15 Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking

Marketing is hard. And if you’re like most marketers, you probably have more marketing KPIs to track than time in the day. So how do you make sure your marketing efforts are paying off?

Here are 15 right marketing KPIs that will help you measure success, so you can focus on what matters: driving results for your business.

What are Marketing KPIs?

Marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that companies use to track the progress of their marketing campaigns.

These metrics provide insights into how well a company is doing regarding customer acquisition, sales growth, lead generation, customer retention, and more.

By tracking these marketing KPIs, businesses can identify areas where they need to improve and adjust accordingly. Tracking these metrics also helps companies understand which strategies work best and which need improvement.

Marketing KPIs fall into two main categories:

• Online KPIs, or those that track website traffic and conversion rate.
• Offline KPIs, which focus on measuring sales.

The best way to understand what a marketing KPI is and how it works is by looking at some marketing KPI examples.

Examples of Marketing KPIs

1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a metric used to measure how much it costs a company to acquire a new customer. This marketing metric is calculated by dividing total sales and marketing costs by the total number of customers acquired during that period.

Tracking your customer acquisition cost is essential because it helps you understand your spending on acquiring new customers.

For example, if your marketing cost is $100 and you acquire 100 new customers during the month, your CAC is $1.

This metric can also be used to indicate the marketing team's efficiency. Your marketing strategy is working if it costs less money to acquire a new customer than your marketing budget. If the marketing cost exceeds your budget, you must make some changes.

The lower the CAC, the better it is for a company’s bottom line. It means they spend less on acquiring customers while achieving their desired results.

As opposed to measuring CAC by the number of customers acquired, some companies also track it by sales revenue.

This is a good idea if you have multiple products or services because each may have different customer acquisition costs. Measuring CAC by sales revenue can help you understand how much money you make from each customer.

2. Lifetime Value of a Customer (LTV)

LTV is a metric used to measure how much sales revenue a company can expect from an individual customer throughout their lifetime.

The formula for calculating customer lifetime value (CLV) is relatively simple:

CLV = Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan.

Where;

• Customer Value: The average amount of money a customer spends on your product or service in a given period of time.
• Average Customer Lifespan: The average length of time that a customer continues to purchase from you.

For example, let's say that you own an online store selling pet supplies. The average amount of money a customer spends in one month is $50, and the average lifespan of a customer is 5 months. This means CLV for this customer would be $50 x 5 years = $250.

The formula above doesn’t consider any discounts or sales during those five years; it only measures the total price customers pay.

The value of this metric varies from industry to industry because it depends on factors such as average order value, purchase frequency, customer retention rate, etc.

Tracking LTV will help your sales team better understand how much each customer is worth to your business and whether or not current marketing strategies are working effectively.

The best way to track LTV is by creating a customer value model. A customer value model is an effective tool for understanding how each customer contributes to your business’s profitability.

It tracks the lifetime sales revenue of customers based on their behavior and can be used to predict future gains and potential losses.

Companies should strive for high LTVs as it indicates that customers are loyal and likely to continue purchasing from them.

3. Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most critical metrics for any business, and it’s crucial for measuring the success of a marketing campaign.

ROI measures how much money you make from an investment compared to the initial marketing investment. It’s calculated by dividing the net profit from an investment by the total cost of the marketing investment.

For example, if you invest $100 and make $200 in return, your ROI would be 100%.

Marketing ROI is an important metric because it helps your sales and marketing team understand whether their marketing efforts are paying off in the short or long term.

If a campaign has a low ROI, it may not be worth continuing and should be re-evaluated or changed accordingly.

On the other hand, if a campaign has a high marketing ROI, it generates more revenue than was invested in it and should be continued or expanded upon.

Businesses should also remember that while ROI is valuable, it doesn’t always tell the whole story. For instance, a social media marketing campaign may have an extremely high ROI but not be profitable if it requires large amounts of capital upfront.

4. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is similar to ROI but measures explicitly how much revenue you make from an ad campaign compared to how much you spend on it. It’s also a great way to measure the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

The formula to calculate ROAS is simple:

ROAS = Ad Revenue / Ad Spend.

For example, if a business spends $100 on an ad campaign and makes $200 in revenue, its ROAS would be 200%.

This is what we mean when we say that ROAS is more specific than ROI. While it doesn’t account for other costs associated with running a business (like labor), it provides valuable insight into your ads' profitability.

This ratio can be applied to any form of advertising, including PPC ads, email marketing campaigns, or even social media posts.

