Key performance indicators (KPI) are designed to help you determine whether your marketing campaign is successful or not based on your goals. With these KPIs you can not only track your performance, but share your performance with executives in ways that make sense to their priorities.
Every marketing campaign is different, but there are some goals that all marketing professionals want to reach. More customers, more brand recognition, or a certain brand reputation may all be on your vision board within your marketing room. So with that in mind, here are a few KPIs that you can include in your next marketing strategy.
#1 – Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is pretty much what it says on the tin: how much money it costs to acquire a new customer. What parts of your marketing budget went into getting that customer to notice your business and eventually convinced them to become a customer? By keeping track of your CAC, you can see how your marketing budget is being spent. You may be able to make an argument to expand the budget or cut back accordingly.
#2 – Return on Investment
Return on investment (ROI) is the flip side of CAC. Where CAC tells you how much it cost to acquire a particular customer, ROI tells you how much money that customer acquisition actually earned you compared to the cost. For instance, maybe you put in a considerable amount of marketing to acquire a picky customer, but once you did, they became a loyal customer and made a number of large purchases. The ROI might just be more than the CAC. This is also important to keep in mind when meeting with executives about the progress of your marketing and justifying your budget.
#3 – Conversion Rate
This relates especially to your lead generation strategies; however, it may also apply to the earlier stages of marketing. For instance, how much traffic on your website went on to become leads, and how many of those leads then became customers? How many customers made repeat purchases? Conversion rates are a major hallmark of success for marketers, and an excellent way to know whether your marketing campaign is working the way you hope it would.
#4 – Social Media Engagement
If you launch a new marketing campaign on social media, social media engagement is an important KPI to keep in mind. Try to break this down into different types of engagement, too. Clicks, likes, reposts, and comments are all different forms of engagement. Getting new followers during your marketing campaign or new direct messages in reference to your campaign are also valuable forms of social media engagement.
#5 – Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is measuring the amount of revenue the customer will bring in over the course of their time with the company. A long-term customer — such someone who signs up for an annual subscription instead of a monthly subscription — will likely bring more value to the company than a short-term customer. Thus, most marketers are going to seek those long-term returning customers.
#6 – Search Engine Rankings
The higher your marketing campaign ranks on search engines, the more visibility goes to your brand. Most marketers know the basics of SEO and strategies to help them rise through the ranks. But these days, it’s not just Google’s algorithms and search engines that you have to contend with. Most social media platforms have their own search engines, and many of them have their own rules. Doing some research to take into account what SEO looks like for each relevant search engine is a must for any marketing professional.
#7 – Web Traffic
Web traffic is one of the first goals of marketing campaigns. You can’t gain leads or customers without first ensuring that people know who your company is. By driving traffic to your website, your target audience can learn more about your brand and what you have to offer, as well as how they can follow up if they’re interested. Web traffic is even more important if you have an online shop, since this is where most of your business will be done. Web traffic is something you’ll want to keep an eye on, but you will be comparing it against things like conversion rate, CAC, and CLV.
These are just a few KPIs to get you started. Consider the specifics of your marketing campaign and generate the best KPIs from there with your team. As your campaign goes on, monitor these KPIs to make sure everything is going well. These are the measurements that will tell the story of your success.
