How many metrics are really necessary to evaluate the health of our digital marketing and know what actions are working? The answer will depend on the channels we are going to use and the objectives we have set, but it is almost always “less than you think.”
And in the world of digital analytics, quantity does not equal quality. Instead of making lengthy reports accumulating data without rhyme or reason, it is better to be very clear about the figures that really interest us and how they are calculated. And to help you out, I have compiled the most important metrics for each type of digital marketing campaign. Ready to start?
Digital marketing metrics: general indicators
1) Customer lifetime value (LTV)
He lifetime value of the client is the total benefits that it will generate for us throughout its relationship with the brand. To calculate it, we must multiply the average amount of each purchase by the number of repeated purchases.
If we detect that the global LTV is very low, this indicates that we must work either on cross-selling and additional sales (to increase the average value of each purchase) or on loyalty (to stimulate repeat purchases). It may also be interesting to compare this data between clients who have reached us through different sources and see if there are differences between them.
2) Bounce rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of people who have visited your brand’s website or landing page but have left it right after, without completing any action. It is calculated by dividing the number of abandonments by the total number of visits and multiplying by 100.
A high bounce rate tells us that we have some problem serious with our digital marketing, since our content does not meet the expectations of visitors. The problem may be in the website itself (e.g., an unattractive design or a loading time that is too long) or in the messages we use to attract users to it, since they create expectations that are later not met. they comply.
3) Branded searches
This metric is simply the number of searches for the brand on Google and other search engines and helps us evaluate whether the marketing campaigns brand recognition and notoriety They are having an effect. It is desirable that this figure increases as the brand becomes known. You can check it by linking your domain with Google Console.
Digital Marketing Metrics: Social Media
4) Engagement
Engagement is the most coveted social media metric, but what it means is not always well understood.
Engagement can be calculated per post or per time period. Likewise, we can calculate that of a specific publication or period, or obtain an average that serves as a reference.
To calculate the engagement of a post, we divide the total interactions with the post (likes, comments, shares, etc.) by the number of followers of the channel on which it is published and multiply by 100. To calculate the engagement during a specific period, we divide the total interactions during that period by the number of followers and multiply by 100.
In either case, what we are obtaining is a percentage that reflects cHow active are the followers of a brand on a social network?. If it is very low, it means that the posts are not attractive or that they are not reaching followers (a common problem in the case of Facebook).
5) Social media referral traffic
This metric refers to the amount of visits that come to our website from social networks, both individually and as a percentage of total visits.
We can use referral traffic as an indicator of the effectiveness of our presence on the networks and also to link it to conversions and other actions on our website.
Digital Marketing Metrics: Video
6) Play rate
This metric is nothing other than the percentage of views of a video regarding the number of visits to the page on which it is hosted. To calculate it, we divide views by visits and multiply by 100.
The reproduction rate depends fundamentally on how attractive the presentation of the video is (thumbnail image, title, description, etc.) and its adaptation to the context that we have created around it.
7) Video percentage watched
This is, what percentage of video users watch on average before abandoning (25%, 50%…). An alternative metric to consider would be the stickiness percentage, that is, the percentage of users who watch the entire video.
If the percentage of video viewed or permanence is too low, it is likely that we are impacting the wrong audience, we have video quality problems, or the video is simply too long.
Here is an example video from our YouTube channel, the last column indicates the percentage of video viewed.
8) Cost per reproduction (cost per view)
The cost per reproduction indicates How much does it cost to have your video viewed once?therefore, applies in cases where we are using paid advertising to get users to watch a video.
To calculate it, we simply have to divide the total cost of the ads directed to the video by the number of views of the video.
To get the most out of this metric, we need to know what value we are getting from the video and express it in economic terms. Only then can we see if the cost per reproduction is worth it or if it is too high.
Digital marketing metrics: emailing
9) Unsubscribed rate
The unsubscribe percentage is the ratio of users who decide to stop being part of your mailing list after a given sending. It is calculated by dividing the number of users who unsubscribe by the total number of people to whom the email has been sent and multiplying by 100.
As a general rule, the percentage of casualties should not exceed 1%. If there is any sending that exceeds this percentage, we have to see what is failing, whether in the content of the email, its adaptation to the audience or the frequency of sending.
In this Hubspot example of one of our shipments you can see that the unsubscribe rate is 0.2%. A good indicator.
10) Subscriber growth rate (contact growth rate)
This metric serves to control the evolution of our database emailing. The ideal is for it to increase constantly, but above all we have to keep in mind that the quality of the subscribers is the most important thing: they must be people who fit our ideal client profile and who are really interested in the content that we are going to publish. offer them.
Example of Hubspot subscribers, it is compared to last month and tells you if you are growing compared to the same previous period. Here the net growth is 1,564 contacts, 13.25% more than the same period a month before.
11) Revenue per email (revenue per email)
This is, how much have you earned for each email sent. It is applied to conversion-oriented shipments and is obtained by dividing the total income by the number of emails sent (minus bounced ones).
If we combine this metric with the cost per email (calculated in the same way), we can quickly know if our campaigns are having a positive ROI.
Digital marketing metrics: mobile
12) Number of downloads
As its name indicates, this metric refers to the number of people who download your app from a specific origin. Therefore, it can be very useful to shop different channels and see which ones are giving the best results.
Example of the number of downloads of the Instagram app on Google Play.
13) Time spent in the application
Downloading an app is just the beginning of the process. To evaluate the real success of your mobile marketing, you have to measure the user interaction with the application. A very useful metric for this is the time users spend in the app, whether every month, every week or daily. Another interesting option is to divide the total time by the number of sessions to find out the average time in each session. If the results of this metric are not satisfactory, we probably have to review the usability of the app.
14) Cost per installation (CPI)
Or in other words, how much does it cost us to attract a new user. This metric is obtained by dividing the total cost by the number of installations. To evaluate whether the data is satisfactory or not, we must consider the benefits we expect to obtain for each installation.
Digital Marketing Metrics: SEM
15) Quality Level (Quality Score)
It’s probably the most important metric of all those included in your Google Ads account.
Quality Score measures how good users’ experience is with your ads. The higher the quality level of an ad, the easier Google will make it for you and the easier it will be for you to obtain an economical cost per click.
Here you have an explanation of what the quality score is taken from our course on Google Ads.
16) Impression share
This metric helps you know if your ads are being seen enough. Impression share is the percentage of impressions your ads receive compared to the total number they could achieve and is calculated by dividing the impressions by the total eligible impressions.
If impression share is low, in most cases we can easily remedy this by increasing the click bids or the campaign budget.
17) Number of conversions
The number of conversions helps you measure the success of your ads, as it indicates how many sales have you achieved thanks to them. Of course, this is only part of the story, since to calculate the ROI of your Google Ads campaign you also need to know what the value of each conversion has been.
Digital marketing metrics: ecommerce
18) Average value of each order (average order value)
Here what we are measuring is how much customers spend on each purchase. If it is too low, we can think of strategies to sell additional products.
This metric is related to customer lifetime value. To obtain it, we only have to multiply the average value of each order by the number of orders placed by the customer throughout their history.
19) Cart abandonment rate
It refers to the percentage of people who have started a purchasing process by placing products in the cart, but then have not completed it. To calculate it, we divide the number of abandoned carts by the total purchases initiated and multiply by 100.
If the cart abandonment rate is too high, it is a sign…