Driving Revenue: The Essential Marketing Metrics You Need to Track

Marketing and advertising are essential components of any business strategy, but measuring their impact on revenue is not always easy. Businesses must track key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide insights into how well their marketing efforts drive revenue growth. This post will discuss the most important marketing metrics businesses need to track to understand how well their marketing and advertising campaigns drive revenue.

We will first discuss the top-level metrics all businesses monitor to see how well their business is performing regarding marketing and advertising campaigns. Later in the post, we will detail specific KPIs for the individual marketing and advertising channels and tactics.

Sales Revenue

Sales revenue is the most important metric to track as it measures the total revenue generated by a business. Tracking sales revenue can help businesses understand how effectively their marketing and advertising efforts drive sales. Businesses can also use the sales revenue to identify trends, such as changes in customer behavior or shifts in market demand.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI measures the return a business gets on its marketing and advertising investment. It's calculated by dividing the revenue generated by a marketing campaign by the cost of the campaign. A positive ROI means the campaign generated more revenue than it cost, while a negative ROI means the campaign generated less revenue than it cost. Tracking ROI can help businesses determine which marketing and advertising campaigns are the most effective at driving revenue and which channels/tactics are not performing as expected.

Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

CPA measures the cost of acquiring a new customer through a specific marketing or advertising campaign. It's calculated by dividing the campaign cost by the number of new customers acquired. Tracking CPA can help businesses optimize their marketing and advertising efforts to acquire new customers more efficiently. Leveraging UTM tracking by channel will help define channel CPA to help guide data-informed budgeting adjustments to maximize ROI.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of people who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form, after interacting with a marketing or advertising campaign. Tracking conversion rates can help businesses determine which campaigns are most effective at driving conversions and optimize their campaigns accordingly. This will also help your conversion rate optimization (CRO), and user experience (UX) teams understand how well their digital experiences are performing by channel. New in-channel conversions should also be reviewed to understand how well those ad types are driving new leads and sales.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV measures the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime with a business. Tracking CLV can help businesses understand their customers' long-term value and decide how much to invest in acquiring and retaining customers. This will also help the performance marketing teams understand where their target CPAs need to align by channel to avoid overspending.

Cost per Click (CPC)

CPC measures the cost of each click on an advertising campaign, such as a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Tracking CPC can help businesses optimize their advertising campaigns to get the most clicks for their budget. Drilling down to the ad group and keyword level will also help your performance marketing team maximize their budgeting and spend allocation to the top-performing campaigns and avoid low ROI.

Click-through rate (CTR)

CTR measures the number of clicks a particular ad or email receives divided by the number of impressions it makes. This metric is particularly useful for paid search, display ads, email marketing, and social media campaigns. CTR helps determine the effectiveness of ads in capturing the audience’s attention, how engaging the message is, and how well it aligns with the audience’s needs. A higher CTR means the audience is more likely to engage with the ad or email, leading to a higher likelihood of conversion.

Impressions

Impressions measure the number of times an advertising campaign is shown to potential customers. Tracking impressions can help businesses understand how many people see their advertising campaigns and decide how to allocate their advertising budget. This will also help teams determine when new creative is needed when marketers see high impressions and low engagement rates. When that trend begins, that is a typical sign ad fatigue has sent in with your current ad set.

Engagement Rate

The engagement rate measures the percentage of people interacting with a marketing or advertising campaign by liking, commenting, or sharing it on social media. Tracking engagement rate can help businesses understand how well their campaigns resonate with their target audience and optimize their campaigns accordingly.

Social Media Followers and Engagement

Social media followers and engagement measure the number of people who follow a business on social media and their engagement level with the business's social media content. Tracking social media followers and engagement can help businesses understand how well their social media strategy drives revenue and make decisions about optimizing their social media presence.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

This measures customer loyalty and satisfaction. It is calculated by asking customers to rate how likely they are to recommend the company to others on a scale of 0-10. Customers who rate the company a 9 or 10 are considered promoters, while those who rate it a six or below are considered detractors. The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

This measures the number of leads that marketing has identified as potentially valuable and likely to become customers. These leads have met certain criteria, such as filling out a form or requesting more information, that indicate they are interested in the company's products or services.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

This measures the number of leads identified as being ready to be contacted by sales. These leads have been vetted by marketing and meet certain criteria, such as having a budget, a need, and the authority to make purchasing decisions.

