Inbound Marketing Metrics: Knowing and monitoring the main inbound marketing metrics is crucial to the success of a strategy that aims to attract qualified leads for a business.
Likewise, monitoring results prevents the return on investment made in marketing actions from being very low, which generates losses and low productivity for the team.
Without inbound marketing metrics, managers and teams are left in the dark, without accurately seeing the performance of their strategy and without obtaining data to support their own activities.
This tool is part of the basic commitment of a marketing leader, and therefore, they are an indispensable part of efficient management, after all, what you don’t measure, you can’t control.
The choice of inbound marketing metrics that will be measured varies according to the goals defined by management. Still, it is essential to have a range of metrics to have a more complete view of the results.
In the next few lines, you will learn about 10 inbound marketing metrics and the purpose of each of them.
Read on to check and improve your management!
Key inbound marketing metrics
If you are starting an inbound marketing strategy and still don’t know very well how to evaluate your results, know that all inbound marketing actions are measurable, and therefore serve as a barometer of the success of your strategy.
This thermometer, in turn, takes on the guise of metrics.
Despite being so vital to the health of marketing and sales results, inbound marketing metrics and KPIs should not be defined before goals.
Without a goal, you will not have references to compare results or evaluate the performance of your actions.
Even if you are not completely convinced that the goals to be achieved are ideal, it is important to have a starting point.
The metrics resulting from this monitoring will generate data that, in the future, can be used to better understand the customer journey, and generate inputs to support new tactics.
Having well-defined goals, you will need to establish the metrics that you will monitor.
Discover, below, the 10 main inbound marketing metrics and what they are for.
1. Lead scoring
Lead scoring is an inbound marketing metric that defines a score for a lead generated according to criteria pre-determined by marketing and sales, and which covers several parameters, such as the number of conversions in the marketing funnel, leads’ personal data, or the interactions they had with your brand.
This metric allows lead prioritization to be optimized and the conversion of qualified leads to the sales team to be more assertive, which leads us to the next metric.
2. MQL to SQL
The conversion rate from marketing-qualified leads to sales-qualified leads refers to the number of leads that, in the eyes of marketing, have purchasing potential, and are validated by the sales team as truly qualified sales opportunities.
Measuring this metric makes it easier to understand the efficiency of marketing campaigns, the performance of the sales team, and the frequency of conversions.
To calculate, simply use the following formula:
MQL to SQL Conversion Rate = (Generated SQLs / Generated MQLs) X 100
3. Return on investment (ROI)
One of the most important inbound marketing metrics is ROI, the return on investment.
This is a financial metric and, basically, it shows whether your campaigns are generating profits, rather than losses. Furthermore, this metric is essential for redirecting investments and preserving the financial health of your business.
The formula to calculate is very practical:
ROI = revenues – investments in inbound marketing/investments in inbound marketing
4. Cost per visitor
If you invest in campaigns that drive audiences to your website, it is crucial to calculate the cost per visitor.
To do this, map the monthly number of visits and divide this result by the total amount invested in the website and targeting campaigns.
This calculation will bring more clarity about the performance of your campaigns and help you evaluate the most beneficial ad channels for your strategy.
Read Also: 360-degree marketing
5. New visitors vs. returning visitors
The rate of new visitors versus returning visitors demonstrates the quality of your content and the perception your audience has of them.
If you have a high rate of new visitors, but a low rate of returning visitors, you need to stop and evaluate the content you provide. Are they really relevant? Are they clear and didactic? How do they help visitors?
6. Click-through rate
By calculating the click-through rate of your content, you will be able to identify which content your leads prefer and what they would like to know more about.
This metric is important because it is capable of guiding the content production process to be more assertive. Such as inserting links to other content and creating more attractive CTAs.
The click rate is generated from the calculation:
Clickthrough rate = clicks/impressions
7. Open rate
Do you invest in email marketing to generate more leads? If so, be sure to measure how many of the emails you sent were opened by your leads
The open rate can generate many insights from questions, such as:
- Is the email subject engaging and attractive?
- Was the email sending time the most appropriate?
8. Time spent on page
Dwell time tells you what visitors think of your website or its content.
Bearing in mind that these channels are also, above all, sales channels, concerned with providing a pleasant experience for users, both in terms of the interface and navigation, as well as the objectivity of the information on the pages.
Here are some tips that will help you increase the time spent on the page:
- use multimedia elements;
- optimize page loading time;
- apply SEO;
- invest in UX design.
9. Interactions
Does your content generate connection and engagement?
To find out, calculate the interactions of your publications. Consider comments, mentions, and shares. This is vital for a social media strategy and allows you to identify which type of content resonates most with your audience.
10. Keyword Ranking
Optimizing your pages for SEO includes monitoring website rankings in search engines based on keywords.
For this metric, it is important to use keyword tools. In addition to simplifying the understanding of the visibility of your content. These tools also help you search for new keywords, analyze the competition’s positioning, and identify the volume of terms that can use to generate new content and attract visitors.
