The development of innovative technologies triggered online business growth. Many businesses switch to online activities. Measuring physical business is easier as you can count your customers and cash on hand but how to measure the effectiveness of online business? A natural question: “What digital marketing metrics should you track?” emerged in the mind of new entrepreneurs. Here we offer some key performance indicators (KPIs) and tools to measure online performance of your business.

Digital Marketing KPIs

KPIs are used to measure online performance of any business. KPIs are based on engagement rate, website traffic leads, MQL, and revenue data. You can measure the number of customers who visited your website, made purchases or left without buying anything. These statistics is very useful as you can evaluate whether your digital marketing efforts are effective. Also, you can understand what was wrong in your marketing campaign, measure brand awareness, evaluate the number of qualified leads or sales growth.

Why Tracking Digital Marketing KPIs Is Important?

When running your online business, you need to understand whether it’s profitable or not. KPIs help make it clear. By tracking digital marketing metrics and kpis, online business owners can assess whether their marketing campaigns are effective, whether they have enough customers to generate planned profits or which activities bring the desired results. For example, you can choose effective marketing channels instead of those that don’t generate qualified leads. Google Analytics is one of the most popular tools to measure digital performance.   

Most Important Digital Marketing KPIs to track

1. Number of Website Visitors

This metric is one of the most important digital marketing metrics helping assess website traffic generated by different sources. If you’re using Google Analytics to measure the number of your website visitor, just go to:

• Acquisition report;

• Overview;

• Sessions.

2. Interactions per Visit

This metric belongs to the types of marketing metrics that helps understand the details of traffic generated on your website. Interactions per visit involve number of pages visited by users, time they spent on these pages, and actions they take on each page (looking, purchases, etc.). If you’re using Google Analytics to track interactions with customers, you can use the section “Sessions”. In this section, you can assess time each user spent on your website, time a visitor was inactive when visiting your website, the time he left the website and returned. Interactions per visit is a useful metrics to evaluate customer behavior and develop appropriate digital marketing strategy.

3. Returning Visitors

This digital marketing performance indicator is one of the most useful among other digital marketing kpis because it helps asses the quantity of customers who decided to make a repeated purchase. If, for example, you need to track the traffic of returning visitors Google Analytics, you just need to:

• Go to Audience Overview;

• Press New vs Returning.

4. Average Time Spent on the Website

This performance indicator is one of the most important digital marketing metrics to be tracked by small business owners. To track this metric in Google Analytics, you have to:

• Find the section Acquisition Overview;

• Go to Behavior section;

• assess average time spent by each visitor on your website page.

5. Traffic Generated by Each Channel

Online performance can be tracked by assessing the effectiveness of marketing channels you’re using to generate traffic.  

• Go to Behavior section;

• Find Site Content;

• Assess the effectiveness of traffic sources such as your website pages, landing or exit pages.

6. Conversion Rate

This is a popular conversion marketing KPI that help measure the number of visitors who purchased products or services. You can also complete other goals set by using this KPI. This is how to track conversion rate in Google Analytics:

• find Conversions;

• go to Goals;

• check Overview section to get the required statistics.

By tracking these marketing metrics and analytics, you can assess success of your marketing campaigns.

7. Bounce Rate

This is one of the Best Digital Marketing Metrics used to measure digital performance. If, for example, you need to track this metric in Google Analytics, you should do the following:

• Go to Acquisition;

• find User Acquisition;

• find Traffic Acquisition reports.

By subtracting the resulting engagement rate from 100% you will get a bounce rate for your website.

8. Traffic to Lead Ratio

This ratio shows the number of website visits that were converted into leads. If you’re thinking “What marketing metrics should you track?” then traffic to lead ratio should be in this list.  To check this ratio in Google Analytics:

• find First Visit Metric tab;

• check Online Conversions.

9. Cost per Visitor

This indicator is one of the most important kpis in digital marketing that helps generate better ROI. To track this metric in Google Analystics:

• Go to Acquisition;

• Campaigns;

• Check Cost Analysis.

10. Revenue per Visitor

This metric is one of the top kpis for digital marketing to measure the amount of revenue generated during customer visits. To track this metric in Google Analytics, go to:

• Acquisition;

• All Traffic;

• access Source/Medium.

11. Lead to Close Ratio

This ratio is one of the most popular types of metrics in marketing to access sales volume and compare to the number of leads generated. To access this information:

• Go to Goals and set up the goal for lead generation;

• Go to Conversions-E-Commerce-Product Performance-Product category to assess sales volume.

12. Cost per Lead

This KPI is one of the best kpis for digital marketing that helps keep the process of generating leads under control. I you know the cost per lead, you can easily count your profits. This is how you can track this metric in Google Analytics:  

• Conversions;

• Goals;

• Overview;

• Goal Option;

• Select the Goal.

13. Customer Retention Rate

This indicator shows how to measure digital marketing success by assessing customer loyalty. To asses it:  

• Behavior;

• New vs Returning.

14. Customer Lifetime Value

This KPI measures the costs of new (acquired) and retained customers. When making the choice of digital marketing objectives and kpis, this metric should be considered as well. You need to:

• choose metrics;

• choose the rate of acquisition.

15. Cost per Acquisition

This metric shows revenue performance. If you’re asking a question of “How do you measure digital marketing performance?”, this KPI is really helpful. This is how to assess this metric in Google Analytics:

• Go to Acquisition;

• Campaigns;

• Track Cost Analysis.

Conclusion

We listed 15 important KPIs aiming to answer your question: “What digital marketing metrics should you track?”. We hope that we shed some light on this issue and helped you find the most useful metrics for your business.