There are many different metrics that marketers may need to track, and some aspects of digital marketing may be harder to quantify than others. Still, it’s always helpful to 7 Sales Metrics for Marketers measure how well your campaigns are performing. This is especially true with content marketing, where you may need to measure sales results that aren’t easily attributed.
Regardless, it’s difficult to set goals if you don’t measure your progress. Certain sales metrics can help you better understand the relationship between your digital marketing strategy and revenue growth. With these insights in mind, you’ll have clearer ideas about where you should focus your energy and resources.
Keep reading to learn which sales metrics you should monitor as part of your digital marketing strategy.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
As the name implies, your cost per lead (CPL) is the cost of generating a lead. This is usually defined as someone who is in your pipeline but has not yet purchased. CPL is a key metric in performance-based marketing and is most often used to measure paid advertising campaigns. If someone clicks on your ad and provides their contact details, they become a lead.
The formula is simple on the surface:
CPL = [Total campaign spend] / [Total attributed leads]
However, “attribution” is the sticking point there. Attribution is increasingly difficult to measure . Leads can be generated in many different ways these days, from mailing list signups to inquiry forms to Facebook messages. All of these channels will cost you something. Setting up your website, creating lead magnets, and running automated drip sequences for people who provide their email addresses takes time and money.
What if someone clicks on a Google ad but ends up subscribing to your mailing list through a social link? Both the CPC and any follow-up action (e.g. a sales rep having to contact them) could technically be part of the CPL.
That’s why marketing automation platforms like SharpSpring can lower your CPL. After a prospect clicks on your ad, the platform handles the tedious task of collecting their information and sending them a few warm-up emails. (Plus, more than three-quarters of marketers generate and convert more leads by using automation software .)
While this CPL may be much less than a paid advertising campaign, it’s worth considering whether the cost is justified. If no one is downloading the white paper you paid $2,000 for, you’ll need to change the way you promote that lead magnet or shift your budget to another strategy.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
A lead is just that: a potential sale, not yet acquired. Therefore, any marketer will calculate the cost per acquisition (CPA) separately from the CPL.
This formula captures the overall conversions for the campaign:
Cost per conversion = [Total campaign spend] / [Total conversions]
However, this can be difficult to quantify because it’s not always clear why a lead converted, especially when your campaign includes multiple channels or touchpoints. If you capture a lead and your sales rep convinces them to buy in one call, great! Your acquisition cost is the CPL plus the labor cost of the rep’s time.
Unfortunately, it’s rarely that simple. The oft-cited statistic that it takes 6 to 8 touches to convert a lead is a fact – for some industries, it takes more. The question of which marketing channel/activity a conversion can be attributed to is a common challenge for marketers.
Without clear attribution, it’s difficult to assess your cost per lead, let alone your cost per acquisition. Sadly, over 34% of businesses don’t even try to use attribution . Marketing automation software that tracks your leads’ activity across channels can help solve this problem, giving you a clearer picture of their conversion journey and a more accurate CPA.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) typically refers to an email campaign, a landing page, a social post with a link – any medium where a potential customer reads the marketing message and then has the option to take the next step.
The next action can be anything from booking a call to visiting a web page to making a purchase. CTR is an important metric for any content marketing campaign because it assesses how many people move further into your funnel within a particular campaign.
This metric applies to paid ads, too. CTR is the number of people who saw your ad and clicked on it. This is different from CPC because it doesn’t measure how much you spent on your ad — just how many people actually took action on it.
The CTR formula is simple:
Click-through rate = [(Total clicks) / (Total impressions)] x 100
Note that this formula is based on impressions , not overall subscribers or followers. You can send an email campaign to 5,000 people, but if only 500 of them open it, that’s likely to click.
Your click-through rate is a useful metric for measuring how your content is resonating with your audience. A low click-through rate often indicates that the call to action isn’t landing well, or that your messaging/lead benefits need tweaking. It could also be a location or time issue. For example, an email campaign sent at 2am in the morning is unlikely to be opened, let alone clicked!
Bounce rate
A key metric for websites and landing pages is bounce rate – the percentage of people who visit a page and click away within a few seconds. Obviously, this is rarely ideal. In such cases, your bounce rate should generally be as low as possible.
That said, Google Analytics also considers Bounce Rate to be a “Single Page Session” (i.e., a user only visits one page on your site, then leaves). If someone lands on your service page, fills out your inquiry form, and then leaves without visiting another page, this might not be a bad thing. It would be helpful to set unique Bounce Rate goals for each page.
