The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing Analytics

The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing Analytics

We all know that data is important, but what kind of data – and how can it help your business?

If you’re tired of seeing your digital marketing efforts produce minimal returns, despite all the hard work you put into your strategies, maybe it’s time to let the numbers take centre stage.

Leveraging data effectively is the key to successful marketing, enabling you to make well-informed decisions, confident predictions and deliver personalised customer experiences.

We’ve outlined the various KPIs you need to focus on, including PPC, email, social media and content, and included typical benchmarks for context. You’ll also find out how to integrate data from different channels for a big picture view and discover which tools can help.

Read on for a rundown of the KPIs to watch – creating smart digital marketing strategies starts here.

Website analytics

Your website’s performance also feeds into your SEO and PPC efforts. Are you tracking these KPIs?

• Bounce rate – The percentage of visitors who navigate away after viewing only one page.
• Session duration – The average length of someone’s visit to your website.
• Pages per session – The average number of pages a user views during a single visit.
• Conversion rate – The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like signing up for a newsletter.
• Page load time – The time it takes for your webpage to load completely.
• Exit rate – The percentage of users who leave your site from a particular page.

Typical industry benchmarks for these metrics can vary based on your industry, target audience, web design and traffic sources. For instance, a good bounce rate might be below 40-50%, while a strong conversion rate is typically above 2%.

Metrics like pages per session and session duration can give you insights into user engagement levels, and a high bounce rate or low conversion rate might point to issues with user experience that you could address.

Keep an eye on these metrics and use them to create better strategies – you could improve user engagement, user experience and conversion rates.

Email marketing analytics

The key KPIs you need to be monitoring for email marketing success are:

• Open rate – The percentage of recipients who opened your email. It can indicate how engaging your subject line is.
• Click-through rate (CTR) – This is the ratio of recipients who clicked on a link in your email. It provides insight into how engaging your content is.
• Conversion rate – This refers to the percentage of recipients who took your desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
• Bounce rate – This is the percentage of emails that could not be delivered. A high rate could mean a faulty or outdated email list.
• Unsubscribe rate – This shows how many recipients opted out of receiving emails.
• Email sharing/forwarding rate – This reflects how compelling your content is – was it good enough to share?
• List growth rate – This shows how rapidly your email list is growing.

Each of these KPIs are important, but some are key to success – don’t ignore your open rate, CTR and conversion rate, as they directly display customer behaviour.

Every industry has benchmark figures for these KPIs – keep an eye on these to determine how well your campaigns perform. Bear in mind that a ‘good’ rate will vary depending on your campaign, your audience and which industry you are in. For instance, research from Hubspot found that the average open rate for finance companies is 26.48% while the average for education companies is 37.35%.

If you consistently monitor your email marketing KPIs, you can create more effective strategies. If your open rate is low, test different styles of subject lines to see what your audience prefers. If your bounce rate is low, consider updating your email list.

SEO analytics

Consistently tracking your SEO analytics can be the difference between SEO success and a strategy misstep. Some of they key metrics to follow are:

• Organic traffic – This is the number of visitors coming to your site through search engines using paid actions.
• Keyword rankings – The positions your website holds in search engine results pages (SERPs) when a keyword is searched. These rankings show where your website stands in comparison to your competitors for your targeted keywords.
• Backlink quality – Assesses the relevance and authority of sites linking back to your website.
• Click-through rate (CTR) – The ratio of users who click on your site’s listing in search results.
• Bounce rate – The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing one page.
• Domain Authority (DA) – Developed by Moz, this score predicts how well a website will rank on SERPs.

Industry benchmarks for SEO metrics vary significantly depending on your industry, user behaviour and device and keyword competition. On average, position 10 in Google’s SERPs has a CTR of 2.4%, so anything around this figure or above could place your website in a top 10 position.

Your bounce rate could be anything up to 70% or more, but a low bounce rate (26-40%) is typically positive. Bear in mind that bounce rates are higher from mobile phones than desktop or tablets.

SEO metrics play a crucial role in shaping and evaluating your SEO strategy. We recommend conducting SEO audits on a regular basis to help you identify any weakness in your strategy.

These metrics can also help you identify your standing with competitors and better understand user behaviour.

PPC analytics

Six key PPC (Pay-Per-Click) KPIs to measure include:

• Cost per click (CPC) – The average amount that you pay for each click on your ad.
• Click-through rate (CTR) – The percentage of ad views that result in clicks.
• Conversion rate – The proportion of people who take the step you want them to after clicking on your ad – this might be buying a product or filling in a form.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) – The revenue generated for every pound spent on advertising.
• Quality Score – A Google tool that rates the quality and relevance of your keywords and PPC ads compared to other advertisers (with a score of 1-10).
• Impression share: The percentage of impressions your ads receive compared to the total number they could get.

Typical industry benchmarks for these metrics vary widely. For instance, an average CPC could be under $1 for some sectors, and over $5 for others.

A good CTR might be around 2%, and a strong conversion rate might be 5%.

Analysing these KPIs can help you optimise your PPC campaign results. To improve CPC, you might refine keyword targeting or improve your Quality Score. Improving your CTR might involve testing new ad copy.

You may want to optimise your landing page or offer some great incentives in order to boost conversion rates.

The good news is that you can significantly improve your PPC performance and return on investment (ROI) by tracking and optimising these KPIs.

