In an ocean of digital marketing metrics, knowing all of them could be a tedious task. In an article I published, I tried to highlight the ones I feel are important and worth knowing and used Hootsuite’s four-stage funnel to categorise them in order of importance. Namely, awareness metrics, engagement metrics, conversion metrics, customer metrics, and bonus customer care metrics. All of this combined will give you a holistic view of your digital marketing strategy performance.
To get a deeper understanding of all the metrics, head over to my article titled “The most important social media metrics worth knowing”, the article also clarifies the differences between KPIs, metrics, and measures.
In this article, I take a step further to discuss how to track the seven most crucial conversion metrics, which I touched on in the article mentioned above.
In simple terms, conversion metrics examine how effective you are at converting your online audience into paying customers, Klipfolio explained. For social media marketers, these metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of your social engagement, basically, to see if your engaged audience is taking any action, i.e., converting.
Without further ado, let me take you through the metrics, demonstrate how to track and calculate them to help you make smarter decisions.
1. Conversion rate
This measures the number of visitors who, after being aware of your content, engage with it and then click on a link in your post and take action on a page (e.g., newsletter subscribers, content downloads, webinar registrations) against that page’s total visitors.
According to Eddie Shleyner, a high conversion rate means your content is valuable, compelling to the target audience, and a sign that your post was relevant to the offer.
How to track conversion rate using Bitly and UTM codes:
For this article, I will be using social media posts as an example.
STEP 1: Create UTM codes using Google’s own UTM building tool
STEP 2: Copy the link created on step 1 and use a URL shortener like bitly to make the link trackable.
STEP 3: Create a social media post and use the shortened link as a call-to-action in your post.
STEP 4: Head over to bitly to track how the link performs to see the number of clicks.
STEP 5: Head over to Google Analytics to track the number of conversions, which should be auto-populated as per the UTM codes generated in step 1.
STEP 6: Divide conversions by total clicks and multiply by 100 to get your conversion rate percentage.
How to calculate conversion rate:
I have really simplified the tracking process because there are multiple ways of tracking conversions besides just tracking a link via a URL shorter and UTM codes. Other tracking options include Google Analytics and Google Ads, Heatmaps, Session recording and replay tools, Customer satisfaction surveys, or Net Promoter Scores.
I will explore other options in future articles and focus on other digital marketing tactics besides social media.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This measures how often people click on the call-to-action link in your post. CTR shouldn’t be confused with engagement actions such as likes, shares, and comments because the CTR ties to a link that brings your target audience to additional content.
How to track Click-Through Rate (CTR):
STEP 1: Measure the total clicks on a post’s link.
STEP 2: Measure the total impressions on that post.
STEP 3: Divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions and multiply by 100 to get your CTR percentage.
How to calculate Click-Through Rate (CTR):
Note: Clicks and impressions must be measured within the same reporting period.
3. Bounce Rate
This is the percentage of page visitors who click on a link in your post, land on a page, and quickly leave the page without taking action.
How to track bounce rate:
STEP 1: Set up Google Analytics.
STEP 2: Open the “Acquisition” tab, and look under “All Traffic” for the “Channels” segment.
STEP 3: Click on the “Bounce Rate” button, which will rank all of the channels from lowest bounce rate to highest.
4. Cost-per-click (CPC)
This is a popular metric in Google Search Ads, and in social media terms, it’s the amount you pay per click on your sponsored social media post.
How to track cost-per-click (CPC):
STEP 1: Check your platform’s Ad Manager.
STEP 2: Check it often.
How to calculate cost-per-click (CPC):
5. Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
Impressions track how often your content appears on a screen, and then CPM is the amount you pay every time a thousand people see your sponsored social media post.
How to track Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM):
STEP 1: Check your platform’s Ad Manager.
STEP 2: Check it often.
How to calculate Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM):
6. Social Media Conversion Rate
This is the total number of conversions from social media, expressed as a percentage.
How to track Social Media Conversion Rate:
STEP 1: Measure your total number of conversions.
STEP 2: Divide the social media conversions by the total number of conversions and multiply by 100 to get your social media conversion rate percentage.
7. Conversation Rate (CoR)
This is a metric coined by Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik. He explains that it is a ratio of comments per post (or video or tweet or pin etc.) to overall Followers (or Page Likes).
Tracking your conversation rate will help uncover how much of your followers are compelled to add their voice to the content you post.
How to track Conversation Rate:
STEP 1: Use a tool like Hootsuite Analytics to pull the number of comments you received during a reporting period.
STEP 2: Divide that number by your total number of followers and multiply by 100 to get your conversation rate percentage.
How to calculate Conversation Rate:
For me, conversion metrics are the most important ones in the entire digital marketing world. Because conversions are actions that bring a business closer to making a sale, be it, people who make appointments, fill out contact forms, call you, and request free quotes, also count as conversions.
I prefer them over other metrics because they can help predict campaign success or failure. Better ones can also help me save money and help improve my website.
I am not rendering the other metrics entirely useless because different campaigns have different goals. I like conversion metrics because most salespeople and senior management mostly understand them, and my digital marketing efforts always have to prove worthwhile.
