What do you measure in Internet Marketing?
How many times have you wondered if your Internet Marketing was effective? Whether you only have a website, you’re running PPC campaigns, you’re doing SEO, are engaged in Social Media, or are email marketing (just to name a few), you need to know what to measure.
This series of posts, coming over the next several weeks, will explore the what’s and how’s of measuring your effectiveness.
Define “Well Performing”
Despite what some believe, there is not a single definition of well performing. When you work with an integrated marketing team, one of the first exercises you’ll go through is defining your goals. Ultimately, the result is the same, to increase the bottom line. However, the next step removed from that will vary depending on your company, product line, target audience, buying cycle, and much more.
Example: You have a retail store and want to offer your products through an eCommerce site. Your second level goal will be to make sales through the website. Contrast this to a business consultant who needs to develop his or her authority in the marketplace. The second person’s second level goal would be to be cited and published across both online and offline publications.
How To Measure Results
Once you define your goals, the next step is to look at the process to get you there. Once you understand the process, now you have the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) you’ll want to measure. Generally, when you see these indicators performing in the desired way, you’ll start to see your ultimate goals begin to be realized as well, which of course turns ROI.
What are the KPI’s we generally measure in various forms of ‘Internet marketing? Below is a list you’ll commonly hear. As we dig into the different forms of Internet Marketing, you’ll see additional indicators, along with their definitions.
- Conversions – In Internet Marketing, a conversion is defined as “someone taking the desired action”. For most of our clients, this is either a form being submitted or someone calling the company. This is in the middle, near the top, of the sales funnel, as the ultimate desired action is a revenue generating transaction. This is a necessary step to get to the revenue, and therefore is very important to track and analyze.
- Visits – A visit is when someone visits your site. Within this, you have total visits and unique visits. The latter are unique computers who have visited your site, the former be all visits, including if someone visits more than once.
- Pageviews – A pageview is when a page on your website is loaded. If your pageviews are the same as your visits, you likely have a problem as your pages/visit is very low (see the next item).
- Pages/Visit – Pages per visit is a ratio number of how many average pages a visitor is seeing when they come to your site. Your goal for this specific metric will greatly depend on what marketing activities you’re conducting, as well as the specific type of site you have (educational, corporate/commercial, eCommerce, etc.).
- Bounce Rate – This metric measures what percentage of people visit and leave without viewing an additional page (by hitting the back button or directly navigating away from the site/page by typing in a new URL). You can measure the bounce rate of the site as a whole, as well as individual pages. Again, depending on what marketing activities you’re engaged in and your type of site, your goal bounce rate will vary.
- Exit Rate – This metric measures how many people leave your site from a particular page. While a bounce rate simply means someone did not navigate to a new page, an exit means they actually left your site. This is a very useful metric in analyzing a specific page’s effectiveness and if there is a problem with either design, content or function on a particular page.
- Time On Site/Page – This measures how much time someone spends on your site and/or a particular page. Depending on your analytics program, this metric may not be as reliable as some of the metrics already mentioned, but can be useful to help analyze a page that has a high bounce and/or exit rate.
Build An Effective Marketing Platform
Stay tuned over the next several weeks as we look at website, SEM and SEO performance, and some of the factors you’ll want to make sure you’re considering as you evaluate a marketing campaign’s effectiveness. As you look to partner with a marketing firm, whether general or specialized, be sure you understand how they are going to measure success and that you agree with their measures. If you don’t know what they’re measuring ask the questions to have them educate you so you know what to expect with your campaign.
If you’re ready to build a custom marketing program to help achieve your goals, contact us today at 866-925-9524 to discuss your business and the goals you’re struggling to achieve.