By monitoring and analyzing these KPIs, performance marketers can gain insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies for maximum ROI. Deep Quiver always recommends creating benchmarks for those core KPIs from historical campaign data, or if you are starting a new campaign, using industry benchmarks from trusted data sources to help you set a target to strive for until you have real-time data to make informed decisions with.

Let’s now dive into channel-specific KPIs. Many of these channels have the same core KPIs noted above along with a few more specific KPIs businesses need to monitor.

Paid Search:

1. Impressions: Impressions measure the number of times an advertising campaign is shown to potential customers.

2. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how often people click on your ads compared to how many times your ads are shown.

3. Cost per Click (CPC): Measures how much you're paying on average for each click on your ad.

4. Conversion Rate (CVR): Measures how often someone who clicks on your ad goes on to complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

5. Cost per Acquisition (CPA): Measures how much you're spending on average to acquire a new customer through paid search.

6. Quality Score: Measures the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages in relation to what people are searching for.

Display Ads:

1. Impressions: Impressions measure the number of times an advertising campaign is shown to potential customers.

2. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how often people click on your ads compared to how many times your ads are shown.

3. View-Through Rate (VTR): Measures how many people saw your ad and then later completed a desired action, such as visiting your website or making a purchase.

4. Cost per Click (CPC): Measures how much you're paying on average for each click on your ad.

5. Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): Measures how much you're paying on average for every thousand times your ad is shown

6. Conversion Rate (CVR): Measures how often someone who clicks on your ad goes on to complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

7. Cost per Acquisition (CPA): Measures how much you're spending on average to acquire a new customer through display ads.

Programmatic Advertising:

1. Impressions: Impressions measure the number of times an advertising campaign is shown to potential customers.

2. Viewability: Measures the percentage of ad impressions that were viewable to users.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how often people click on your ads compared to how often your ads are shown.

4. Completion Rate (CR): Measures how many people saw your display or video ad and then watched it to completion.

5. Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): Measures how much you're paying on average for every thousand times your ad is shown.

6. Conversion Rate (CVR): Measures how often someone who interacts with your ad completes a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

YouTube

1. Views: This is the number of times your video has been viewed. This KPI is useful in determining the reach of your video content.

2. Watch Time: This measures the total time people have spent watching your video content. This metric is important because it indicates how engaging and valuable your content is to viewers.

3. Click-through Rate (CTR): This measures the number of clicks your video has received divided by the number of impressions it has received. This KPI can help you determine how well your video thumbnail and title entice viewers to click on your video.

4. Engagement: This includes metrics such as likes, comments, and shares. This KPI is crucial because it can help you gauge how much your audience connects with your content and provide insight into what kind of content resonates with them.

5. Conversion Rate: This measures the number of viewers who take a specific action after watching your video, such as visiting your website or making a purchase. This KPI can help you determine how well your video content is driving conversions and ultimately contributing to revenue growth.

6. Cost Per View (CPV): This is a key metric for paid YouTube advertising, as it measures the cost per view of your video ad. By monitoring your CPV, you can ensure your ad spend is used effectively and efficiently.

OTT (Over-the-Top) Advertising:

1. Completion Rate (CR): Measures how many people saw your video ad and then watched it to completion.

2. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how often people click on your ads compared to how many times your ads are shown.

