The best thing about the digital marketing vs. interrupt marketing is that digital marketing is a data-driven approach, rather than one largely driven by guess-timates and gut feels. However, this can also be the worst thing. Why? Because many businesses aren’t getting enough data, or they’re just tracking the strong outcomes.
To help businesses escape either bucket and start generating ROI, here are the 6 critical site metrics that reign supreme:
1. Sources of Incoming Traffic
It’s not enough to have an aggregate site visitor total. This needs to be broken down by source: direct (visitors who typed in your URL), search (visitors who found you via search query), and referral (visitors who came in through a monitored external site, which can include a business’s social pages, blogs, etc.).
2. Conversions
Again, this can’t be an aggregate statistic, because businesses need to know how many new visitors are converting and how many returning visitors are converting. There is a qualitative difference between these target groups, and these site metrics tell businesses where and how to allocate investments and resources.
3. Cost per Conversion
Let’s say a business is converting 50 leads per month. Is this good? Is this bad? The only way to do the math on this is by analyzing cost per conversion, and then mapping that against desired or expected profit margins. Indeed, while the old adage “you have to spend money to make money” remains true, if a business consistently spends more to generate conversions than profit margins allow, then it’s not a strategy: it’s a disaster.
Note: in some cases, it can be strategic to temporarily break even or lose money on conversions (a.k.a. loss leader), if doing so generates brand visibility and onboards customers to the roster who will be loyal and profitable down the road. The advice above is simply that conversion and cost per conversion are site metrics that should always travel in pairs.
4. Interactions
What are visitors doing once they get to a site? Are they reading blog posts, watching videos, engaging in web chats, and so on? Interactions is the category of site metrics that capture visitor behaviors and help businesses glean how they can boost outcomes like time on site, and of course, conversions.
5. Bounce Rate
Some businesses think that bounce rate refers to any and all visitors that leave a website without converting (not necessarily buying, but taking an action that is on the path to conversion, such as downloading an ebook, etc.). This isn’t the case.
Bounce rate refers to visitors who leave a site immediately and with zero legitimate interactions. Yes, it’s the gloomiest of site metrics, but it’s also among the most valuable, because it can identify some low-cost, high-impact changes.
For example, some businesses with high bounce rates don’t have a responsive site, which means that it can’t be properly or easily accessed by mobile visitors. Fixing this is straightforward and can dramatically improve site performance.
6. Exit Pages
In many cases, a business will wisely put CTAs (calls-to-action) on pages with a larger process. For example, they may put a link in their blog that goes to a product page, which contains a button that leads to a landing page for an eBook, which is where the CTA lives. In site metrics terms, this landing page is also an exit page, because it’s where visitors can disengage (anywhere a visitor is asked to do something is a touchpoint that can lead to disengagement).
While some exiting is inevitable, simply because some visitors don’t want to or aren’t in the mood to take action, if exit rates are excessive and stay that way, it typically means that visitors are being repelled by something in the process. For example, the sign-up form for an ebook might be asking visitors for too much information. Or, the landing page itself might not be effectively designed, and visitors may be getting confused about what they’re being asked to do.
The Bottom Line
These critical site metrics combine to tell a story that helps businesses take faster, smarter action to make their site a profitable asset vs. a costly liability. To learn more, contact the Leap Clixx team today. We can guide your leadership team to focus on what matters, or we can handle everything and regularly provide you with clear executive reports. Your consultation with us is free.
Also, be sure to download our FREE eBook on how to turn your website into a lead generation machine:
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