What Are KPIs in Marketing?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) in marketing are data points that indicate how your business is performing in relation to specific marketing goals.
For example, if you’re aiming to increase online sales, then website traffic could be a marketing KPI.
Setting and tracking KPIs helps you understand the impact of your marketing efforts and make more informed decisions in the future.
Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most important KPIs for marketing.
Multi-Channel Marketing KPIs
These marketing KPIs can help you evaluate efforts across multiple marketing channels.
1. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of users who convert (take a specific, desired action) when viewing a marketing campaign or asset.
This action could be signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase, for example.
You can measure conversion rates on your website by using Google Analytics.
In Google Analytics, conversions are called key events. The platform tracks some events automatically, but you need to specify which ones are key events and create any that are missing.
If you need to measure conversion rates manually, use this formula:
Conversion rate = (conversions / total clicks) x 100
Here are some quick tips for conversion rate optimization:
- Create landing pages to promote specific actions
- Use split testing to compare results from different campaign versions
- Make it clear what you want users to do—and what’s in it for them
2. Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of users who click through to your website from a particular asset or campaign.
CTR can measure how effectively you attract people to your site through search engine results, digital advertisements, marketing emails, social media posts, and more.
Many analytics tools calculate CTRs automatically because they’re an important KPI in marketing.
For example, here’s a report from Google Ads:
If your tool doesn’t provide the CTR, you can use this formula instead:
CTR = (clicks / views) x 100
Improving your average CTR for each campaign type allows you to boost traffic without needing to increase your audience size.
Here are some quick tips for improving your CTRs:
- Write compelling call to action (CTA) text
- Design CTA buttons to stand out on the page
- Target the right audiences
3. Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV or CLTV) is the revenue you can expect to earn from a customer during their entire relationship with your brand.
To be profitable, you need your CLV to be higher than your average sales and marketing spend for acquiring a single customer.
The formula to calculate CLV is:
Customer lifetime value = average transaction value x average number of transactions in a year x average customer retention in years
Here are some quick tips to improve this marketing KPI:
- Implement a customer loyalty program
- Gather feedback from customers who cancel
- Create tailored campaigns for existing and previous customers
4. Return on Marketing Investment
Return on marketing investment (ROMI) is the amount of money your marketing efforts generate relative to the cost of these marketing efforts.
A positive ROMI shows marketing is contributing to your company’s bottom line.
Here’s the formula to calculate ROMI for a campaign or a channel:
Return on marketing investment = ((gross profit - marketing cost) / marketing cost) x 100
There are two main ways to improve your ROMI:
- Cut unnecessary marketing costs (e.g., stop campaigns that don’t drive results)
- Boost your campaigns’ effectiveness in driving revenue (e.g., make more engaging ads)
5. Leads
A lead is a user who has exhibited strong signs of becoming a customer in the future—perhaps they’ve filled out an inquiry form or added a product to their cart.
There are two main types of leads:
- Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): A prospect who engaged with your marketing initiatives. For example, downloading an ebook or clicking on a Facebook ad.
- Sales qualified leads (SQLs): A prospect that has shown an intent to buy (by booking a demo, for example) and is ready to talk to the sales team
Tracking MQLs vs. SQLs helps you to assess lead quality.
To track leads effectively, you can use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like HubSpot or Salesforce.
Image Source: HubSpot
Here are some quick tips for improving your lead generation efforts:
- Create high-quality gated content (content that users can only access by submitting their information)
- Optimize your landing pages and forms
- Use retargeting ads to re-engage users who leave your website without converting
6. Cost Per Lead
Cost per lead (CPL) is the average amount you pay to acquire a new lead from your marketing efforts.
Tracking CPL helps you to identify inefficiencies in your marketing strategy, so you can adjust to maintain profitability.
The CPL formula looks like this:
CPL = Total cost of marketing campaign / number of leads generated
Here are some quick tips to reduce your CPL:
- Leverage organic channels like SEO and social media
- Invest more in campaigns that deliver the lowest CPL
- Pause or optimize your highest-CPL activities
7. Cost per Acquisition
Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the average amount of marketing spend it takes to acquire a paying customer.
To turn a profit, your CPA must be lower than your customer lifetime value (CLV).
You can use this formula to calculate the CPA of your campaigns for a given period:
CPA = total campaign spend / number of customers acquired
Here are some quick tips for reducing your CPAs:
- Discontinue or improve unprofitable campaigns
- Target your campaigns to highly relevant audiences
- Retarget and nurture existing leads
SEO KPIs
Search engine optimization (SEO) results are volatile due to algorithm updates, competitor activity, and changing user behavior.
Tracking these SEO KPIs will help you to stay on course and quickly adapt to any shifts.
8. Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings are positions in unpaid results for target keywords—i.e., queries you want to appear for in search engines.
The higher you rank for a given keyword, the more likely users are to see and click your result.
That said, the top three results attract the vast majority of traffic.
You can monitor your keyword rankings through Google Search Console.
The “Performance on Search results” report shows your average position for up to 1,000 queries chosen by Google.
Alternatively, track the keywords of your choice with Semrush’s Position Tracking tool.
The tool uses AI to calculate your potential ranking positions—on top of reporting your actual rankings. So you can easily spot the biggest opportunities for improvement.
You can also sign up for ranking alerts, compare your rankings against competitors’, and much more.
Here are some ways to rank higher on Google:
- Focus on low-competition keywords (i.e., keywords with low keyword difficulty)
- Analyze and satisfy search intent (what the target user wants)
- Implement on-page SEO techniques (e.g., optimize your title tags and H1 tags)
9. Organic Clicks
Organic clicks are clicks on your unpaid results in Google.
The more clicks you attract, the more opportunities you have to generate leads and sales.
