7 KPIs You Need To Track Your Success As A Digital Marketer

If there is one thing you can never do without as a digital marketer, it is KPIs.

It would mean you just keep going to work every day, getting on the internet, writing content, updating your blogs, and social media pages, sending emails, etc without knowing what actually comes out of each activity.

A good digital marketer is one that knows how to measure his/her activity including matching activity with goals and objectives.

Digital marketing performance needs to be evaluated with an eye to subjectivity while balancing objectivity. And that’s where KPIs come in.

Understanding what’s working and what’s not working in marketing—otherwise known as your marketing’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI)—should be an important part of your business’ growth strategy.

If it’s not, well then you should probably keep reading.

What Are KPIs?

According to Hubspot, a KPI is a key performance indicator that measures how your company is performing at achieving a certain goal or objective.

There are KPIs for every aspect of business, whether it’s financial, marketing, sales, or operational.

Once you set your KPIs, then you can strategize what your digital marketing team is going to do to achieve them, and the metrics you’re going to track along the way.

Why Do You Need KPIs?

The essence of knowing your KPIs as a digital marketer cannot be overemphasized.

Being able to measure your progress is an indication that you will definitely reach your target.

KPIs allow you to see how well your marketing campaigns are succeeding. Not only will you see whether your efforts are paying off, but you will also have a better idea of where the results are coming from.

Ultimately, this will enable you to hone your vision and determine what to target and why. Your strategy, therefore, will be more cohesive and better informed.

Every KPI needs 3 things which are:

• A measurable metric or data point
• A target
• A timeline

With that in mind, let’s take a look at 7 digital marketing KPIs that marketers like you (and I!) track every day.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a tricky concept. For one, there is no obvious formula to “solve” the puzzle of optimizing your content to make it rank higher in search engine results.

Search engines are constantly evolving, too, and changing their ranking systems but you can still measure how well your SEO efforts are paying off, using, of course, KPIs.

You can, for instance, measure keyword rankings. The KPI you use will dictate which keywords you’re targeting, and you can evaluate their success over time to determine how you’re positioning them.

Search traffic, too, will allow you to evaluate critical data like the organic traffic to your web pages driven by search engines.

Meanwhile, domain authority — the amount of authority and value search engines like Google grant to your website — is another metric that helps determine the “importance” of your content and material.

2. Website Traffic

Your website is rich with data and metrics to track using tools like Google Analytics, you can, for example, assess inbound traffic, looking at how many visitors came from outside sources to visit your site.

Bounce rate, the number of people who visit your site and immediately click out on it, is another important metric to consider.

It’s related to content marketing KPIs, which have bearing on the quality of the content you offer on your website. If you see that your bounce rate is high, you should consider what to change to make your site more appealing.

3. Conversion Rate

Leads on their own are not of any real value to you. Instead, you should consider how many of those leads actually become real customers.

This is your conversion rate — the proportion of people or businesses that have filled out a form, contacted your business, responded to your efforts, and so on who actually end up purchasing something from you.

And it’s an important KPI to measure and track.

While every business loses customers from time to time, if you notice a pattern in when and where these customers are leaving, you can glean meaningful insights and adjust your strategy.

4. Return On Investment (ROI)

ROI is a critical metric to consider when evaluating your digital marketing performance.

It can be applied to the other KPIs on this list, but it also has the ability to stand alone as a singular metric as well.

Essentially, it measures the profit you generate from customer acquisition and the sale of services or goods against the cost of obtaining them.

As a marketing tool, ROI evaluates the profitability of your various endeavors and campaigns, such as ads. It allows you to assess your routine performance — quarterly, monthly, annually, and so on.

5. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Going hand in hand with SEO is paid SEM. Through this strategy, marketers use tools like Google Ads to ensure that searches for content relevant to their brand, services, and products land them at the top of the results.

You’ll pay for clicks to your website or landing page. But simply spending out the money won’t necessarily yield results.

There are several different KPIs you can use to track the performance of your SEM campaigns. For example, search engines assign a quality score to your ads; a stronger quality score will lead to higher-ranked results.

Cost-per-click (CPC) is another tool to assess performance. The lower the cost, the better you’re doing. This is true if you’re using a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy.

Finally, click-through rate (CTR) is another KPI that is frequently used to evaluate your SEM results.

6. Social Media

Social media is integral to our lives — and to marketing. That’s why social media KPIs have such a prominent presence in any marketing strategy.

Engagement on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is measured with values such as likes, comments, shares, number of follows, growth in follower count, clicks, and views.

When you track this information, you will, again, be able to understand the kind of content that appeals to your audience.

Social media marketing KPIs, therefore, give you the fuel you need to adjust your plans.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing campaigns yield a wealth of information that will help you hone your marketing efforts.

Signups, for instance, can give you insight into external efforts and CTAs. Meanwhile, open rates allow you to assess the quality of your subjects and preview lines, while click-through rates (CTR) enable you to evaluate the content of your emails.

There are also several negative email marketing KPIs to track — that is, metrics you want to be lower.

Those include, for example, bounce rates, the number of emails that were undelivered, and unsubscribe rates.

Final Note

No doubt, you need a close eye on your Key Performance Indicators to win today’s marketing race. Your KPIs are what will tell whether you are getting it right or not.

Did I miss out on the one you feel is also important? Drop your thoughts in the comment box below. I’ll be super happy to hear from you.

If you need help tracking your Marketing KPIs, we’re here for you. Reach out to us at LBDIGITAL. We provide digital marketing services, as well as Web Design Services. We’re always happy to answer questions.

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