A digital marketing strategy is undoubtedly an essential part of running a successful business in 2020. But digital marketing success looks different according to each individual business’ goal and campaign. So how do you measure if and how your strategy is working? If you’re not able to track exactly how much ROI you’re getting from a particular post or a campaign, you’re probably wasting a considerable amount of money and time on a strategy that cannot be measured or improved. To help you track your success, here are some key performance indicators that will help you measure your digital marketing efforts. 

Getting Started: 

Know Your Goals

Before you embark on a digital marketing journey, you should have a crystal clear goal in mind for your business. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Are you hoping to get more email subscribers? Maybe you’re asking your audience to download an e-book? Whatever your angle may be, you should zero in on it to figure out what constitutes success in your case. According to your goal, you can then implement a performance indicator that measures your success. Without this prior knowledge, you’re putting out an advertising campaign deprived of any way to measure if it has hit or missed its mark. For example, you could be driving a ton of valuable engagement on a social media post, but if you’re only looking at website traffic or sales to measure your success, you’ll be missing out on the entire success of your post and will be less likely to grow that success in the future through more targeted efforts. 

With that said, here are some key performance indicators that will help you measure your ad’s success. 


Your Website Traffic‍

You website traffic will generally be a good measure of your overall digital marketing strategy. While it’s true that some social media campaigns may not make a direct and immediate effect on your site’s traffic, it will hopefully lead your audience to your website. If you’re not seeing traffic, there may be something wrong with the targeting of your campaign. Check for keywords, relevance of your content and specifics such as the time of day that your ad is running. 

Conversion Rates ‍

It’s up to you how you choose to label your conversions according to each individual campaign and ad. While a conversion for one promotion might mean a purchase, it could represent a newsletter subscription, a download or filling out a form in another case. This is why it’s important to have your goals extremely clear from the inception of the ad. Designate your conversions according to your needs and then measure your success in that metric.  

Sources of Traffic ‍

It can be very useful to analyze the source of your traffic, or the channels by which your visitors find access your site. By looking at these metrics, you can evaluate which channels are underperforming and which are doing well. This way, you can adjust your strategy and work more in areas that need the help. Generally these fit into four distinct sources:

  • Direct Visitors: People who visit your site by directly typing in your URL into their browser. 
  • Organic or Search Visitors: People who find your site based on a search query. 
  • Referral Visitors: These are people who navigate to your site by a link from another source such as a blog or a website. 
  • Social Media Visitors: These are people who come to your site via one of your your social media platforms. If you’re running social media ads through your digital marketing strategy, this is a good indicator of it’s effectiveness. 

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New Visitors vs. Returning Visitors‍

Measuring your content marketing strategy can be difficult and it can actually take months to a year to see a real ROI. So to measure the success and the “stickiness” of your content, it’s useful to look at the number of your new and returning visitors. Multiple visits from the same source can be a good indication that you’ve hit gold in terms of content, and give you the confidence to scale your campaign. 

Exit Rate & Bounce Rate‍

While these two measures can sometimes become confused, they are distinct and equally important in measuring your digital marketing success. The exit rate refers to the place where your visitors lost engagement and left your page or site, while the bounce rate only measures visitors who left your website after only one page. The exit rate is a great indicator of your content and it’s strengths and weaknesses. If your visitors are losing interest around the same place through a blog post, you can automatically zero in on the weakness in your content and update information or add more useful internal linking.  The high bounce rate, on the other hand, tells you that your landing page or website is losing people right from the start. This might point to a slow loading speed, a mismatch in targeting or an unappealing design. 


Your ROI‍

It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of detailed insight you can gain through a free software such as Google Analytics. And while that information can be very useful, it can also distract you from what’s really important and tangible – your ROI. If you’re seeing a growth in your ROI then your digital marketing strategy is probably working great. Don’t forget to account for the different types of return, which might look different according to your goals. If you’re measuring the return on a campaign that grows your brand awareness, you may not automatically feel the gain in your social media followers in your earnings, but it is a return on a long-term strategy. If you’re not already monitoring these metrics, we hope they bring a new insight into your digital marketing strategy. Remember to consider your business’ specific needs and goals with each campaign to drive measurable success. Whether you’re after new leads or increasing sales, you’ll have the ability to measure your efforts with the right approach.



Francesca Deval

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