8 Top Marketing Campaign Metrics to Track

The moment has arrived! You’ve got a savvy marketing campaign and are about to release it into the digital wild. It’s exhilarating. It’s teeming with expectation. And — it’s got you worrying:

Wait. How do I know if it’s working and doing what it’s supposed to do?

What numbers do I need to look at — and where are they?

How do I interpret these numbers ... like what’s “normal” or bad or good, even?

We hear you loud and clear at Zoe Marketing & Communications. Our clients have the same concerns, whether they have some marketing experience or they’re business owners who’ve hardly peeked at Google Analytics. And each year, we walk hundreds of them through their campaign results, decoding the metrics that matter most.

But expectations are everything — and a little anxiety is normal when you’ve invested in marketing and want to know how it’s performing. So, in this blog, we’ll:

• Define the two types of marketing campaigns, branding and direct-response

• Give a flavor of 3 branding metrics (audience, affinity and clicks)

• Dive into the top 5 metrics for direct-response marketing (engagement rates, open rates, click-through rates, costs per click and conversion rates)

• Share some next steps for digging deeper into your campaign metrics

On that note, let’s get trekking into metrics tracking.

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2 key types of marketing campaigns

It may not be your first question, but we must start here. Many businesses use a combination, but the two types of marketing campaigns are:

1. Branding

This is all about grabbing eyeballs or impressions and reaching people. 90% of the goal is to elicit positive emotions towards a business. You want folks to have a feel-good image of your company. It’s seeking a relationship. Examples include:

• Sponsored content designed to educate, enlighten and delight

• Digital display ads that capture the feel and focus of your company

• Print magazine ads or content that brings awareness to your brand

2. Direct response

This type of marketing is very transactional. The goal is to get someone to do something — click a link, open an email, visit a landing page or fill out a form. It’s all about strategic action. Examples here:

• Paid digital advertising, like social media ads or Google Ads

• Targeted email marketing, which pushes your message to targeted audiences

• Content marketing, including educational blogs

3 key metrics to track for branding campaigns

Since branding aims to draw attention and spark good feelings, tracking can be a bit fuzzier. After all, how can you tell if you’re building brand rapport — something more profound than form fills and bottom-line sales?

While it’s a little esoteric, a few tactics can give you a sense.

1. Audience

How many people potentially saw or read your ad? With digital ads on social media or Google, that’s straightforward; these platforms track those metrics for you.

With magazines and TV, though, professional auditing services help. They quantify your audience with strategic surveys. Of course, there’s always the chance someone didn’t see your ad on page 5 — or missed your commercial. But these numbers give a good general flavor.

2. Affinity

You actually can get a better sense of whether your reputation is growing. But it’ll take some market research. For instance, you can create and send two surveys to your target audience: one before the campaign launches and the other after. With the first, you’ll get a sense of their brand awareness, perception and odds they’d buy or recommend your brand. With the second, you’ll learn how those factors improve — by specific percentage points.

This approach is a little more labor-intensive. So it can be helpful to tap the skill of a market research company.

3. Clicks

QR codes are sometimes used in branding marketing, too. If someone scans a QR, there’s a trail of direct interest. Since it’s an extra demand on the reader, though, the data is more limited. 

Remember, you can never isolate branding metrics to say, “We got X amount of sales because we did branding.” Branding is about building a solid long-term reputation.

5 key metrics to track for direct-response campaigns

Now we’re talking digital marketing exclusively, and things get very specific. Thanks to analytics and ad-tracking platforms, you can pick and measure any metric on the customer “journey.” Here are five that give the richest context on a variety of campaigns.

1. Engagement rates

These metrics apply to social media platforms or blogs, if you’re doing content marketing. In both cases, you can track how many people view your content.

For social media, log into your admin view and review the provided metrics to discover:

• How many new followers or likes do I have?

• How many people are commenting on my posts?

• Are these numbers going up or down?

• What posts are getting the most engagement?

When it comes to blog content, you can take an even closer look. First, you’ll need to set up your website on Google Analytics (it’s free). From here, you can find out:

• How long people stay on a specific page (or on your site generally)

• How many pages people view per session

• Visitors’ bounce rates (i.e., the content wasn’t what they were looking for, so they left)

• How many repeat vs. new visitors you have

As far as benchmarks? It’s very individualized by company and industry. Get a feel for your baseline, and then strive to improve your own metrics.

2. Open rates

This one applies to email marketing. And it’s a bit tricky, since Apple iOS updates are inflating open rates. How’s that? If you send an email to someone who uses the Apple Mail app, it counts as an open. That’s right: Even if they don’t actually open it.

But open rates aren’t out! If you send emails through a customer relationship management, or CRM, platform, you may be able to see how many of your subscribers are on iOS devices. From there, factor out that percentage from your metrics.

Traditionally, open rates vary by industry. Here at Zoe, we’ve seen them go as high as 30%-40% — but it’s rare. 10%-15% is a far more realistic average. And, even with inflated open rates, you’ll get a good sense of what resonates with your readers and what doesn’t.

3. Click-through rates (or CTR)

The coveted click is a powerful metric. Math-wise, the total audience is divided by how many folks clicked. So, if you think about it, these numbers are usually small. Why? It’s simple: How often have you seen an ad and clicked it? Not much, we bet. It has to be pretty compelling and deliver the right message at the right moment. 

Results vary based on the platform — and your company’s competition and industry. It’s essential to find your baseline and test from there.

That said, here are some average CTRs we see at Zoe for commonly used platforms:

• Google display ads: .06%-.08%

• Google keyword ads: 3% or higher is the goal (the more niche your keywords, the higher this number tends to go)

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads: 2%-5% 

4. Costs per click (or CPC)

This is also in the paid advertising realm (social media, Google, etc.). When you run an ad on these platforms, you set a budget and pay based on the number of clicks your ads get. CPC is determined by dividing the total cost of your campaign by the total number of clicks.

The lower this number is, the better. You ideally want more clicks for less spend. Again, these metrics vary by industry — and, if you’re targeting keywords with Google, your competition. Generally, though, CPC can range $1-$7.

5. Conversion rates

Last but not least: How many people are taking the action you want due to your marketing campaign? Popular examples include:

• Landing on a sales webpage and clicking to download a PDF*

• Filling out a lead-gen form in a Facebook or Instagram ad*

• Ultimately, becoming a new customer

*See how we asterisked the first two? They have one big thing in common: You’re typically asking people to give you their email addresses. That’s a big conversion metric. 

Just like with CTRs, of course, most folks won’t give you that coveted email. It’s a big ask. So be aware that lower rates — to the tune of 1-3% — are common but also healthy.

What are my next steps for digging deeper into my campaign metrics?

Fortunately, there are a lot of numbers out there to help you track your campaign. In this blog, you discovered the two common types of marketing: branding and direct-response.

You learned that while branding can be a little fuzzier, there are ways to track its success by looking at the audience, affinity and even clicks. You also know that direct-response metrics are much clearer. Top metrics include engagement rates, open rates, click-through rates, costs per click and conversion rates.

And you learned some of these numbers are naturally higher or lower — and that’s the norm.

Are you looking to dig in further? A Zoe Marketing & Communications campaign can help crystalize your goals and drive strong metrics. Or, if you’re wondering where to take your marketing next, find out the best tactics to use at every stage of the marketing funnel.

Minding your metrics is a powerful way to test your current campaigns — and find even better results in your future marketing efforts.