If there is one big lesson this past year has left us, it is that ‘digital everything’ is here to stay. As many brands and executives are faced with the need to dominate their business sectors, it is not enough to just include digital marketing in the strategy: one has to think like a Digital Marketing Officer.
Digital marketing is competitive and increasingly lucrative. But what should you even focus on? The simple answer is metrics.
Here are key digital metrics every DMO (Digital Marketing Officer) needs to dominate:
Website Traffic
this measure can give you an understanding of the market demand, and is a first indicator of whether your messaging for promoting and branding your business is meeting audience expectations and needs. If you don’t have any website traffic or it’s not growing month over month, you need to take a look at some other numbers which can tell you what’s going on.
Traffic by Channel/Source: which sources are driving the most traffic in? Where is your traffic coming from? Find out what is working and what actions those traffic sources are taking on your site. If you have Google Analytics set up on your site, this is where this information is housed.
- Organic Search
- Paid Campaigns
- Social Media
Bounce Rate: this metric measures the amount of customers who “bounced” out of your site after viewing just one page. I know, this one seems a bit harsh. But, make sure your website has a WOW factor from the start in order to retain your audience, and a clear Call-to-Action to encourage them to take the next step.
Conversion Rate
This metric is the most important one because it helps you understand how successful your website or digital marketing campaigns were not only at attracting but also, at securing a lead, a purchase, a subscriber, contact information, etc. Focusing on conversion rate can help you create more targeted and productive campaigns in order to achieve your sales goals.
Google Analytics or your current analytics platform is set up to measure this rate and your conversions.
Conversion by Channel/Source: Just looking at the high level conversion rate won’t be able to give you decision data, which is why looking just below the surface will give you a much better perspective on where to focus efforts. Look at which conversions came from which channels.
Let’s say your greatest conversion rate is coming from Social Media; your next set of questions for your digital team or agency should be digging into what marketing you are doing on social media, what is the messaging, who are you targeting, and assessing why they are a valuable audience for you. You’ll want to understand how you can replicate that success across other channels.
Customer Retention: Once you understand where your conversions are coming from, make sure you have a plan for retention. This measure is key because digital is fast-paced and consumers are flooded with other opportunities for purchases and subscriptions. You need to find a valuable way to be top of mind to that consumer. As a C-Suite level executive, you must allocate budget to attracting that customer, and retaining them.
Measuring customer retention allows you to see not only how successful your marketing campaigns are at getting the customer to your product in the short-term, but also, how long they can stay loyal long-term.
ROI (Return on Investment) Calculation
Finally, let’s talk about money. As a marketing leader, your job is to ensure that the strategies work, the metrics are positive and that you get more and more people to purchase your product or request your service. But for how much? You want to make sure the amount of money you are spending is productive, so making sure you are emphasizing the importance of ROI to your team is key in creating a marketing team that understands what’s on the line.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): As with all marketing, you can determine how you want to assess value for your business and industry. For paid campaigns, a good way to start assessing performance is through ROAS. Return on Ad Spend is looking at the first dollar you put into an ad versus what you received in revenue for that dollar. It’s a simple but effective metric for seeing how paid advertising can be profitable for you.
Keep in mind that a positive ROAS will not appear on Day 1 of advertising, nor is it the only metric you should assess in advertising. ROAS assesses the value of that ad dollar, but does not account for metrics which will tell you how “warm” your audience is, especially if your product/service has a longer consumer decision period. Consult your marketing team or agency to talk specifics on other metrics you should review.
CAC, Customer Acquisition Cost: Customer Acquisition Cost Metrics, focuses on how much you are spending to bring in new customers. Different from ROAS, CAC focuses on the number of customers brought in by X amount of dollars. How valuable is that audience member to you in the long-term? (A good metric to review alongside CAC is CLV, Customer Lifetime Value). If the financial value of that customer, either because of longevity, average order value, or some other metric, is high, you might be willing to allow for a higher CAC.
Measuring CAC is crucial to realize if you are budgeting too much or too little compared to the value of that customer. A C-Suite Executive must consider both the short and long-term benefits of these cost decisions.
These are not all the metrics marketing leaders should value, but they are a few that every Digital Marketing Officer should assess for digital performance.
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