However, in most cases, “bounce rate” refers to people viewing the site and leaving without taking action or visiting other pages. This could be a sign that your messaging or user experience (UX) isn’t aligned with your target audience. Indeed, one study found that 70% of e-commerce shopping cart abandonment is due to poor UX .
Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut standard for what a “good” or “bad” bounce rate is. Certain types of content, like landing pages, tend to have higher bounce rates. This makes sense: if visitors aren’t ready to convert, they’ll leave. Therefore, it’s crucial to make sure you’re only sending high-quality traffic to these pages.
The source of your traffic is also important. Visitors coming from an email campaign or referral link are less likely to bounce , probably because they are ready for your content.
In summary, be aware of your bounce rate, but be sure to give it the proper context and measure it appropriately.
Goal Completed
Another Google Analytics metric, Goal Completion, refers to your Goal Conversion Rate (GCR). In other words, how many people took the action you wanted them to take?
The action could be anything from signing up for a newsletter to adding a product to their shopping cart. The rate is calculated as follows:
GCR = [(Total number of actions on the page) / (Total number of visitors on the page)] x 100
There is no industry standard for goal completions. Obviously, you’ll want them to be as high as possible. Some actions will naturally have lower GCRs. For example, getting someone to make a purchase requires more convincing, so that goal will have a lower completion rate than getting someone to join your mailing list.
However, if your GCR is lower than you expect, consider how your pages are structured and positioned. As mentioned above, poor UX design can turn off potential customers. Goals that are unclear or hard to find tend to have lower completion rates.
Additionally, evaluate the content of your pages and how visitors reach relevant action points. Especially when you send traffic from other marketing channels (email, social media, etc.), your message should be consistent and in line with their needs in the buying process.
Participation Rate
Often used to evaluate social media content, your iran telegram data engagement rate describes the number of people who liked, commented, or clicked on or shared your post out of all the people who saw it. High engagement is a good sign that people are enjoying your content and finding it valuable.
The formula is essentially:
Engagement rate = [(Total likes, comments, shares, clicks) / (Total impressions)] x 100
Like CTR, this metric is based on your impressions — the 7 ways to make money from your wordpress blog number of times your content appeared in front of people. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have. Therefore, your first goal for improving engagement is to increase impressions, such as by posting at the best times.
From there, engagement rate is a key metric for brand building and top-of-funnel activity. Don’t confuse it with click-through rate, as engagement includes likes, comments, and shares. In fact, evaluating engagement rate is a little tricky because it doesn’t always translate into revenue growth. Your post might perform so well that it gets thousands of likes but doesn’t drive anyone further.
However, engagement rates are helpful in determining attribution. If you are able to see which converted leads interacted with certain social posts, you can gain insight into which social content best supports your audience’s buying journey. A marketing automation platform that integrates social big work media campaigns can help you evaluate how your social strategy is improving your overall conversion rate.
MQL to SQL ratio
All of these metrics help tie your marketing campaigns to your revenue growth. But at the end of the day, what really matters is how many leads turn into sales. Just because someone goes through your entire funnel and single-handedly drives your marketing campaign doesn’t mean they’re going to make a purchase.
This is often a challenge for businesses using content marketing. Their high-value content may attract “jaundiced people” who want freebies. Additionally, if your marketing campaigns attract prospects who ultimately can’t afford or benefit from your business solutions, you’ve wasted a lot of time and money.
That’s where the MQL-to-SQL ratio comes in. Your marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are those who have gone through your entire marketing funnel. They downloaded your lead magnet, joined your mailing list, and opened and clicked on your emails. However, once they pass a certain point, they have to be requalified.
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) are those who are actually ready and able to convert. They have clear intent to buy and show sustained interest in your business. Your sales team can actually get in touch with them .
Evaluating how many MQLs convert to SQLs is essential to evaluating your overall digital marketing strategy. If you’re spending a ton of money on social media and white papers that aren’t turning into conversions, then you’re creating too many MQLs that aren’t qualified for sales.
Even if you have a large number of SQLs, it’s worth considering how much to invest in bottom-of-funnel activity. If your mid-funnel leads tend to convert easily to SQLs, you may not need high campaign spend.
By measuring your MQL to SQL ratio, you can gain a clearer understanding of where to invest your marketing and sales efforts. A combined marketing/CRM automation solution like SharpSpring can track activity levels and associated costs at every point in the funnel, ultimately helping you make informed decisions.
Summarize
There you have it: seven important sales metrics that all marketers should consider. While none of these metrics alone can provide conclusive guidance, together they help you gain a comprehensive understanding of your strategy’s performance.
