Measuring success is a natural priority for any business engaging in digital marketing efforts, including those who utilize third-party digital marketing agencies for their needs. There are several marketing metrics that can be considered to measure success from a digital marketing agency, ensuring high return on investment (ROI) and long-term viability.
At Upward Engine, we’re proud to serve as the top digital marketing agency in Utah, offering services ranging from SEO and marketing analytics to website design, website traffic analysis and more. Better yet, while some other agencies try to hide behind “proprietary” or shielded metrics or tactics, we take pride in the fact that we always show our work and keep clients in the loop. Let’s go over why sharing robust metrics and success markers is so important for our agency, plus some of the most important kinds of key performance indicators (KPIs) we’ll help you understand and the kinds of strategies they can inform.
Why “Showing Our Work” Matters to Upward Engine
As we just alluded to, some digital marketing agencies like to keep their strategies and tactics a closely-guarded secret. They’ll talk about the success and results they can deliver, but when it comes to actually showing you what they’re doing or how they’re measuring success, there’s often a lot of obfuscation and even some outright dishonesty. We don’t believe in that kind of behavior at Upward Engine – we think our services should speak for themselves, and that our clients deserve full transparency into what we do for them.
But beyond just being ethical and honest with our clients, it’s also important for us to be transparent because it helps everyone involved. When we share our metrics and show what we’re doing on your behalf, you’ll be able to see the tangible impact our efforts are having on your business. This not only builds trust and confidence in our agency, but it also allows us to have open and productive discussions about strategy and goals. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.
Popular Metrics That Are Less Important for Success
There are tons of metrics in the broad world of digital marketing, including many that you may have heard of. However, there are a few examples of metrics that, while popular and even sometimes cited regularly, actually have very little bearing on the success of your overall campaign:
- Pageview counts: While it’s certainly good to have a high number of pageviews, this metric doesn’t necessarily translate to success. After all, someone could view your website multiple times without taking any further action or converting into a paying customer.
- Social media followers: Similar to pageviews, having a large number of social media followers doesn’t always equate to success. It’s important to focus on engagement and conversions from social media rather than just the number of followers.
- Subscriber numbers: While having a large email subscriber list is certainly valuable, it’s more important to have engaged and interested subscribers who will actually open and interact with your emails.
It’s important for agencies to help clients understand the difference between popular metrics that may not be as significant in terms of success as they seem. This allows for more accurate tracking of progress and goals, rather than getting caught up in vanity metrics.
Importance of Google Analytics
Before we get into some specific metrics, it’s worth mentioning the importance of Google Analytics as a tool for measuring success in digital marketing. Google Analytics is a free web analytics service that provides valuable insights into website traffic and user behavior. By setting up conversion tracking and goals within Google Analytics, we can track important actions on your website such as form submissions, purchases, or phone calls.
This data helps us determine which channels are driving the most conversions and where adjustments may need to be made in the overall strategy. It also allows us to track and analyze the entire customer journey, from initial website visit to conversion. We can then use this information to create a more effective and efficient marketing strategy that targets high-performing channels and optimizes for maximum conversions.
KPIs for Measuring Success with Upward Engine
Now let’s take a look at some of the key metrics we prioritize at Upward Engine when it comes to measuring success for our clients:
- Organic Traffic (by source): This is the number of visits to your website that come from organic search results (not paid ads). A high amount of organic traffic indicates a strong presence in search engine results pages (SERPs), which is crucial for brand visibility and engagement. You specifically want source-based breakdowns of organic traffic, which is something we track and provide to our clients.
- Conversion, bounce and exit rates: Three rate-based metrics that we monitor closely to understand the effectiveness of a website in terms of encouraging desired actions from users. Conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who take a specific action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits where visitors leave without further interaction with the site, and exit rate is the percentage of exits from a specific page.
- Returning visitors: It’s important to track the percentage of returning visitors to your site, as it indicates brand loyalty and repeat engagement. This metric is especially useful in determining the success of retargeting campaigns and overall brand recognition.
- Click-through rate (CTR): This measures the number of clicks on a specific link or ad compared to the total number of views. A high CTR typically means that your content is relevant and engaging for users, which can lead to higher conversions.
- Session duration: This metric tracks the average amount of time a user spends on your site during a single session. A longer session duration indicates that users are finding valuable and engaging content, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
These are just some examples of important metrics we track and analyze at Upward Engine. By prioritizing these metrics and regularly sharing our findings with clients, we can work together to continuously improve and achieve success in digital marketing.
As always, transparency and open communication are key components of our approach here at Upward Engine. We want our clients to see the tangible results of our efforts and feel confident in our partnership every step of the way. Contact us at your convenience to learn about our digital marketing programs around Utah!