How Do You Know Your Marketing Efforts Are Working?
In the past few weeks we’ve discussed securing new leads and nurturing them into a sale. Now as one last piece of fun let’s delve into tracking results.
For almost everyone, at almost every time, it’s about return on investment, right? Always and forever?
So make sure your results are paying off (literally). Make sure you’re tracking the important metrics.
Focus on real people versus impressions
Just like we don’t count a real conversion unless a client receives contact information, we don’t judge our marketing efforts based on impressions.
Impressions are the number of people who could have been served your ad or marketing effort. Meaning the number of people who could have seen it. Using Google AdWords as an example, it’s the total number of people who searched one of your target keywords and had your ad displayed. Did they actually truly see it? Did they read it and absorb it? The impressions statistic is unconcerned with that very important answer. It just wants to tell you they maybe could’ve possibly seen it.
Don’t be lulled to that siren’s sharp rocks. Focus on the tangible. Focus on what can actually improve your sales.
The important metrics
- Number of clicks – the number of people who saw your ad and actually clicked on it to go to your intended webpage.
- Number of conversions – did those people who clicked actually convert by providing contact information for a follow-up.
- Conversion rate – the percentage of people who convert from a webpage. It’s an important metric to study to learn if your conversion points are effective enough. And it can be misleading, so here’s a bit more detail.
You may have a Contact Us page with a terrifically high conversion rate – maybe 60 percent of everyone who lands on the Contact Us page contacts you (because otherwise why are they going to your Contact Us page?). But what if the page you consider your top sales page has a low conversion rate? What if it’s even less than 1 percent?
Then you may need a different offer. Is there an asset you can give them? A discount? Something you can provide that would entice site visitors to part with their precious contact information?
We’d be happy to do an assessment for you. After all, we are the customer acquisition specialists.
One final bit on data
We’ve gone on quite a journey together these last few weeks. From what constitutes a true conversion to how to nurture that conversion into a sale to what metrics to monitor. But there are three key metrics still left unsaid. Until now.
When you really want to get fancy, bring in your cost comparison:
- Cost-per-click – how much did it cost you for each click to your website?
- Cost-per-conversion – how much did it cost for each legitimate lead?
- Cost-per-tactic – when a marketing campaign is all said and done, how much did it cost you, and how much did it earn you?
This is the real crux of it. And it requires tracking a lead all the way through to a sale. Branding is vital, generating traffic and attention is essential. But ultimately, deep down, the most important action a marketing campaign can generate is to create a sale. Because increasing awareness and traffic is great. But in about 99.9999 percent of cases, the main purpose of generating awareness and traffic is to generate sales. This article from Venture Beat on how marketers are increasingly expected to earn top-line revenue growth agrees with me.
Money in for money out. This is a business, and that’s how you conduct the business well.
Thank you for sticking with us on this long journey of conversions and good luck generating your own leads and sales. We’re here for you if you want to glean insight, brainstorm, or even have us develop and oversee campaigns.
