"The Most Commonly Used Digital Marketing Metrics”

Today, digital marketing is becoming more and more important as survival in all sectors requires surviving high competition, and the secret to success is to analyze the data correctly. Digital marketing metrics are quantitative indicators of this data used to measure and improve the performance of your online campaigns. Understanding and effectively using this data provided by platforms allows you to optimize your strategies and increase the success of your business. In this article, I will discuss the key metrics of digital marketing and try to explain how each one can add value to your business.

Number of Visitors

The number of visitors is simply a measure of how popular your website is. In other words, it measures how many people visit your site, how much interest there is in it, and allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. An increase in visitors usually means a successful marketing campaign. However, it is important to remember that the number of visitors alone does not mean anything. Other data, such as the activity of people who come to your site (how long they stay and browse), should also be taken into account.

Traffic Source

Shows the source from which users came to your site. This data, which includes sources such as email, organic search engine results page, direct link, social media or Google Ads, is often overlooked but is very important because it gives you an idea of where to focus your marketing investments. For example, if your traffic from social media is high, you may want to invest in this traffic source.

Impressions

The number of views refers to the number of times your content or ad is shown to users. This metric gives important insights into the activity of your campaigns. This metric is very important for increasing your brand awareness. However, a high number of views is not always an indicator of a successful campaign. That's why it's important to monitor whether views are converting into clicks or conversions.

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The number of clicks shows how many times your content or ad has been clicked on, in other words; we can say that it shows how much interest is shown in your ad or content. Of course, we shouldn't always look on the bright side. We may have a high number of clicks, but we should also look at whether these clicks turn into purchases or any conversions. Therefore, tracking clicks together with conversion rates allows you to monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns more accurately.

Click Through Rate (CTR) 

Click Through Rate is the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of views. It shows how attention-grabbing your ad is and how relevant it is to users' needs. A low click-through rate means that your ad is being viewed but users find it uninteresting and don't click on it. To increase this rate, you can add more extensions to your ad, optimize headlines, images and text. It's a mistake to think of CTR as just the success of your ad, it's also a measure of how much you are engaging users.

Cost

Cost is the total amount you spend on your advertising campaigns. By tracking this metric, you can see how efficiently you are using your digital marketing budget. Increasing your return by keeping your cost down is critical to the success of your campaigns. Therefore, by comparing your costs with other metrics, you can optimize your spending.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Cost per click (CPC) is how much each click on your ad costs you, a low CPC will get you more clicks and can help you use your budget more effectively, but a low CPC also means that your competitors don't have the keyword you're using and either there's a treasure in the keyword that your competitors don't realize, or your competitors realize that the keyword you're using isn't bringing them anything. To optimize CPC, it is important to choose targeting and keywords carefully.

Cost per Mile (CPM)

The amount you pay for your ad to be viewed a thousand times. CPM is an important metric for campaigns that aim to increase brand awareness in general. At the end of the day, in order for more people to know about your brand, your ad not only needs to be seen by more people, it also needs to be memorable.

Conversions

Conversions are a metric that shows how many of your campaigns are driving users to your site, and then how much of the information you are able to give them on your site. It's worth noting, however, that high conversion numbers indicate that your marketing strategy is having an impact on your target audience, but looking only at conversion numbers without examining conversion cost and conversion value can lead to a loss-making campaign.

Conversion Value

Conversion Value measures the financial gain when a conversion occurs. This metric shows the total value of a customer or prospect's transaction. For example, the revenue generated from the sale of a product is calculated as conversion value. By analyzing conversion value, you can evaluate the financial performance of your campaigns and identify which strategies are driving higher-value conversions. This data plays an important role in ROI calculations and optimizing your budget. Audience analysis and strategic campaign management are important to increase conversion value.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the rate at which people who click on your ad or visit your site take the action you target as a conversion. A conversion action can be a sale, a form submission or a phone call. It is one of the most effective metrics that shows how effective your campaigns are. To increase your conversion rate, you should pay attention to elements such as page optimization and user experience (UX).

Cost Per Conversion (CPA)

Cost per conversion (CPA) is the amount you spend to get a conversion. By tracking the CPA metric, you can see how efficient your marketing spend is and optimize your budget. Keeping the CPA metric low is key to increasing conversions while reducing costs.

Number of Potential Customers (Leads)

Shows how many people your marketing campaigns are converting into leads. This metric allows you to estimate how successful your sales team can be and the number of leads that are likely to convert into sales. To increase the number of leads, the characteristics of your target audience (interests, age range, location, etc.) are important. With the right targeting, you can increase the number of potential customers and then turn these potential customers into your customers.

Cost per Potential Customer

It shows the amount you spend to get a lead. To reduce the amount you spend to get a lead, you can make optimizations to improve your quality score. By lowering your quality score, Google's AI algorithm will make your ads less costly and your cost per lead will decrease accordingly.

Video Views

This metric shows how many times your video has been watched. This metric allows us to see how much your ads are engaging the user. An increase in video views indicates that our ad is reaching more users and can also increase lead acquisition. 

Cost Per View (CPV)

The cost per view metric shows the amount you pay per video view. This metric allows you to see how much your video ads cost. As I mentioned in another thread, you can win auctions at a lower cost by working to improve your quality score and get your ad shown by Google.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is a metric that measures the financial return on an investment. ROI refers to the return on your investments in terms of profit or loss and allows you to evaluate the overall effectiveness of your campaigns. A high ROI indicates that your investments are effective, bringing you profit and achieving the financial goals of your business. By tracking ROI, you can determine which strategies are more profitable and direct your resources more effectively.

Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)

Return on ad spend metric, or ROAS, is a metric that measures the return on your ad spend. ROAS is calculated by the revenue generated against ad spend and helps you evaluate the cost-effectiveness of your ad campaigns. You use it to measure how much revenue you get for every ₺1 of ad spend. A high ROAS indicates that your ad returns and performance are good.

To summarize

Digital marketing metrics are not only useful for monitoring the performance of your campaigns, but also for making strategic decisions for the growth of your business. With these metrics, you can understand where you are succeeding, where you need to make improvements and direct your marketing investments in the most efficient way. Remember, these data are not just numbers; they are powerful tools that can shape the future of your business. By analyzing your metrics correctly, you can maintain your competitive advantage and reach your goals faster. Continuously monitoring your data and optimizing your strategy is the key to success in the digital world. I will continue to write detailed blog posts about digital marketing metrics. In the meantime, you can ask me anything you are curious about in the comments section below.