Social media analytics

Six key social media KPIs you could measure include the following:

• Engagement rate – The number of interactions (comments, shares, and so on) a post receives relative to its reach or impressions.
• Follower growth – The rate at which your follower count increases.
• Impressions – The total number of times your content has been seen.
• Reach – The number of unique users who have seen your content.
• Share of voice – The percentage of total mentions of your brand in social media conversations.
• Response rate – The speed at which your brand responds to questions or comments on social media.

Social media benchmarks change depending on your target audience, the platforms you use and your industry. Generally, an engagement rate between 1-5% is considered good, with anything over 5% very good. A follower growth rate of 10% per month could be considered successful.

Each of these KPIs can give you valuable insights into your target audience’s behaviour and their needs. A higher engagement rate and faster follower growth can show that your content is resonating with the right people and they want more. Higher reach and impressions show visibility.

Make the most of this data to help you create more engaging content, post at the right time and respond to your target audience efficiently – it could give your social media performance a significant boost.

Influencer marketing analytics

Influencers have a strong, curated online presence and an engaged audience. So, working with a relevant influencer could be the ideal way for your business to reach its target customers.

But what KPIs should you measure during an influencer campaign?

• Engagement rate – The percentage of the influencer’s audience that interacts with their posts.
• Reach – The number of unique users who see the influencer’s content.
• Conversion rate – The percentage of users who take the desired action after viewing the influencer’s content.
• Cost per engagement (CPE) – The cost of each interaction (like, comment or share) on the influencer’s content.
• Follower growth – The increase in your follower count during the influencer campaign.
• Brand mentions – The number of times your brand is mentioned by the influencer or their followers.

Benchmarks for influencer marketing can vary depending on the industry, the social media platforms used and the size of the influencer’s following.

A good engagement rate might be around 1-3% for larger influencers (100,000+ followers), while a good conversion rate might be between 2-5%.

Tracking each of these KPIs is key to assessing if a campaign has been successful. A high conversion rate and engagement rate could show that the influencer has a strong relationship with their audience. Increased follower growth could mean that there has been successful communication between you, the influencer and the target audience.

For a successful influencer campaign, set clear goals and track performance regularly.

Content marketing analytics

When you’re analysing your content marketing performance, there are a number of key KPIs to watch:

• Page views – this measures the total number of times a piece of content is viewed.
• Time on page – This reflects the average amount of time visitors spend on a specific piece of content.
• Social shares – This counts the number of times a piece of content is shared on social media platforms.
• Lead generation – This measures how many leads are generated from a specific piece of content.
• Bounce rate – This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing just one page.
• Conversion rate – This is the percentage of content viewers who take the action you’d like them to (such as signing up for a newsletter).

Benchmarks change depending on your industry and the types of content you’ve shared. For a blog post, a session duration time of 2-5 minutes could be considered an good indication that you’ve hooked your reader.

This data is crucial for evaluating the performance of a content marketing campaign. If your visitors are spending time viewing or engaging with your content, you’re probably on the right track with your strategy. A low conversion rate and lead generation may mean you need to rewrite your calls to action.

Affiliate marketing analytics

Key affiliate marketing KPIs to measure include:

• Click-through rate (CTR) – This measures the percentage of viewers who click on your affiliate links.
• Conversion rate – This is the percentage of people who have clicked on affiliate links and then taken a desired action, such as making a purchase.
• Average order value (AOV) – This measures the average amount spent each time a customer places an order.
• Return on investment (ROI) – This is the profit made from your affiliate marketing efforts compared to the costs.
• New customer acquisition – This measures the number of new customers gained through your affiliate marketing efforts.

Benchmarks for affiliate marketing metrics can vary depending on your affiliate program structure and the industry you are in. As an example, an average conversion rate in affiliate marketing might be around 0.5-1%.

Tracking these KPIs is vital for making your affiliate marketing program as successful as possible. If you notice your CTR is low, you might need to promote your affiliate links or place them more strategically.

If your conversion rate is low, you may need to refine your targeting. Monitoring ROI and new customer acquisition can help measure how financially successful your affiliate marketing is – if you’re losing money, you’ll be able to make quick adjustments to your strategy.

Mobile marketing analytics

To measure your mobile marketing efforts, here are some KPIs to monitor regularly:

• App downloads – The number of times your app has been downloaded.
• User retention – The percentage of users who return to your app after their first visit.
• In-app purchases – The number and value of purchases made within your app.
• Session length – How long a user spends within a single session in your app.
• Active users – The number of users actively using your app over a certain period.

Monitoring these KPIs can have a huge influence on your mobile marketing strategies. For example, a low number of app downloads might indicate a need for better app visibility, while low user retention could mean you need to improve user experience (UX).

A user-friendly interface, faster loading times and engaging features can increase session lengths and user retention.

Timely and relevant push notifications could bring users back to your app in order to boost retention and in-app purchases.

Integrating analytics across channels

At Submerge, we believe that strategic, multichannel planning is essential for successful digital marketing.

Tools like Google Analytics (traffic and user behaviour), Google Ads (PPC) and in-built dashboards on social media platforms can help you evaluate and improve your marketing performance.

External platforms like Tableau and HubSpot can also consolidate and analyse data, making your job much easier.

Take advantage of new tools to give your business the best chance of driving growth with relevant, compelling marketing content.

Marketers can’t afford to ignore the data – that hour you carve out of your weekly calendar to look over the numbers could be the difference between marketing mayhem and well-earned success.