Are You Measuring Marketing Success Based on these Core Metrics?

The ultimate success of your marketing campaigns comes down to a whole lot more than just how many total sales you've made, or how much revenue you're bringing in each year. Remember, that one small move in one part of your campaign will have a ripple effect that adjusts everything around it. If you want to see how your campaigns are doing, there are a few core metrics you can employ that will tell you exactly that.

Qualified Leads

If you're only measuring the success of your campaign based on the number of leads you're bringing in, you're missing the target but hitting the tree, so to speak. Leads are one thing - qualified leads are something else entirely. Anyone can bring in a lead, but that doesn't mean the lead will ever make a sale. Generally speaking, the most successful campaigns may not bring in a massive number of leads, but they'll have a higher percentage of qualified leads than you'll get from the old "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" method.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Also commonly referred to as CAC, customer acquisition cost is one of those core metrics that will never go out of style. In essence, it tells you how much money you're spending to bring in one new customer. This metric takes into account not only the cost of your campaign materials and distribution, but also things like salaries, overhead, and more. Let's say it costs you $1000 to bring in one new customer. That may not be a lot, but if the average value of each customer is only $800, you have a problem. For the best results, your CAC should always be lower than another important metric, your CLV or "customer lifetime value."

Website Metrics

In 2017, and in the future, the chances are high that regardless of how you're executing your marketing campaign, your website will play a big role in it. As a digital calling card for your business, it will be many people's first point of contact - even if they eventually carry out the rest of their relationship over the phone or in person. Because of this, the two core metrics you'll want to look at to determine how your campaign is doing are "time spent on site" and "bounce rate."

"Time spent on site" will show you how valuable people think your website is. Essentially, it will clue you in on whether people feel that your website has something of value to offer based on the promise they received from your marketing collateral. If "time spent on site" is low, chances are there's a discrepancy between what you say you offer and what you actually do.

Bounce rate is similar - if someone gets to your homepage and leaves a few seconds later, there is a problem somewhere that needs to be corrected as soon as possible.

These are just a few of the core metrics that you can use to judge the overall success of your marketing campaign. Also remember that if you make a change to your marketing efforts, regardless of how big or how small, these numbers should react accordingly. As a result, they can be a great way to track in real-time how well that great new idea you had worked - or how much work is still left to be done, depending on the situation. These are all numbers you need to keep an active eye on moving forward, both in short and long-term intervals.