Whether you are managing your own online marketing campaign, or hiring a company to take care of it for you, being able to track success all the way to your bottom line is essential. Unfortunately, many businesses struggle to understand how well their marketing efforts are performing. Even when you have enlisted the help of a marketing agency that is providing you with some reports, understanding how to measure the success of your online marketing campaign is essential for you to evaluate if the cost is worth the spend.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools available that can help you get a better idea of your marketing return on investment (ROI) and what successes your marketing efforts are achieving online.
1 – Website/Google Analytics
Of course, you want to start with the basics. Google Analytics is a free platform that gives you detailed insights into your website traffic. You can see how people are finding your site, where they are coming from, what pages they are looking at, and how long they are staying on your site. It’s free, it’s extremely easy to set up and best of all it’s something that you can own so that you don’t lose historical data when switching platforms.
The information that it provides can be extremely valuable in helping you understand which marketing channels are bringing you the most traffic and leads. Let’s look at a few of these metrics in greater detail:
Organic Traffic Growth
One of the first things you’ll want to look at is organic traffic growth. This will show you how your website is performing in search engines organically, without any paid advertising or traffic that came to you from referral sources or directly by typing your URL into the address bar. You can see if your SEO efforts are paying off, and identify any areas where you may need to improve your website in order to rank higher in search results.
Landing Pages / Exit Pages
Another metric that can be helpful in measuring your marketing success is the number of people landing on specific pages of your website, as well as the number of people leaving your site from those same pages. This can give you an idea of which pages are effective at converting visitors into leads or customers, and which pages may need to be improved. If you have a high number of people leaving your site from your contact page, for example, that may be an indication that you need to make it easier for visitors to get in touch with you or that your contact information is not prominently displayed.
Bounce Rate
Your website’s bounce rate is also a helpful metric to look at. This is the percentage of people who visit your site and then leave without taking any further action. A high bounce rate may indicate that your website is not relevant to the needs of your target audience or that it is not user-friendly.
Conversions
Of course, one of the most important metrics to look at when measuring your online marketing success is conversions. This is the number of people who take a desired action on your website, such as filling out a contact form, requesting a quote, or making a purchase. You can track conversions by setting up goals in Google Analytics or by using conversion tracking software.
2 – Call Tracking
Call tracking software gives you the ability to see how many calls your business receives as a result of your marketing efforts. It will also allow you to track which marketing channels are resulting in the most phone calls so that you can adjust your budget accordingly. When deciding which call tracking software to use, there are certain essential features you should consider:
Call Source Tracking
You’ll want to be able to see which marketing channels are resulting in phone calls so that you can adjust your budget accordingly. Make sure your call tracking software can tell you if the call came from an organic search, PPC ad, or other source. Related to this, it is also important to know if the calls that come in are from brand new leads, or if they are repeat callers.
Call Recording
Call recording can be extremely helpful in evaluating the performance of your sales team. It can also be used to train new employees or to resolve customer service issues. Be sure to check that your call tracking system can provide this and what the laws are in your state regarding two-party consent and other considerations.
Call Duration
The length of each call will give you an idea of how interested potential customers are in your product or service. Longer calls generally indicate a higher level of interest.
Keyword Search Term Tracking
Keyword search term tracking is a must for anyone looking to measure their online marketing success. This feature will allow you to see which keywords people have searched for in order to find your business and call you. This information can be extremely valuable in helping you to improve your online marketing campaigns.
There are a number of other metrics that can be helpful in measuring your online marketing success. The ones that are most important will vary depending on your business and what you are trying to achieve. However, the above metrics are a good place to start if you’re not sure where to begin.
3 – Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another free tool from Google that can be extremely helpful in measuring your online marketing success. It provides data on how your website is performing in organic search results, as well as the keywords people are using to find your site. It also offers insights into any crawl errors that may be preventing your site from being indexed properly. It’s therefore useful not only in measuring success, but finding and fixing issues that may be impacting your SEO.
4 – Rank Tracking Software
Rank tracker software allows you to track your website’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords. This information is essential to evaluating the success of your SEO marketing campaigns. Ideally you will want a tracker that is able to provide results that are localized to the geographic area where you do business so that the results are as reliable and relevant as possible.
5 – Website Crawlers/Googlebot
Website crawlers are software programs that visit websites and analyze their content. They can be extremely helpful in identifying technical issues that may be preventing your site from ranking well in search results. These tools are essential to audit your SEO and the performance of your website as well as ensure that you can inform your marketing team about any issues that may require a fix.
What can I learn from a web crawler?
A web crawler can provide a number of valuable insights, including:
- The structure of your website
- The types of content on your website
- Any technical issues that may be preventing your site from being indexed properly
- How well your website is linked internally and externally
How often should I perform an SEO audit?
It is generally recommended that you perform an SEO audit at least once per year, but more often if you are making significant changes to your website or SEO strategy. You can use the tools above to audit your website and digital marketing efficacy yourself, or you can ask the SEO experts you are working with to provide you with a detailed breakdown.
Conclusion
In order to get the most accurate and complete picture of your website’s performance, use these tools to get a bird’s eye view of how your digital marketing campaign is performing. With these tools, you will be able to evaluate the success of your campaign and measure the ROI with detailed accuracy. Transparency is a key part of how we do business here at Growth Lab SEO because we have confidence that the data will show success.