As a marketer, you can use ROAS to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and identify which ones are performing the best.

Broadly, a ROAS of 3 or more, which means that you’re spending $1 and getting at least 3x that back in revenue, is considered a good ROAS.

However, this can vary depending on your industry and the type of product or service that you offer. For example, if you sell luxury products or services, a ROAS of 10x or higher might be more appropriate than a lower ROAS for a commodity product.

5. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL)

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a potential customer who has shown interest in your product or service but hasn’t yet made a purchase decision. These leads are more advanced than cold leads and have been exposed to your marketing efforts.

For example, if you have an e-commerce website, MQLs would be people who have visited your site but haven’t purchased anything yet. They may have added products to their shopping cart but not completed their purchase.

MQLs can be divided into two categories:

• Hot MQLs: People who have interacted with your brand in some way, such as filling out a form on your website or signing up for a free product trial.
• Warm MQLs: Prospects who have not yet interacted with your brand but have shown interest by visiting certain pages on your site.

MQLs are typically identified through lead scoring systems which assign points based on specific criteria such as:

• Website visits
• Email opens/clicks
• Web form submissions
• Social media activitiy

Tracking MQLs is essential because they provide insight into which leads may eventually become customers and help inform future marketing strategies and tactics.

Although there is no set formula to determine the exact score needed to qualify as a marketing-qualified lead, most companies use a scoring system that ranges from 0-100. The higher the score, the more likely this person will convert into a customer.

6. Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)

A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a lead that sales have qualified. This means the prospect has shown interest in your product or service and is ready to speak with a sales representative about the offerings.

For example, a sales rep is assigned to follow up on all leads with a score of over 50 in their CRM software. The number of SQLs will equal the number of leads that sales have qualified for further contact with a sales rep.

Sales-qualified leads are an important KPI because it helps your sales and marketing team understand how effectively their campaigns generate leads that will eventually convert into customers.

SQLs can be calculated by dividing the total number of leads generated by the total number of leads qualified by sales.

For example, if a marketing campaign generated 1,000 leads and 200 of those leads were qualified by sales, then the SQL would be 20%. The higher the number, the better.

To ensure accurate measurement, setting up a process for qualifying leads before they reach sales reps is crucial. This process should include criteria that indicate whether a lead is ready for further contact with sales reps. For example, budget, timeline, decision-making authority, and other factors.

Additionally, tracking each lead from start to finish is vital to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and strategies accurately.

7. Website Visitors

Website visitors are one of the most important marketing KPIs that measure the number of people who visit your website over a given period.

If a company has a high volume of website visitors, it means more people are interested in what the company offers. This can increase brand awareness and lead generation.

As a business, tracking this metric is crucial as it will help your sales and marketing team understand how effectively their marketing strategy drives traffic to your websites.

It also provides insights into which marketing channel drives the most traffic and which content resonates with visitors.

Website visitors can be tracked using analytics tools such as Google Analytics. In addition to tracking website visitors, marketers should also follow other marketing metrics such as:

• Page views
• Organic traffic
• Bounce rate
• Average session duration
• Conversions
• User intent
• Social media shares

By tracking these metrics with website visitors, your marketing team can gain valuable insights into which marketing campaigns drive the most engagement and conversions on their site.

As a website owner, you can use email marketing campaigns and advertising on social media platforms to drive more traffic to your website.

8. Traffic-to-Lead Ratio

The Traffic-to-Lead Ratio is a key performance indicator used to measure the effectiveness of a website in generating leads. It is calculated by dividing the total number of website visitors by the total number of leads generated from those visitors.

For example, suppose you have a website that gets 1,000 total visitors in a month, and 100 of those visitors become leads for your business. In that case, your Traffic-to-Lead Ratio is 1:10.

This ratio helps marketers understand how well their website is performing in terms of generating qualified leads. A higher ratio indicates that more visitors are becoming leads, while a lower ratio suggests that fewer visitors are converting into leads.

To improve this ratio, marketers can focus on optimizing their website for lead generation, such as by creating compelling content and using effective calls to action (CTAs).

9. Lead-to-Customer Ratio

Lead-to-Customer Ratio is a key performance indicator (KPI) used to indicate the effectiveness of a business's marketing activities. It's used to measure the percentage of qualified leads that result in conversions in any given period.

When put into practice, this metric helps businesses strategize future business goals and measure customer satisfaction. It is one of the top marketing KPIs businesses should track to understand how well their sales department is performing.

