11 digital marketing metrics to measure your sales strategy

Updated 14 November 2022

Many companies use digital marketing indicators to track and analyse how customers interact with their businesses through websites and social media platforms. These indicators or metrics can let you determine whether marketing effort produces positive results, such as generating more leads or converting visitors to customers. Learning about digital marketing indicators can help marketing professionals make informed decisions for business growth. In this article, we discuss different digital marketing metrics and three steps you can follow to measure these metrics successfully.

11 digital marketing metrics to measure sales strategy

Digital marketing metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs) that help marketers track a marketing campaign's performance. The following are essential marketing metrics that can help marketers measure the effectiveness of a company's online marketing strategy:

1. Return on investment (ROI)

The ROI represents the total of a company's digital marketing efforts. It's a metric for determining how much money a business can make from digital marketing strategies. ROI compares the amount of money the company spends on digital marketing to the amount it earns from implementing the strategies. When the ROI is positive, it indicates the success of marketing efforts. Suppose the ROI falls below zero. The company might lose money despite its marketing efforts, which could be due to several reasons, such as a low number of new sessions, low conversion or a high bounce rate.

2. Total website visit

Total website visit refers to the number of visitors a company's site receives over a specific period. Website traffic tracking metrics can provide information about the individuals who visit a website, including how they arrived at the site, what terms or keywords they searched or whether they found the correct answers. These insights help marketers determine if there's a trend in a company's marketing strategy that requires change. For example, noticing that individuals leave the contact page during their first visit may signify that the page requires a redesign.

3. Bounce rate

The bounce rates reveal the number of visitors who abandon a website after checking a single page. With this metric, you can track how long a visitor stays on the company's page before leaving the site. Low bounce rates frequently result in more conversions since visitors are content with the information they find on a site. A high bounce rate implies that the company's content isn't retaining visitors on its site.

4. Conversion rate

The purpose of increased website traffic is to convert visitors to customers. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who become leads and the leads who become customers. It shows marketing specialists the number of individuals who became subscribers or paying customers. If the conversion rate is high, it may signify a successful marketing strategy, appealing web content or fair product prices. There's always a reason for high conversion rates. Marketers can use this information to determine what attracts customers to make purchases and if it's necessary to improve these areas to retain more clients.

5. Click-through rate (CTR)

The CTR is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions. A high CTR often indicates how relevant individuals find an advert. While many individuals may see an ad, only a small fraction may click on the link through the ad. To attain a higher CTR, marketers seek a large number of views or impressions to enhance the likelihood of a larger percentage of individuals clicking on an ad. Improving the CTR is critical because it's an effective strategy to get more prospects.

6. Engagement rate

Engagement rate is the level of interaction that a piece of content receives or how responsive an audience is to certain content. It helps marketing professionals decide what kind of content to create based on how well it performs across various social media networks. Some examples of engagement metrics include likes, comments, shares and followers.

7. Exit rate

The exit rate is the percentage of users who leave a site's online page after visiting multiple other pages and clicking links on the initial web page. While the bounce rate reveals how many visitors view only one page, the exit rate reveals where the person loses interest after spending some time researching. Suppose the campaign aims to drive new visitors to the company's website. The exit rate metric reveals the points at which visitors left while reading the company's content. You can use this information to identify which aspects of content require a change to retain more visitors.

8. Cost per lead (CPL)

The CPL informs you how much it costs to get conversions on a website. A useful technique during cost-per-lead analysis involves considering all components that went into obtaining the lead, such as the overall cost for a pay-per-click campaign. Most marketers consider their strategy effective when the CPL is less than the average amount spent by a customer. Finding the average lead cost can help you determine new strategies to be more cost-effective, generate more leads and keep the present sources of leads.

9. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Although marketers use CAC and CPL interchangeably, this metric differs from CPL because it focuses on the cost of acquiring a customer rather than a lead. CAC also goes further to consider the sales funnel. To calculate the CAC, divide the total amount the company spent to acquire new consumers through a specific channel or campaign by the total number of new customers the business successfully acquires.

10. Returning visitors

This metric helps marketers determine the relevance of a website's content over time. Multiple visits may indicate that a company's website provides value to its audience, encouraging them to return. You can assess the rate of returning visitors through weekly or monthly publications.

11. Traffic from channels

Marketing professionals can determine the most effective strategy by analysing the channels through which visitors arrive at a company's site. Businesses can also determine which channel requires more attention while using this metric. For example, marketers may discover that a large portion of the company's website's traffic comes from social media, so it may be necessary to design more social media campaigns to generate more traffic. The following are examples of different channels to track:

Organic search results: These unpaid results appear on a search engine results page because they're relevant to a user's search query. Business websites can generate traffic through these means if they have well-optimised content.
Direct traffic: A business generates direct traffic when a target audience types the company's website's URL into the search bar at the top of a web browser. This often signifies high brand recognition from visitors with a specific purpose for their search.
Social media platforms: This includes the amount of traffic a company generates through its media posts across various social platforms.

How to measure your digital marketing metrics successfully

Here are three steps you can consider to measure your digital marketing indicators successfully:

1. Create SMART goals

The first step toward measuring your online marketing metrics involves establishing goals and objectives to guide you through the entire process. Set SMART goals by ensuring they're specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. This process saves time by promoting an understanding of what the company aims to achieve among team members.

2. Select effective tools

To measure digital marketing KPIs effectively, you may choose from various website analytics solutions. You can also search online for popular analytical tools or invest in strategy-specific tools for search engine optimisation. These tools provide insights that can be useful in developing innovative approaches to increase brand recognition and customer base.

3. Track the necessary metrics

Tracking metrics can alert you of emerging trends or help you decide how to invest your marketing budget. You can use a spreadsheet or report system to track your efforts and compare the outcomes of different metrics over a specific period. Use the result to evaluate and decide which campaign strategies are the most effective or whether your campaign approach requires adjustments.