Visualize These 5 Data Points to Fuel Better Marketing Results

Accurate, timely feedback is essential in achieving goals both large and small. For business owners and marketing managers, our goals often come down to conversions. Different types of businesses may define a conversion differently. In digital marketing, a conversion could include a sale made in your online store, a form submission on your website, a phone call, or a live chat engagement.

In our business, feedback comes in the form of data. Our data tell us how many people we are reaching with our various platforms, which digital ad campaigns are driving the most engagement, which ad creative is generating the highest click through rates (CTR), and what percentage of these clicks are ultimately converted. Each of these metrics is an additional piece of evidence. As a whole, they help us to develop a deeper understanding of what is working and what’s not. This information in turn helps us to continually improve our clients’ return on their marketing investment.

In the age of big data, it’s easy to get lost in the sheer volume of information that is available. If you are feeling intimidated by your marketing data, start by visualizing the following 5 data points. These key metrics will provide you with the initial feedback you need to begin optimizing your ad campaigns.

Impressions

The goals of marketing campaigns vary from raising brand awareness to driving sales, and everything in between. For campaigns focused on broadening a brand’s impact, the number of impressions your ads generate is a critical metric. An impression is an instance in which someone views your ad – so, more impressions mean more brand exposure.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is an important metric for any ad campaign, but it is especially important for those focused on generating leads. A conversion is a single occasion of a prospect taking an action that is valuable to your business. This could include actions such as completing a purchase on your website, calling your business, or submitting an online form. Looking at your campaign’s conversion rate provides insight into the effectiveness of your ads. For every 100 people who engage with your ad, how many of them end up taking action?

Cost Per Lead

To assess the efficacy of your marketing campaign, you will need to evaluate how much you are spending on average to acquire a lead from your ads. If your acquisition cost per lead is too high relative to the value of the lead (e.g., the average value of the customer’s subsequent purchase), then you could be losing money.

Lead Closure Rate

Driving leads is just the first step in a successful marketing campaign. Step two is closing the lead by making a sale. Lead closure rate provides a metric for assessing the quality of the leads your ads generate. If you notice low lead closure rates for prospects from ads, then you may need to rethink your targeting, ad creative, keywords, or other aspects of your ad campaign. Implementing changes to these elements can help you acquire more of the right type of leads for your business, improving your ability to close.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is a critical data point for determining the productiveness of your marketing campaigns. At the end of the day, if your ads aren’t generating positive returns, then it’s time to revisit your underlying strategy.

A Final Tip

With the amount of data available to business owners and marketers, it’s critical to know what questions you are trying to answer before you approach your dataset. Don’t fall into the trap of picking out fragments of information with no concept of what they really mean or how they can be applied to optimize your campaign.

Courtney Turrin is VP of Data Science at Xponent21. Our company engineers digital experiences that delight visitors, attract new leads, increase conversions, and reduce operational overhead. To learn more about data visualization for business intelligence or other digital marketing services, get in touch with us.