The formula for calculating Lead-to-Customer Ratio is:

Lead Conversion Rate = (Number of Leads Converted / Total Number of Leads) x 100

For example, if your business has 500 visitors and 10 of them become leads, and 5 of those 10 leads convert into paying customers, then your lead-to-customer conversion rate would be calculated as follows:

Lead Conversion Rate = (5 / 10) x 100 = 50%

The lead-to-customer ratio is important because it helps you understand which channels drive more business leads. By tracking this KPI, you can identify which marketing channels work best for you and focus more on those channels to increase lead generation. It also helps you optimize your website so that more visitors turn into leads.

10. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that businesses use to gauge how their customers feel about them.

NPS is calculated by asking customers one simple question: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service?”

• 9 or 10 are considered promoters.
• 7 or 8 are considered passives.
• 6 or lower are considered detractors.

The formula for calculating NPS is as follows:

NPS = % Promoters – % Detractors

For example, if 60% of respondents rate the company as 9 or 10 and 20% rate it as 6 or lower, then the company's NPS would be 40%.

NPS provides valuable insight into customer satisfaction and loyalty. It can help companies identify areas where they need to improve their products and services to increase customer satisfaction.

Additionally, it can help companies identify sales opportunities by identifying potential promoters interested in buying more from the company.

11. Customer Retention

Customer Retention is one of the most critical marketing KPIs to track for any business. It measures the rate at which customers stay with a company in a given period and is an excellent indicator of customer loyalty.

The formula for calculating customer retention is as follows:

Customer Retention Rate = (END – NEW) / START * 100.

Where;

• END: Number of customers at the end of the period.
• NEW: Number of new customers acquired during the period
• START: Number of customers at the beginning of the period

For example, if a company had 500 customers at the start of a month and gained 50 new customers during that month but ended with 520 customers, their customer retention rate would be calculated as follows:

Customer Retention Rate = (520 – 50) / 500 * 100 = 94%

A high customer retention rate means that customers are satisfied with your product or service and are likely to return for more.

There are several strategies businesses can use to improve their customer retention rates. Here are some examples:

• Offer incentives: Give discounts or rewards to loyal customers who keep coming back.
• Invest in different marketing channels: Utilize different marketing channels such as email campaigns, Google Ads, and content marketing to reach potential and existing customers.
• Focus on business objectives: Make sure all your efforts focus on achieving specific business objectives, such as increasing sales or improving customer satisfaction.
• Streamline sales process: Simplify and streamline your sales process, so it's easy for customers to purchase from you.
• Scale retention marketing efforts: Once you've identified what works, scale up your marketing efforts, so they're as effective as possible.

12. Daily Active Users

Daily Active Users (DAU) is one of the most important content marketing KPIs that measures the number of users who visit your website or app daily. It is an important metric to track as it helps you understand how many people are regularly engaging with your product or service.

It's important to note that DAU does not include repeat visits from the same user. So if someone visits your website multiple times in one day, they will only count as one active user for that day. You can find Active Users reports under the Engagement category in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

The formula for calculating DAU:

Unique new visitors + unique returning visitors = overall DAU

Tracking DAU can help you identify which channels are driving the most engagement, so you can focus your efforts on those areas.

When measuring success with search engines like Google and Bing, DAU can also indicate how well your SEO efforts are paying off.

13. SERP Rankings

Search Engine Result Page (SERP) Rankings are one of the most critical marketing KPIs you should track. It is the position of your website on search engine result pages for a given query. The higher your SERP ranking, the more likely users will click on your website and visit it.

Various factors, including keyword relevance, content quality, backlinks, and user experience, determine SERP rankings. To improve SERP rankings, marketers must optimize their websites for search engines.

This includes creating high-quality content relevant to the query, building backlinks from other websites, and ensuring a positive user experience.

Regarding SEO strategy, SERP rankings are essential for measuring its success. You can track your website’s performance over time by monitoring its position on SERP for various keywords and phrases.

Here are some tips to help you boost your SERP rankings:

• Research keywords related to your business and use them in your content.
• Create high-quality content that is relevant to the query and provides value to readers.
• Optimize page titles and meta descriptions with relevant keywords.
• Use internal links to link related pages together.
• Build backlinks from other websites with good domain authority.
• Make sure your website loads quickly and is mobile-friendly.
• Monitor competitors’ SERP rankings and adjust accordingly if needed.

By following these tips, you can improve your SERP rankings and increase organic traffic to your website. This will help you reach more potential customers and grow your business.