You can see your organic clicks by keyword, URL, and more in Google Search Console.
Here are some quick tips for getting more organic clicks:
- Work to improve your keyword rankings by better addressing user intent
- Focus on keywords that are more likely to drive clicks (e.g., avoid zero-click searches)
- Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions (which can appear in search results)
10. Impressions
In SEO, impressions refer to the number of times your webpage/website appears in search engine results and is seen by users.
This is a good search marketing KPI because impressions drive brand awareness and clicks.
You can track your Google impressions in Google Search Console.
Here are some ways to get more impressions in Google:
- Create content to target a wider variety of relevant keywords
- Work to improve your keyword rankings (i.e., improve your SEO)
- Optimize for SERP features (e.g., by using schema markup)
11. Backlinks
Backlinks (links to your website from other websites) can influence your visibility in search results, because search engines can treat them like endorsements.
Many different factors influence a backlink’s value, so it can be helpful to track a variety of related metrics:
- Number of dofollow links: The number of backlinks that are dofollow links—i.e., links that are likely to pass SEO value. This is in contrast to nofollow links, which may not pass SEO value.
- Number of referring domains: How many different websites link to your website. Generally, more domains is better.
- Domain authority: The authoritativeness of your domain, according to a metric like Semrush’s Authority Score. This largely reflects the strength of your backlink profile.
To collect these metrics, you need a tool like Backlink Analytics.
For advice on getting more high-quality backlinks, check out our link building guide.
Paid Advertising KPIs
Track these paid advertising metrics to ensure you spend every advertising dollar efficiently.
12. Return on Ad Spend
Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a measure of advertising revenue relative to advertising costs.
An ROAS above 1 indicates that the campaign is profitable, while a ROAS below one indicates that the campaign is unprofitable.
Here’s the formula you can use to calculate ROAS:
ROAS = revenue from ad campaign / total ad spend
Read our guides to learn more about tracking your ad spend and maximizing your ROAS on Google Ads.
13. Cost per Mille
Cost per mille (CPM) is the average amount you pay for 1,000 ad impressions (views).
This KPI helps you forecast how much it’ll cost to reach a specific audience size. And helps you evaluate the profitability of brand awareness campaigns.
Many advertising platforms calculate CPM automatically—here’s what the marketing KPI looks like inside the Meta Ads Manager dashboard:
You can also calculate CPM manually with this formula:
CPM = (total cost of campaign / total impressions) x 1,000
Here are some quick tips for lowering a campaign’s CPM:
- Test different ad placements
- Advertise during low-competition times
- Consider broadening your audience
Social Media KPIs
Track these social media KPIs to ensure your social media strategy provides meaningful results.
14. Follower Count
Follower count is the number of users who follow your social media profile(s)—i.e., the number of people who’ve opted in to see your posts.
This social media marketing KPI is important because the more followers you have, the more likely users are to see and engage with your brand.
You should be able to see your follower count on each profile, like this:
Alternatively, use Semrush’s Social Tracker tool to view metrics from multiple platforms in one place.
It’s easy to see whether your subscriber count is growing. And compare your stats against competitors’.
You can access the Social Tracker and many other useful tools through a Semrush Social subscription.
Here’s how you can leverage the toolkit to get more followers:
- Maintain a regular posting schedule using the Social Poster tool
- Learn from your top-performing posts with the Social Content Insights tool
- Identify the best times to post with the Social Analytics tool
15. Average Engagement Rate
Average engagement rate is the percentage of likes, comments, shares, etc., on your social media content relative to the number of followers you have.
This social media marketing KPI shows how well your social media content resonates with your audience. And the more engaged your audience members are, the more likely they are to amplify and buy from your brand.
Some social media platforms calculate an engagement rate metric for you.
For example, here’s what the KPI looks like in LinkedIn analytics:
Alternatively, you can use this formula to calculate average engagement rate:
Average engagement rate = ((total engagements / total posts) / total followers) x 100
Here are some quick tips for improving social engagement:
- Deliver direct value through your posts—don’t just link to your website or elsewhere
- Encourage audience participation by asking questions, running polls, and hosting giveaways
- Experiment with different content formats and monitor their success
Email Marketing KPIs
Track these email marketing KPIs to gauge the success of your promotional messages, newsletters, and other email campaigns.
16. Subscribers
Subscribers are users who’ve opted in to receiving your marketing emails at a specific email address.
The number of subscribers is a critical email marketing KPI because it reflects the size of the audience you can reach with your email campaigns.
You can get details about your subscribers in your email marketing platform.
Here’s what the data looks like in Mailchimp, for example:
Here are some quick tips for getting more email subscribers:
- Segment your email lists to ensure subscribers only receive the emails they’re interested in
- Offer a sign-up incentive (e.g., a welcome discount code)
- Encourage customers to opt in during the checkout process
17. Open Rate
Open rate is the percentage of recipients who open your marketing emails.
Tracking open rates helps you gauge the relevance of your email campaign. Although, they may be underreported due to the privacy features in some email clients.
Most email marketing platforms provide an open rate for each email.
In Mailchimp, the open rate KPI looks something like this:
Here’s how to improve your open rates:
- Write concise and engaging subject lines
- Send tailored emails to different audience segments
- Optimize your sender name, address, and profile picture
Start Monitoring Your Marketing KPIs
Regularly report on your marketing KPIs to monitor your progress and keep stakeholders informed.
With Semrush’s My Reports tool, you can effortlessly combine data from multiple sources.
Choose from dozens of widgets to build your template, customize the formatting to suit your brand, then schedule your reports to arrive at times that suit you.
Set time aside to review your reports each week or month. So you can properly evaluate your marketing KPIs. And decide whether to adjust your marketing strategy.