Are you tired of not being able to track your digital marketing results?
And do you wish there was an easy way to quickly figure out what’s working, and what’s not, so you didn’t waste your time and money on ineffective marketing tactics?
If so, then you’re in the right place, as in this post I’m going be diving in head first to take on the mistakenly overly complicated world of digital marketing analytics, so you can quickly learn what you need to watch and measure, and what you can leave behind.
The truth behind digital marketing analytics is that they can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be.
First off, there are tens, hundreds, even thousands of different variables that you COULD be tracking.
This is what makes digital marketing so incredible when compared to traditional marketing tools like the newspaper, radio, or TV.
With digital marketing we can track how many times our message was shown, who saw it, if they did anything, what they did, and even how many times they did it.
We can normally see where they’re from, what kind of device they’re using, whether it’s a phone, tablet, or desktop computer, and even what browser they’re searching on.
With some platforms we can track their age, interests, and previous buying behaviour, and we can monitor and track them for days, weeks, months, even years to better understand them.
Creepy?
Yeah sort of, but it’s the reality of the world we now live in so as business owners it only makes sense to dive in and embrace it.
Ignorance is no longer bliss, and the more you know about your customer, the better you’re able to serve them.
So with all of this information available, where should you even start?
Well, here are 5 easy to use and easy understand digital marketing metrics that you can start tracking today.
(And presented in video form below as well if you’d prefer watching to reading)
1: Website Visitors
The easiest place to start is by taking a look at your website traffic and it’s number of visitors.
While this is somewhat of a vanity metric, meaning that it may not directly relate to the bottom line, it is helpful in measuring and tracking how many people are visiting your businesses virtual store front.
It kind of goes without saying, but you want to be seeing a steady increase of visitors over time.
If you’re feeling adventurous then dive a little deeper and try to locate which sources are sending you the most traffic, and which pages are getting the most action.
This way you’ll know where to double down, and you can focus on maximizing what’s already working for you.
2: Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate is the number of people who visit your site and then quickly leave, or bounce off.
Here is where we want to see a low number, as this means that people are sticking around and having more of a look through your content.
The longer people spend on your website, the greater your opportunity to convert them into customers. It also helps with search engine optimization rankings.
If you’ve got a high bounce rate, or you see it steadily climbing over time, try taking a look through your website from a perspective customers eyes and see if you’re able to quickly determine what your business does, and how easy the website is to navigate.
3: Number Of Email Subscribers
Just like with website visitors, you want to see a steady increase of email subscribers over time.
It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, the odds are good that you could benefit by using an email marketing strategy.
Try to encourage your visitors to leave their contact info with you by offering something of value in exchange whether it’s a free ebook, pdf, video, or consulting session.
4: Click Through Rate (CTR)
Your click through rate refers to how many people took action and clicked on one of your posts or advertisements.
CTR is a valuable metric to watch anytime you’re creating an ad for any of the social or search engine platforms, as a high click through rate means that what your ad is saying is relevant and interesting enough for someone to want to click and learn more.
Higher click through rates are also usually rewarded with better placements and lower costs, which means you get better results for less money.
5: Lifetime Customer Value
Lifetime customer value can be one of the most challenging, but also one of the most valuable metrics to watch and track.
While there are a number of pretty fancy and expensive software tools and services out there that can help, even having a rough, general idea of the lifetime value of a customer to your business is still beneficial to your digital marketing campaigns.
This is because if you know what a customer is worth to your business, then you know what you’re able to spend in order to acquire a new one.
As an example, if an average customer is worth $1000 to your business, then you know you can spend up to that amount in order to acquire a new customer and still be profitable.
++ Click Image to Enlarge ++
Source: How To Calculate Lifetime Value
Once you figure this number out, and a way to market your business that allows you to acquire new customers below that cost, you’re basically able to create an unlimited supply of new customers directly to your business on autopilot.
Any Other Ideas?
So now I turn it over to you…
- Are you currently tracking any of these in your business? Which have you found the most valuable?
- Are there any other metrics you’re tracking that you’ve had good results with?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below now.
