The Most Important Digital Marketing Analytics to Monitor

How do you know if your digital marketing efforts are working? What stats indicate you’re heading in the right direction?

Your analytics help you understand the performance of your marketing strategies. Making data-driven decisions and iterating your strategy to match consumer behavior will increase engagement and conversion success. So, why are analytics important? And which analytics should you monitor? Let’s find out.

Why should you regularly track your analytics?

Measuring results helps businesses make informed decisions and identify opportunities. Your business can adjust or change its approach if a strategy or channel is not producing results.

Regular analysis enables you to maximize your time, effort and budget to produce the best ROI possible. These iterations take time and accurate data. Let’s see what data you need to track to monitor your marketing strategy performance.

Social media

Social media is widely used by individuals and businesses. Social media presence and interaction are vital for many businesses. The average person spends 144 minutes on social media each day. For many businesses, a social media strategy is a no-brainer.

If you already have a social media strategy, look at these analytics to measure its performance:

• Follower Growth: Track your social media account follower numbers over time. Consistent and organic growth is a positive indicator. You want consistent growth and new interest from users. This provides fresh territory for leads and conversions.

• Engagement Rate: The engagement rate is calculated by dividing your total engagement (likes, comments, shares) by your follower count. This helps gauge how well your audience is interacting with your content. Higher interactions can indicate a stronger customer relationship and a great brand presence.

• Reach and Impressions: Monitor the number of times your content was seen (impressions) and the number of unique users who have seen it (reach). This identifies your social media visibility. Your marketing message may be amazing, but it can’t be effective if no one sees it.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure the percentage of people who clicked on a link in your post versus the total number of impressions. CTR indicates the effectiveness of your call to action. If you are not seeing the desired results, consider adjusting your CTA wording or where you place it.

• Video Views and Watch Time: For platforms that support video content, monitor the number of views, watch time, and engagement with your videos. Identify where users stop watching and what grabs and maintains their attention.

Email

Your email marketing strategy is a crucial link in your marketing efforts. This strategy fosters direct and uninterrupted communication with leads.

The following analytics will help you gauge your email strategy’s performance and identify areas for adjustment:

• Open Rate: The percentage of recipients who opened your email. A higher open rate indicates that your subject line and sender name are effective. This analysis is vital in A/B subject line testing.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who clicked on one or more links in your email. CTR is a measure of engagement and interest in your content.

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of email recipients who completed the desired action (e.g., purchasing or filling out a form). It provides insights into the effectiveness of your call to action.

• Bounce Rate: The bounce rate is the percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered to the recipient’s inbox. Bounces can be categorized as “soft” (temporary issues) or “hard” (permanent issues). Email deliverability can be a challenge for many businesses. Monitor and improve your bounce rates to overcome this.

• List Growth Rate: Measure how fast your email list is growing. A healthy list growth rate indicates that your audience values your content. Ultimately, you want to grow a high-quality list of subscribers who engage with your emails.

• Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of recipients who opted out of your email list after receiving a campaign. Monitor this to ensure that your content aligns with subscribers’ expectations.

Ad Campaigns

Ad campaigns allow your business to come into contact with individuals who may have never heard of your brand. This strategy can be powerful in garnering immediate results.

To get the most out of your ad campaigns, track the following analytics:

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it. CTR is a key indicator of ad engagement. The higher this number, the better!

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who completed the desired action after clicking on your ad. It could be a purchase, sign-up, or any other goal you’ve set for your campaign. The conversion rate is what we are here for; conversions are the bread and butter!

• Cost Per Click (CPC): The average cost you pay for each click on your ad. Monitoring CPC helps you manage your budget and assess the efficiency of your ad spend.

• Impressions: The total number of times your ad is displayed to users. High impressions may indicate good visibility, but balancing this with other metrics is essential. High impressions with a low CTR won’t do you much good.

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): A vital indicator for businesses implementing ad campaigns, ROAS is the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. ROAS helps evaluate the profitability of your campaigns.

• Ad Reach: The total number of unique users who have seen your ad. Reach provides insights into the potential audience exposure.

Website

Your website is the hub of your digital presence. Your website showcases your brand identity, values, and services. A great website enhances a business’s credibility and perception.

To get the most out of your website, look at these analytics:

• Traffic Sources: Understand where your website traffic is coming from. Monitor the percentage of traffic from organic search, direct visits, referrals, and paid campaigns.

• Total Website Traffic: Track the overall number of visitors to your website. Increasing traffic can be an indicator of campaign success.

• Unique Visitors: Measure the number of distinct individuals visiting your website. This metric helps you understand the size of your audience.

• Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed on your website. Pageviews indicate how engaged visitors are with your content.

• Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. A lower bounce rate generally indicates more engaged users.

• Average Session Duration: The average time users spend on your website. A longer session duration suggests that the visitor finds your content valuable.

Once you have collected these analytics, you can research benchmarks in your industry and see how your strategy performance stands up to the industry average. Benchmarks give your business context when analyzing your KPIs and optimizing your efforts. When your analytics are compared to your industry’s standard performance, you get a clear picture of what you are doing well and what can be improved. These insights are gold for businesses to excel and grow.

Staying consistent and data-driven in your marketing strategy is no easy feat. That’s where a strategic marketing partner comes in. Work with Dream Local Digital to analyze your marketing strategy’s performance and identify areas for growth. Contact us to book your free consultation today.