14. Email Marketing Performance

Email marketing is an essential part of any business’s digital marketing strategy. It allows you to communicate directly with your customers, build brand awareness, drive sales, and more.

But it's important to know how well your email campaigns perform to improve them over time and increase their overall effectiveness. One way to do this is by tracking your email marketing performance.

This marketing KPI is a measure of how effective an email marketing strategy is in terms of achieving its goals and objectives.

Email marketing performance can be measured in various ways, including:

• Open Rate: Open rate measures the percentage of emails opened by recipients out of the total number sent. This metric is typically calculated by dividing the emails opened by the total number sent. For example, if you sent 100 emails and 30 were opened, your open rate would be 30%.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR measures how many people click on a link within an email after opening it. To calculate CTR, divide the number of clicks by the total number of emails delivered. For example, if you sent 100 emails and 10 people clicked on a link within them, your CTR would be 10%.
• Conversion Rate: The conversion rate measures how many people completed a desired action after clicking on a link within an email. To calculate the conversion rate, divide the number of conversions (completed actions) by the total number of clicks. For example, if 10 people clicked on a link in an email and 5 completed a desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase, your conversion rate would be 50%.
• Bounce Rate: The bounce rate measures how many emails failed to reach their intended destination due to invalid addresses or other technical issues. You can calculate the bounce rate by dividing the number of bounced emails by the total number sent. For example, if you sent 100 emails and 5 bounced back due to invalid addresses or other technical issues, your bounce rate would be 5%.
• List Growth Rate: The list growth rate measures how quickly your email list grows over time. To measure this KPI, subtract the total number of unsubscribes from new subscribers. Divide that figure by the total number of email subscribers on your list and multiply it by 100. For example, if you had 500 subscribers at the start of a month and gained 50 new subscribers while losing 20 unsubscribers during that month’s time frame, your list growth would be 6%. Formula: (50 – 20) / 500 * 100 = 6%.
• Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate: Email sharing/forwarding rates measure how often recipients share or forward an email to their social network. Calculating this metric divides forwarded messages by the total messages delivered during that time. For example, if you sent 100 emails and 10 were dispatched to a social network, your forwarding/sharing ratio would be 10%.
• Overall ROI: Overall ROI measures how much money was made compared to what was spent on an email campaign over its lifetime. To calculate overall ROI, subtract all costs associated with running an email campaign from the revenue generated over its lifetime. Then divide that figure by all the expenses related to rerunning it to get its return on investment percentage (ROI%).

These are a few examples; many other metrics help measure email marketing performance. To name a few, unsubscribe rates, read time, click-to-open rates (CTOR), and more, depending on your specific goals and objectives for your campaigns.

By tracking these metrics regularly, you can gain valuable insights into what’s working well with your email marketing campaigns and what needs improvement. So you can make adjustments accordingly to maximize your results over time.

15. Landing Page Conversions

Landing page conversions are a key performance indicator (KPI) that measures the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. They provide insight into how well your website converts visitors into customers or leads.

The landing page conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of visitors who take action on your landing page by the total number of visitors.

For example, if 100 people visit your landing page and 10 fill out a form, the conversion rate would be 10%. This metric can help you understand how your marketing campaigns drive traffic to your website and convert those visitors into customers or leads.

The average landing page conversion rate varies depending on the industry and type of business. Generally speaking, a reasonable conversion rate is between 2-5%.

However, some industries may have higher or lower rates depending on their target audience and product offering.

For example, e-commerce businesses typically have higher conversion rates than B2B businesses.

On the other hand, B2B businesses typically have lower conversion rates because they’re selling complex solutions that require more research before making a purchase decision.

Tracking this KPI is essential because it can help you identify areas where you can improve your website and increase conversions. Here are some tips for improving your landing page conversions:

• Use attractive visuals: Visuals such as images, videos, infographics, etc., can help draw attention to key points on your landing page and make it easier for visitors to understand what they should do next.
• Optimize for mobile devices: Mobile devices account for a large portion of web traffic, so optimizing your landing pages for mobile users is essential. Make sure all elements on the page are easy to view and interact with on smaller screens.
• Include a clear call-to-action: Make sure every page has a clear call-to-action (CTA) so that visitors know precisely what they should do next. This could be signing up for an email list or making a purchase.
• Test different versions: Experiment with other versions of your landing pages to see which ones perform better. Try changing headlines, images, copy, etc., and see which version has the highest conversion rate.

By tracking this KPI and following these tips, you will be able to increase conversions on your website and generate more leads or sales from each visitor who visits your site.

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