Collect the Right Data with Key Performance Indicators

What Are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Digital Marketing?

Companies of all sizes and industries use measurable values or metrics called key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success of their digital marketing efforts across multiple channels, including organic site traffic, social media, mobile, paid advertising, email marketing campaigns, and SEO. Every digital marketing action can be quantified, analyzed, and optimized to improve your business’ ROI.

Remember: You can’t manage what you don’t measure. 

How can you identify the KPIs that will support your business goals and provide you with the most valuable data to inform your digital marketing efforts? And how can Alt Media Studios help in this regard? Read on to learn more.

Identify the KPIs that Support Your Business Goals

Not all KPIs provide helpful data to every business. You need to determine your KPIs based on your company’s clearly defined goals. Then your marketing data can be more useful in tracking your progress and revealing what works and what doesn’t. Consider the following example.

Business goal: Increase brand awareness and leads from social media.

How to achieve it: Build an engaged community on social media who become loyal customers and promoters of your brand. If your top competitors are on Facebook and Instagram, consider creating those social media pages for your company with content that engages and delights your customers.

KPIs that support this goal:

• Engagement rate - the percentage of your followers who interact with your posts through clicks, likes, shares, comments, etc.
• Website traffic from social media - the percentage of all site visitors who came to your site from one of your business’ social media channels
• Social media conversion rate - the number of social media leads that convert into customers

Ultimately, the KPIs you choose should focus on what the user can accomplish during their digital journey. Some businesses can move a user from discovery all the way through purchase and brand loyalty entirely online. Those KPIs (online sales) are easy to identify and track. However, many businesses require the human element to get involved to complete the purchase. In that case, the business needs to determine what the customer can realistically do online before involving a business representative. This may entail filling out a free online quote estimate, submitting a contact form, or performing a click-to-call action.

Vanity Metrics vs. ‘Real’ Business Metrics

Many digital marketers fall into the trap of focusing on superficial KPIs that appear important but don’t directly contribute to their bottom line. Two of the top vanity metrics include site traffic and keyword ranking on Google search engine results pages (SERPs).

SITE TRAFFIC

While site traffic can help you gauge the overall visibility and searchability of your site, don’t rely on that KPI too heavily. Getting more users onto your site is only one piece of the puzzle. What’s better for your business: high site traffic with a low number of leads, or low site traffic with a high number of leads? The key is attracting quality traffic, which consists of your ideal audience who will be the most likely to engage with your brand and become a customer.  

Focus on these “real” business metrics:

• Qualified leads per month
• Conversion rate for call-to-action (CTA) content
• Click-through-rate (CTR)
• Returning vs. new visitors

KEYWORD RANKING

Google Search keyword ranking is a fundamental KPI, but it doesn’t necessarily provide you with helpful data that can fully inform your digital marketing strategy. There are several factors at play since keyword rankings vary widely based on geographic location and long-tail key phrases are becoming more and more common. If few users are actually clicking on your pages, interacting with your site content, and then converting, of what benefit is ranking high on Google SERPs?

Focus on these “real” business metrics:

• Number of unique keywords that drive site traffic
• Conversion rate per keyword

How Alt Media Studios Can Help

In order to identify and track the KPIs that support your business goals and collect the right data, you need to properly utilize effective digital marketing tools. But as a digital marketer, you wear a lot of hats. You may have the desire to learn the technical skills required to use these tools but lack the time or staff to do so. 

At Alt Media Studios, we’ll work alongside you to fill that gap. Our team members have undergone in-depth training courses and earned certifications for a number of digital marketing tools, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, and many others. Our holistic approach to digital strategy combined with our team’s collective expertise in utilizing marketing tools enables us to help your business thrive online. Together, we’ll take your business to new heights. Contact Alt Media Studios today!