You’ve just finished wrapping an online advertising campaign with the goals of creating awareness amongst your target market and generating new leads. Once you have the data, however, what should you look for to determine whether or not the campaign was a success?
While it’s important to look at conversion rates and ROI, consider also what metrics ring true: did you effectively drive a customer to take action? How did it make an impact on the audience at large?
Below, seven agency executives from Forbes Agency Council disclose what metrics should be taken into consideration when understanding what went well (or what didn’t) in an online advertising campaign.
Clockwise from left: Brandon Stapper, Sean Allen, Kristopher Jones, Anurag Harsh, Joel Kelly, Mick DiMaria, Conrad Egusa. All photos courtesy of individual members.
1. Conversion Rate
The most important metric that you must gauge to get a clear picture of how successful your online marketing efforts have been is your conversion rate. Your conversion rate is the percentage of users who complete a desired action after visiting your page. The desired action would be making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. You can track your conversion rate for free with Google Analytics. – Brandon Stapper, Non Stop Signs
2. Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
First, understand how paid, owned, and earned channels need to work synergistically. Dive into your analytics and take a look at your top conversion paths. Understanding your cost “per lead” or “per acquisition” is great, but do you know the lifetime value of a customer? Take a look at your marketing dollars as a whole, then drill down. Stop looking at ROI in silos. – Sean Allen, Blue Onion
3. Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)
The most important metric to evaluate your advertising efforts is return on advertising spend (ROAS). ROAS measures how much gross revenue is realized for every dollar spent on advertising. This simple metric allows you to size up the efficacy of your advertising efforts, while also providing a simple way to determine ad budget and revenue forecasting. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
4. Action…
