The meteoric rise of digital marketing only proves the importance for businesses to understand how to effectively measure their success. We've discussed what the best marketing tactics for lead generation and marketing strategies for small companies are, but how can we actually know whether these strategies have worked or not?
This is where Digital Marketing Metrics come in. Metrics are the tools we use to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. You can capture these metrics through analytic tools such as Google Analytics, HubSpot Analytics, and SEMrush. This is not to be confused with your business Key Performance Indicators. Key Performance Indicators track the performance of your business, whilst metrics are an indication of how effective your processes are. All KPIs are metrics but not all metrics are KPIs.
An advantage of understanding how to read metrics is that you are often able to see the impacts of your marketing campaigns in real-time, as opposed to traditional marketing campaigns, where the results were often not seen until months to potentially years later.
However, a word of warning, not all metrics are as effective as others. These metrics are called Vanity Metrics as described by Tableau. Vanity metrics may sound good on a report but will not provide you with any true insight on how to generate greater sales. For example, the number of Instagram followers. Having many followers may look appealing, however, is this large number reflected in revenue? These are considerations one must take when allocating resources to boosting.
To assist you in determining which metrics you should prioritize, here are the essential 6 digital marketing metrics your business should understand!