The Marketing KPIs That Really Matter for Business Growth

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are like X-ray vision. Medical professionals use X-rays to see through objects and understand their internal structure. Marketers use KPIs to gain a clear view of their campaign’s performance. KPIs reveal the underlying factors driving success or failure. Just as X-rays help doctors determine the best course of treatment, KPIs enable businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their strategies.

The depth and breadth of these KPIs can present a challenge at times, but understanding their value—and which to prioritize—can really help drive business growth.

Why so many marketing KPIs?

The diversity of marketing activities requires a wide range of KPIs. Marketing encompasses various channels, goals, and stages of the customer journey, each needing specific measurements to assess effectiveness.

Different marketing channels

Each marketing channel has unique metrics to gauge performance:

• Social media: likes, shares, comments, engagement rate, click-through rate (CTR), follower growth
• Search engine marketing: CTR, conversion rate, cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS)
• Content marketing: website traffic, time on site, bounce rate, shares, lead generation
• Email marketing: open rate, CTR, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate
• Traditional media: impressions, reach, frequency, cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

Different marketing goals

Marketing goals necessitate diverse KPIs:

• Brand awareness: impressions, reach, social media mentions
• Lead generation: website traffic, conversion rate, lead quality
• Customer acquisition: CPA, customer lifetime value
• Revenue generation: sales, average order value (AOV), revenue per customer

Different stages of the customer journey

KPIs also vary based on the customer journey stage:

• Awareness: impressions, website traffic, social media reach
• Consideration: engagement rate, time on site, bounce rate, lead generations
• Decision: conversion rate, sales, customer acquisition cost
• Retention: customer lifetime value, customer churn rate, net promoter score

By tailoring KPIs to these different aspects, businesses can effectively measure and optimize their marketing efforts.

What marketing KPIs should you be tracking?

Tracking a combination of KPIs provides the X-ray that marketers need to increase the granularity of their campaigns’ effectiveness. Tie them directly to your business goals and then prioritize. If you’re aiming for more customers, focus on customer-related KPIs, for example.

Specificity matters, too. Don’t just say, “Sales increased.” Say, “Online sales from new customers increased by 20%.” That’s a KPI with some punch. You must be able to measure your KPIs because if you can’t track it, you can’t measure it.

The magic happens when you turn those numbers into actions, and a good KPI tells you where to focus your energy. It’s that X-ray vision again showing you what’s working and what’s not, generating insights so you can make adjustments to boost the good stuff. Let’s look at some of these KPIs in more detail.

1. Leads: Leads are the lifeblood of any sales-driven business. The more high-quality leads you generate, the better your chances of converting them into customers. While lead quantity is important, lead quality matters more.
2. Return on investment (ROI): This marketing cornerstone provides essential insights into your campaigns’ effectiveness by showing whether your marketing spend translates into profitable results. ROI focuses on the decision stage of the customer journey, evaluating financial outcomes by compiling profit-related information into a single, powerful metric reflecting overall performance.
3. Cost per click (CPC): Marketing KPIs also offer valuable insights into your digital advertising bracket. The CPC calculates the average time spent when someone clicks on your paid ad. You need this metric to evaluate your ad campaigns’ efficiency. Tools like Google Ads provide detailed CPC data, helping you understand performance in real-time. CPC varies across industries and keywords, so research thoroughly before you launch a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. The average CPC on Google Ads is between $0.11 and $0.50. CPC averages on Facebook range between $0.30 and $2.00+.
4. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Customer Value (CLTV): Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures the expense of converting prospects into paying customers, providing insight into the efficiency of your marketing efforts. Lifetime Customer Value (CLTV) represents the total revenue generated from a customer over their relationship with your business. By comparing CAC to CLTV, companies can assess the profitability of their customer acquisition strategies. If CAC exceeds CLTV, it signals that acquiring customers is more costly than their value, prompting a reevaluation of marketing tactics or target audiences
5. Conversion rate: This metric assesses marketing campaign effectiveness by measuring the percentage of website visitors or audience members who complete a desired action: sharing email for a newsletter, completing a contact form, or making a purchase. Tools like GA4 (Google Analytics) can help track and measure conversion rates to identify user behavior and areas for improvement.
6. Social media engagement (likes + comments + shares): Social media marketing needs engagement. This metric measures how your audience interacts with your content through likes, comments, shares, and other relevant actions. Social media platforms prioritize content with high engagement, which leads to more visibility for your posts, increased reach, and more potential followers. When you collaborate with influencers, engagement rate is a key metric to evaluate their potential impact. Use tools like Instagram’s calculator to determine the efficacy of influencer partnerships.
7. Click-through rate (CTR): This metric measures the percentage of visitors clicking on a link or ad. Tools like GA4 (Google Analytics) can provide in-depth CTA data, offering insights into ad, keyword, and content performance. Average CTRs vary across industries and platforms, with search typically higher than display ads. In email marketing, CTR is a key indicator of engagement.
8. Search engine and keyword ranking: Search engine rankings are critical for determining a website’s visibility and traffic. When your website ranks high for relevant keywords, you attract more potential customers. In general, just over 93% of Google users only look at the first SERP; only 6% scroll to the bottom of the page. Track key metrics like the number of ranking keywords, organic traffic volume, and number of backlinks to help you assess your SEO strategy’s effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

KPIs as your marketing X-ray

KPIs are your marketing X-ray, providing a data-driven window to measure your marketing efforts and identify areas for improvement. They span departments and touchpoints, considering the entire customer journey. Like a comprehensive medical exam, a variety of KPI X-rays taken from multiple angles offer different perspectives of your marketing performance.

Implementing these principles empowers you to develop a robust KPI framework that drives meaningful impact and keeps your marketing efforts laser-focused on achieving your business goals. Download our marketing planning workbook to help you implement them so you can stay on track!

Need help identifying the most important KPIs for your business? Contact our team today.