3. Brand Lift: Measures how much your ad increases brand awareness or consideration.

4. Cost per Completed View (CPCV): Measures how much you're paying on average for each completed view of your video ad.

5. Conversion Rate (CVR): Measures how often someone who interacts with your ad goes on to complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

Email:

1. Delivery rate: This details how clean your email lists are by detailing how many emails are delivered compared to the total emails sent. This measures the percentage of emails that were undeliverable for various reasons, such as an invalid email address or a full inbox. A high bounce rate can indicate issues with the quality of your email list.

2. Open rate: This is the percentage of recipients who opened your email. A high open rate indicates that your subject line and preheader text effectively grabbed your subscribers' attention.

3. Click-through rate (CTR): This measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your email. A high CTR indicates that your email content was engaging and that your call-to-action effectively encouraged recipients to take action.

4. Conversion rate: This is the percentage of recipients who completed a desired action after clicking on a link in your email, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. A high conversion rate indicates that your email content and call-to-action effectively drove conversions.

5. Unsubscribe rate: This measures the percentage of subscribers who have opted out of receiving your emails. A high unsubscribe rate can indicate issues with the relevance or frequency of your email content.

6. Revenue generated: This is the total amount of revenue generated from your email campaign. By tracking this KPI, you can determine the ROI of your email marketing efforts and identify opportunities for improvement.

It's important to note that the specific KPIs you track may vary depending on your specific business goals and objectives. Additionally, it's important to analyze these KPIs in relation to your overall marketing strategy and business performance rather than in isolation.

Once you have a good gauge of the channel KPIs, you want to ensure you track the performance of the digital experience your organic and paid efforts drive to. Your app, website, or landing page must support your marketing and advertising efforts. These KPIs will help you understand how well your lead and sales experience are designed.

Website or Landing Page

Traffic:

1. Website Visits - The total number of visits to your website.

2. Unique Visitors - The number of unique individuals who visit your website.

3. Pageviews - The total number of pages viewed on your website.

4. Pages per Session - The average number of pages viewed per website visit.

5. Bounce Rate - The percentage of website visitors who navigate away from your website after viewing only one page.

   1. The bounce rate metric is dead! Ignore it, and do not think about it ever again!

Engagement:

1. Time on Site - The average amount of time a visitor spends on your website.

2. Pages per Session - The average number of pages viewed per website visit.

3. Session Duration - The average length of a website visit.

4. Scroll Depth - The percentage of the page that is scrolled by the user.

5. Click-through Rate - The percentage of website visitors who click on a specific link or call-to-action.

Conversion:

1. Conversion Rate - The percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

2. Goal Completions - The number of times a specific goal is completed on your website, such as submitting a form, completing a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter.

3. Average Order Value - The average dollar amount spent per transaction.

4. Revenue - The total amount of revenue generated through your website.

5. Return on Investment (ROI) - The ratio of revenue generated to the cost of the marketing campaign.

Social Media

Reach and Engagement:

1. Impressions - The number of times your content has been displayed on social media.

2. Reach - The number of unique individuals who have seen your content on social media.

3. Engagement - The number of likes, comments, shares, and other interactions with your social media content.

4. Click-through Rate (CTR) - The percentage of people who clicked on a link or call-to-action in your social media post.

Conversion:

1. Conversion Rate - The percentage of people who take a desired action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase, after clicking through from your social media post.

2. Cost per Conversion - The cost of each desired action a user takes after clicking through from your social media post.

3. Return on Investment (ROI) - The ratio of revenue generated to the cost of the marketing campaign.

Audience:

1. Follower Growth Rate - The rate at which your social media following is growing.

2. Audience Demographics - Information about your social media audience, such as age, gender, location, and interests.

3. Audience Engagement Rate - The percentage of your social media audience that engages with your content.

Customer Service:

1. Response Rate - The percentage of messages or comments on your social media accounts that you respond to.

2. Response Time - The average time it takes to respond to messages or comments on your social media accounts.

Conclusion

It's important to note that the KPIs listed above are not exhaustive and may vary depending on your specific social media goals and objectives. Additionally, it's important to regularly analyze your social media metrics to make informed decisions and optimize your social media strategy for better performance.