2019 is going strong, so forget the marketing mistakes you made last year. It’s time for a fresh start with both your goals and your digital campaigns. Take this year as a chance to start strong.

If you want to take your digital marketing strategies to the next level, first consider overhauling your analytics. Start by measuring certain digital marketing metrics you might not have known about, let alone realized were important.

Not sure what exactly these metrics are? No worries. We’ve got you covered and even have an infographic to make our message ring more powerfully.

Here are seven digital marketing metrics you need to start measuring today.

1. Top landing pages

Your landing pages provide leads and drive traffic to your site. This is why measuring effective and ineffective pages is important to your digital marketing strategy.

Analyzing your top landing pages will show you which ones are the most visible across the web, especially in search. This allows you to make any necessary adjustments to maximize your top-performing landing pages.

2. Channel-specific traffic

The traffic your website gets on a daily basis comes from a multitude of sources that can include (but are not limited to):

  • Organic search

This is when a user finds your website via a search engine.

For instance, a user logs into Google and types, “Best sporting goods stores near me.” A second later, results appear and the user sees the link for your website on the first page. You get organic traffic when the user clicks that link.

  • Direct traffic

You get direct traffic when a user searches for your website directly on a browser instead of going through the results page of a search engine. High direct traffic means people are already familiar with your brand.

  • Social media traffic

This is when a user visits your website via a link from a social media network.

Here’s a scenario of how it works. Let’s say you have a blog on your website, and a customer reads one of your articles. This customer likes the article so much they post the link to the article on their Facebook profile. Their Facebook friends then see the link, develop interest, and decide to click.

A healthy social media following combined with quality content is a great way to earn social media traffic.

  • Email traffic

This traffic comes from the links included in your email marketing campaign. You could use links to your blog or product pages to entice subscribers. Hopefully, they’ll click onto your website and bring you more traffic.

  • Paid search traffic

Website traffic from paid search comes from links that you include on your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.

Monitoring these (and other) marketing channels will give you a concrete idea of where the majority of your website traffic comes from, so you’ll know which one to spend more of your budget on.

3. Cost per lead

To get your cost per lead, take the amount you spent on a digital marketing campaign over a given time period and divide it by the total number of leads the campaign generated over that same period.

Here’s a sample calculation:

You ran a PPC campaign for one of your products, and it cost you $10,000 over a period of 30 days. In those 30 days, you were able to acquire 400 new leads. That means the cost per lead for your PPC campaign was $25.

$10,000 PPC campaign / 400 leads = $25 cost per lead

Calculating the cost per lead of your various campaigns shows you which campaigns are strong and which ones you might need to re-evaluate or eliminate altogether.

4. Exit rate

This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site from a specific page.

Keep in mind that exits are not the same as bounces, even though the two terms are often used interchangeably by marketers. The key difference between an exit and a bounce is the method of exit.

An exit occurs when a user views multiple pages on your website before leaving. For example, a user starts on your home page, then goes to your “About Us” page, then goes to your “Products and Services” page before exiting.

A bounce, on the other hand, happens when a user leaves your website immediately after viewing only one page. It’s only recorded as a bounce if the user exits your website from the same page they entered.

You need to measure the exit rates of the pages in your website because a page with a high exit rate can indicate certain problems. Is the page slow to load? Does it lack information that will help the user? These are the things you need to find out.

5. Lead to close ratio

The different digital marketing campaigns you run at any given time can help you generate hundreds, if not thousands, of leads. However, the real question is this: How many of those leads actually convert in some form?

To get this information, you need to analyze the lead to close ratios of your campaigns. If you see your email marketing promotions are getting the most conversions, then you need to increase the budget for your email marketing campaign.

6. Conversion funnel rates

Like all companies, your business has a funnel that normally consists of four stages

  • Awareness

The top-most part of the funnel: this is where you attract potential customers and try to catch their attention.

Example: Social media ads

  • Interest

Once your potential customers are aware of your brand, this part of the funnel helps them know a lot more about what you’re offering.

Example: Blog content

  • Desire

Now that your customers are familiar with your brand, they’re definitely interested in your product or service. This is the stage in which you build on that interest to lead them to the last stage.

Example: Product photos on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram

  • Action or conversion

As the final stage in the funnel, this is where leads become conversions.

Example: Product checkout section of your website

You should keep an eye out for how your leads behave through each stage of the conversion funnel. For example, if you’re not getting enough leads, it could mean that the lead capture forms on your website are not attention-grabbing enough and might need improvement.

7. Mobile traffic

When you analyze your mobile traffic, you’ll be able to determine the percentage of your users who visit your website on a mobile device. You can even perform more granular analytics by tracking the specific devices your visitors are using, as well as each page they visit. You may even analyze the type of content they view on your site.

High mobile traffic means that your website is optimized for mobile. This is a good thing, as more than half of all traffic in the world is generated through mobile devices.

Furthermore, customers today spend significantly more time on their mobile phone than in front of a desktop computer. A study showed mobile users spend more than twice the amount of time online compared to desktop users.

To ensure your website is well-optimized for search engines and provides a seamless user experience across all devices, use WebCEO’s Website Audit Tool. This tool can help you check your website’s optimization status and identify areas for improvement, ensuring your site is accessible and engaging for both mobile and desktop users.

Wrap up

Measuring these digital marketing metrics will help you stay far ahead of your competition, so you need to start sooner rather than later.

If you and your team don’t have the capacity or resources for in-depth analytics, consider outsourcing these services. Digital marketing firms often have analytics experts who can help you with your goals. Either way, metrics can help you track your users and improve your company one iteration at a time.

7 digital marketing metrics most people forget to track