Key Marketing KPIs To Track Besides Clicks and Conversions

Tracking ad clicks or seeing sales come in are common ways to measure marketing success. However, there are other key performance indicators (KPIs) that can give you a deeper understanding of your results and help explain what’s truly working.

While clicks and conversions are useful as your brand grows, they don’t always tell the whole story. A jump in website traffic doesn’t automatically lead to more sales, nor does it show how much revenue you’re generating or what it costs to earn. And while conversions are the goal, it’s not always clear if your latest marketing campaign was the real reason for a recent sales boom.

So what should you measure, if not just clicks and conversions? Read further for other KPIs to consider.

KPIs To Use To Measure Marketing Success

There are all kinds of KPI metrics you can use to analyze your data and reach different marketing goals. For example, if you want to see if your cost per acquisition (CPA) is dropping, you’ll need to compare total sales dollars to total spending on your marketing campaigns. If the CPA goes down over time, then you’ll know that you’re going in the right direction with your marketing efforts. Is it going up? Then something you’re doing isn’t resonating with your target audience.

Other KPIs that you might want to use include:

Average time to convert (ATC). Look at how long a contact takes to convert. Start with the first interaction with your company’s ads or content, and then look at how many days it takes to get that conversion. Long, drawn-out conversion times may mean you need to change elements of your marketing strategy.

Customer lifetime value (CLV). How much value really comes from each of your customers? If you don’t know, CLV is a great way to figure it out. Look at the revenue you’ve collected from the buyer over all purchases and referrals. Rather than only getting the value of their purchases, you’ll get the value of their purchases and the value they brought to your company by referring new business your way.

Customer retention. Are customers sticking with you for the long haul, or are they buying and walking away? Tracking loyalty with direct outreach, CLV, and surveys can help you see what your customers love (or dislike) about your brand. 

Influence rate. Another excellent KPI is the influence rate. You want to know exactly how much revenue comes from your marketing efforts. To do that, look at the number of marketing-generated leads that have converted. Then, add up the overall revenue to see the percentage of sales that came from marketing alone. If you do this monthly, you’ll be able to watch the number trend upward, downward, or stay relatively stable. If the percentage is the same or drops, it’s time to review your marketing strategy.

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative KPIs for Success 

As you look at the quantitative metrics from your marketing campaigns, remember that there is also value in qualitative data. While quantitative metrics will give you the numerical details about your conversions, clicks, or other KPIs, you’ll need to have qualitative data to understand why you’re getting those results. 

For example, if your customers are taking many weeks to convert, you’d want to have qualitative data that shows you what’s taking so long. Is the site taking too long to load? Is the purchasing process quick and easy or slow and tedious? Knowing details like these can help you make changes, uncover pain points, and validate the reasons behind the numerical data you’re collecting. 

Tips and Insights for Measuring ROI in a Complex Environment

Measuring overall return on investment (ROI) in a complex environment can be difficult if you don’t have the right qualitative or quantitative data. To gain the best insights in any environment, you’ll need to collect several key ROI metrics, including these and others:

-How much it costs to acquire a new customer (customer acquisition cost [CAC])
-The percentage of customers who complete a task and convert (conversion rate)
-The total gross revenue per dollar spent on advertising (return on ad spend [ROAS])

Once you have these ROI metrics, you should also gather qualitative data. For example, you could:

-Send out a survey to new customers who have converted and ask them what prompted them to convert.
-Send out a newsletter asking if your readers would refer your newsletter, products, or services to a friend or family member.
-Hold a focus group to get feedback regarding a new marketing campaign.

These are just a few ideas of how to use both qualitative and quantitative data to measure ROI. By backing up your hard data with soft data, you’ll be one step closer to understanding how your marketing campaigns impact your target audience and what it takes to get them to convert. And, once you know what it takes to make your audience convert, you can make adjustments to encourage higher spending, repeat business, and brand loyalty.

While clicks and conversions offer a snapshot, they don’t capture the full picture of your marketing impact. By tracking a broader set of KPIs like CLV, retention, and influence rate, you gain a more complete view of performance. Combining these quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback from surveys or focus groups helps you understand the “why” behind the numbers, clarifying your true ROI. Ultimately, seeing the full value of your marketing efforts means embracing both data and customer insights. This balanced approach not only clarifies your results but also sets the stage for sustainable growth and smarter decision-making.

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