The Top 3 Most Important Marketing KPIs

Did you know that more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced each day? That is quite a lot of data. It’s so much data, in fact, that it can be overwhelming for marketers to determine which data is really important. That is why it is important to narrow down the most important KPIs (or key performance indicators) to focus on. The top three most important marketing KPIs (according to our digital marketing team) will help you measure the success of your digital marketing strategy. This is the only guide to measuring marketing KPIs that you will ever need! 

marketing KPIs

Definition of Marketing KPIs

Marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the metrics you use to measure the overall effectiveness of your business’s marketing efforts. There are several different types of KPIs that you can use to suit the needs of your individual business and even different marketing campaigns. KPIs are used to help you determine which strategies are working to help you reach your business goals and which ones are not, and help you adjust your strategies accordingly to improve your marketing performance. 

The 3 Most Important Marketing KPIs

The three most important marketing KPIs are reach, engagement, and conversions. Let’s define and break down each of these key performance indicators, and how you can measure each.  

#1 Most Important Marketing KPI: Reach 

Reach is a valuable KPI because it shows your overall opportunity for engagement and conversions. Though reach is typically a KPI for paid advertising, it is also a useful measurement tool for organic search in terms of search volume or traffic potential. 

There are two main KPIs for paid advertising: 

Advertising Impressions

Advertising impressions are the number of times your ad was shown to a user. Impressions help you determine how well you have penetrated your target audience and if the audience pool was large enough to be effective. 

Ad Impression Share

The Impression Share metric lets you know how many times your ad is being shown compared to your competitors (aka, the other advertisers in the same space.) The higher the percentage is, the more times your ad is being displayed compared to others.  It’s a competitive metric and important to watch. 

Now, the organic search metrics are a little different than advertising reach metrics because they tell you how much opportunity a site is able to capture, versus the number of times an ad was shown. Here are a few reach metrics for organic search to focus on: 

Search Volume

Your search volume is the total number of users who searched for a specific term within a set time frame. This number is key because if you are targeting a high-volume search term, you will probably get a lot more traffic than if you target a low-volume search term. 

Search Ranking 

Your search ranking is where in the search engine results page (SERP) your site appears for a certain keyword. The higher up your web page ranks, the more visibility and clicks you are likely to earn, which is why it is so important. 

Estimated Traffic Share

Estimated traffic share combines both search volume and search ranking. The keywords with the highest search volume and a site with the highest ranking have the most chances of obtaining traffic. Traffic share also helps you measure an SEO campaign’s possible success if there is a lot of competition for popular search terms and you need to target long-tailed keywords first. 

three most important marketing KPIs

#2 Most Important Marketing KPI: Engagement

Once you know your reach and how many people see your content, next you need to measure engagement, which shows you how many people are interacting with your content. Here are several ways to measure engagement: 

Website Traffic 

Traffic is the total number of visits to your website. The number of users will tell you how effective your campaigns are at driving traffic to your site. For instance, how many visitors found your website from the link in your Instagram bio? Are they brand-new, or returning to your site? 

Click-Through Rate (CTR) 

CTR tells you how many people who viewed your content or ad and actually clicked on it (hence the term “click-through rate.”) A good click-through rate depends on several factors, including which platform you are using for your ads. 

Time Spent on Page 

The time spent on page metric helps you understand how long people are spending on your site. For example, if your bounce rate is high, then your website might need some work. 

Pages Per Visit 

The pages per visit metric tells you if users are interested in other content on your site. If lots of users are visiting one web page on your site and then leaving, you might need to update the navigation of your website or add more internal links and recommended content. 

Traffic Source

The traffic source metric helps you understand where your web traffic is coming from. For example, are more website visitors coming to your site from Google or social media? 

important marketing key performance indicators

#3 Most Important Marketing KPI: Conversions

The third most important marketing KPI is conversions. A conversion is when a visitor to your website completes the desired goal. The definition of a conversion will vary for every website, depending on its goals. For example, if you have an e-commerce store, the desired goal will be for the visitor to make a purchase. Or, you might hope your visitors fill out a form or sign up for your newsletter. 

You can find your conversion rate by taking the number of visitors to your website and dividing it by the number of those visitors who execute that specific goal. Or, you can use our free conversion rate calculator

Here are some more examples of conversions: 

  • Purchases of a product or service 
  • Form completions that capture leads 
  • Emails or phone calls for service-based businesses 
  • Appointments booked through your website
  • Sign-ups or subscriptions so the user receives emails, texts, or other promotions 
  • Video plays 
  • Downloads of content 
  • Social media follows 

All three of these marketing KPIs work together. For example, page views are not a conversion, but it does tell you how many times a page was viewed. This tells you which of your web pages is the most popular and can help you figure out where to add a great call to action on your website, where conversions are most likely to happen. 

digital marketing kpis

SEO Design Chicago Can Help You with the Most Important Marketing KPIs 

Now that you know the top three most important marketing KPIs, you can take action. The first step is to know what your conversion goals are for your business. Then, you can set your KPIs and identify which metrics you need to track. If you need help, the web analytics and reporting team at SEO Design Chicago can help you discover your top marketing KPIs. We offer services like Conversion Rate Optimization to help you use these KPIs effectively to increase conversions on your website. Contact us today to learn more about our digital marketing services! 

FAQ: 

  • What are the most important marketing KPIs? 
  • What is reach? 
  • How can I measure engagement? 
  • What is a marketing KPI? 
  • What is a conversion? 

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