Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) make it possible for you to measure success – also in the area of B2B marketing. There are not any standard KPIs that fit every company and every measure. Instead, Key Performance Indicators have to be tailored and developed in line with the company and its marketing objectives. So, in B2B, which KPIs are we talking about? And which KPIs are suitable for which objective? Find out more here!
What are Key Performance Indicators?
Key Performance Indicators are key figures which reflect a company’s performance. Companies use KPIs in many areas, including marketing. Here, the figures serve as a basis of information for documentation, monitoring and planning, as a basis for decision-making for showing and monitoring developments, and as a basis for comparison.
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What are the marketing objectives?
Before a company can select its Key Performance Indicators, they must define which goal they want to achieve with their marketing. Would the enterprise mainly like to win over interested persons who are then most likely to become customers (leads generation)? Or should the number of orders increase (higher sales volume)? Maybe the goal is to make the user become more involved on the company’s website (engagement monitoring). Or are the traditional branding goals most important, with the desire to build brand awareness and position the brand (more clearly)?
Each marketing objective requires Key Performance Indicators
Depending on the branch, the strategy and objectives of the company, it’s important to filter out the relevant Key Performance Indicators. For leads generation, for instance, figures from newsletter subscriptions or download rates of the content available are interesting. If you would like to know how to develop your sales, KPIs such as conversion numbers and rates should be at the top of your list. Would you like to bring more traffic to your website? Then take a look at the average stay time, the bounce rate and the number of page impressions. There are many online tools for determining these.
The 8 Key Performance Indicators you should know
1. Traffic
It’s important to measure the traffic on your website, as well as the traffic on any significant subpages. To achieve this, define a basis for the current average visit and then every week measure the traffic numbers based on this average.
2. Time on site
Time on site is the period of time that a visitor spends on your website. And an important indicator of how good the target groups considers your content to be. What’s more, the time on-site is an important SEO signal for search engines. The longer someone remains on your website, the more likely it is that your content is valuable and of high quality. Google rewards such content with a better ranking.
3. Bounce rate
The bounce rate indicates how many visitors to your website have left your website after viewing just one page. This, too, is a KPI – namely for determining how poor your content is. Google punishes a high bounce rate by lowering your ranking.
4. Pages per session
The pages per session are the opposite of the bounce rate, so to speak. This KPI shows the average number of pages visited per visit on average. So, you can see how deeply a visitor dived into your website. Google rewards good pages-per-session values with a better ranking.
5. Session duration
The session duration is also an important Key Performance Indicator. It lets you know how long on average a visitor has stayed on your website. Google rates a session duration of two minutes on average as good. The higher the session duration, the better.
6. Conversion rate
The conversion rate measures the number of people who have taken the next step in the purchasing process. The conversion rate is a very important Key Performance Indicator, as it shows the actual advertising success or effectiveness of your website.
Measuring the conversion rate of contact forms is one of the best opportunities to lower acquisition costs and increase your customer base. A potential customer who asks to be contacted is extremely valuable!
7. Engagement rate
The engagement rate indicates the number of interactions which have been generated by social media content, for instance. It influences factors such as user comments, likes and parts of content, amongst others.
8. Gross open rate
The gross open rate measures how often an email message has been opened. It not only takes the people into account who received the message directly, but also all other people who have opened the message after receiving it as a forwarded email.
When advertising in search engines (SEA), or using Google Ads above all, impressions, clicks, click rates and conversions are all important key performance indicators. For instance, the impressions show how often a Google Ad has been blended into the results page of a search engine. The clicks show how often a Google Ad has been clicked on. The click rate (CTR) shows the ratio of clicks to impressions. The conversion shows how often a desired action, such as a registration or a download, has been performed.
Conclusion
Key Performance Indicators are vital to monitoring the success of online marketing. With the help of KPIs, you can determine which measures were successful and where there is room for improvement. However, the Key Performance Indicators must match up with your marketing objectives. As a company, the first step should always be to ask: What do I want to measure and why? And then ask: Which figures can I use as a basis for determining success or gaining insights?
