickly left again. |
Returning Visitors vs. New Visitors |
The ratio of existing target groups to new ones makes it clear which of these groups should be responded to with increased attention using online strategies. |
Email marketing |
|
Number of subscribers |
Shows how many people you regularly reach with email marketing measures |
Delivery rate |
This key figure shows the total amount of emails sent – (Hard Bounces + Soft Bounces) |
Hard vs. Soft Bounces |
Hard bounces are the problem of undeliverable emails due to invalid email addresses, blocking, or the like.
Soft bounces, on the other hand, describe undeliverable emails due to full mailboxes, exceeded data volumes and other “soft” problems. |
Open rate |
The opening rate describes the proportion of emails opened in relation to the emails sent. |
Click-through rate |
This describes the proportion of clicks on a link contained in the mailing in relation to the emails sent. The attractiveness of the advertising campaign is shown. The cause of a low click-through rate can have many different reasons, but you should definitely get to the bottom of it. For example, it can be due to an inappropriate time of sending or a design that is not in line with the target group, as well as many other reasons. The click-through rate provides information about whether the advertising expenditure is promising or not. |
Unsubscribe rate |
This key figure shows the proportion of unsubscribes in relation to the emails sent. Here too, a high unsubscribe rate should be counteracted using new and revised strategies. |
Ecommerce KPIs |
|
Sales volume |
Sales that could be generated by the orders placed are of course one of the most important key figures to consider.
|
Orders per visitors |
The average number of orders per visitor is measured here. |
| Cost per order | This key figure describes the advertising costs incurred for a sale made as part of an advertising campaign. |
Cancellation rate |
Here you can see the proportion of order cancellations compared to the total number of orders within a period. |
Return rate |
This refers to the proportion of returned goods compared to the total number of units ordered within a period of time. |
Social media KPIs |
|
Number of social media contacts |
This number shows the potential for possible word of mouth, viral spread or recommendation. It is important to note that this is only a quantitative measurement. Social media contacts include, for example, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, YouTube views… |
Community growth |
The growth of a community of a social media channel within a period of time, expressed in percent, represents community growth and describes the popularity of the brand or product. |
Number of posts |
The number of active posts from fans within a certain period of time also shows the topicality and popularity of a company, brand or product. |
Retweet rate, recommendation rate |
In contrast to the quantitative key figure of social contacts, here you have the qualitative key figure of word of mouth, viral spread and recommendation. |
Response time & Response rate |
The average time it takes to reply to postings and the proportion of answered postings in relation to the total number of postings represents a key figure that visualizes customer and visitor interest and the level of activity and social media skills. |
Campaigns – cost models |
|
Total cost |
What are the total costs? |
Daily cost |
What are my costs, calculated on a daily basis |
Cost per Thousand – CPT (Cost per Mille – CPM) |
How much does it cost to reach 1,000 people / have 1,000 impressions / etc. |
Cost per click – CPC |
This key figure is used to visualize the costs for a click on the advertisement. |
Cost per Action – CPA |
The cost per action can relate to a new customer acquired or the sale of a product. The costs incurred for a campaign, e.g. AdWords advertising, are assigned to the campaign. This makes it clear whether the expenditure for the desired action is justified. |
Finally, all that remains to be said is that good marketing controlling not only measures key figures, but also compares them with past values. These comparisons can then be used to make targeted adjustments to the online marketing strategy.
In order to be able to draw correct conclusions from the key figures, key figures should be monitored over the long term and compared with average values from other companies in the industry. However, any analysis is in vain if no meaningful action follows. After the existing vulnerabilities have been identified and uncovered, they should be remedied or optimized. In the same way, further investment and expansion should be made in the case of functioning, therefore successful, measures.
