KPIs for Marketing

Business / By /
KPIFormula to MeasureWhen to UseAdvantagesDrawbacks
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)(Total Marketing Spend / Number of New Customers Acquired)Measure the cost of acquiring each new customerEvaluates marketing efficiency and ROIIgnores customer lifetime value (CLTV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)(Average Purchase Value x Average Purchase Frequency x Customer Lifespan)Assess the long-term value of a customerHelps in budget allocation and retention strategiesRequires historical data and assumptions
Return on Investment (ROI)((Net Profit – Marketing Costs) / Marketing Costs) * 100%Evaluate the profitability of marketing campaignsMeasures marketing effectiveness in generating profitsDoes not consider indirect ROI factors
Conversion Rate(Number of Conversions / Total Website Visitors) * 100%Monitor the percentage of visitors who take the desired actionMeasures website or campaign effectivenessIgnores the quality of conversions
Click-Through Rate (CTR)(Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of ad or email campaignsMeasures ad or email engagement and relevancyIgnores conversion and revenue data
Cost per Click (CPC)(Total Ad Spend / Number of Clicks)Assess the cost of each click in paid advertisingHelps in budget allocation and ad optimizationIgnores the quality of traffic
Cost per Conversion(Total Marketing Spend / Number of Conversions)Measure the cost of each desired actionEvaluates campaign efficiency in driving conversionsIgnores varying conversion values
Cost per Mille (CPM)(Total Ad Spend / Number of Impressions) * 1,000Assess the cost per thousand impressionsHelps in comparing ad costs across different platformsIgnores user engagement and quality impressions
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)Number of Leads Meeting Marketing CriteriaTrack the number of leads that meet marketing criteriaIdentifies leads ready for further nurturing and conversionMay require clear criteria and lead scoring
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)Number of Leads Meeting Sales CriteriaMeasure leads that meet sales criteriaIdentifies leads ready for sales engagementRequires collaboration between marketing and sales teams
Churn Rate(Number of Lost Customers / Total Customers at the Start of the Period) * 100%Assess the rate at which customers are leavingIdentifies customer retention issues and measures loyaltyIgnores acquisition and expansion efforts
Email Open Rate(Number of Emails Opened / Number of Emails Sent) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of email marketing campaignsMeasures email engagement and subject line effectivenessIgnores click-through and conversion data
Email Click-Through Rate(Number of Clicks in Email / Number of Emails Opened) * 100%Measure the click-through rate in email campaignsHelps assess the relevance and content of email contentIgnores conversion and revenue data
Social Media Engagement Rate((Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Followers) * 100%Assess engagement on social media postsMeasures social media audience interactionIgnores the quality and relevance of engagement
Organic TrafficNumber of Website Visitors from Organic SearchTrack the number of visitors from organic searchIndicates the effectiveness of SEO efforts and contentIgnores traffic from other sources
Paid Search Click-Through Rate (CTR)(Number of Clicks on Paid Ads / Number of Ad Impressions) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of paid search adsMeasures ad engagement and relevanceIgnores conversion and revenue data
Cost per Lead (CPL)(Total Marketing Spend on Lead Generation / Number of Leads Generated)Assess the cost of acquiring each leadHelps in budget allocation and lead generation optimizationIgnores lead quality and conversion data
Customer Retention Rate((Number of Customers at the End of Period – Number of New Customers Acquired) / Number of Customers at the Start of Period) * 100%Evaluate the percentage of retained customersMeasures customer satisfaction and loyaltyIgnores new customer acquisition
Net Promoter Score (NPS)(Percentage of Promoters – Percentage of Detractors)Measure customer loyalty and satisfactionProvides insights into overall customer sentimentRequires conducting customer surveys
Ad Click-to-Sale Conversion Rate(Number of Sales / Number of Ad Clicks) * 100%Assess the percentage of ad clicks resulting in salesMeasures ad effectiveness in driving conversionsIgnores other conversion channels
Mobile App DownloadsNumber of Downloads of Mobile AppTrack the number of times a mobile app is downloadedMeasures app popularity and marketing effectivenessIgnores app retention and engagement data
App User Retention Rate((Number of Users at the Start of Period – Number of Churned Users) / Number of Users at the Start of Period) * 100%Evaluate the percentage of retained app usersMeasures app user satisfaction and engagementIgnores new user acquisition and source
Social Media Follower Growth Rate((Number of New Followers – Number of Lost Followers) / Number of Followers at the Start of Period) * 100%Track the growth of social media followersMeasures the effectiveness of social media strategiesIgnores engagement and relevance
Cost per Social Media Follower(Total Social Media Ad Spend / Number of New Followers)Assess the cost of acquiring each social media followerHelps in budget allocation and ad optimizationIgnores follower engagement and quality
Landing Page Conversion Rate(Number of Conversions / Number of Landing Page Visitors) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of landing pagesMeasures the performance of landing page designsIgnores other website sections and content
Bounce Rate(Number of Single-Page Visits / Total Page Visits) * 100%Assess the percentage of visitors leaving after viewing a single pageIdentifies website content and design issuesIgnores the reasons for single-page visits
Customer Feedback Rating(Sum of Customer Feedback Ratings / Total Number of Feedback Responses)Assess customer satisfaction and feedbackProvides direct feedback on products and servicesSubjective and may lack specificity
Ad ImpressionsTotal Number of Times an Ad is DisplayedMonitor ad exposure and reachIndicates the potential audience for ad campaignsIgnores ad engagement and effectiveness
Blog TrafficNumber of Visitors to Blog PostsTrack the popularity and effectiveness of blog contentMeasures the impact of content marketingIgnores conversion and lead generation data
Video ViewsNumber of Views on Video ContentEvaluate the reach and engagement of video marketingMeasures video content effectiveness and audience interestIgnores video conversion and click-through rates
Influencer Engagement Rate((Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Influencer Followers) * 100%Assess engagement on influencer marketing campaignsMeasures the effectiveness of influencer collaborationsIgnores influencer content quality and impact
Webinar Attendance Rate(Number of Webinar Attendees / Total Registered Participants) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of webinarsMeasures webinar engagement and relevanceIgnores webinar content quality and impact
Sponsored Content Click-Through Rate(Number of Clicks on Sponsored Content / Number of Impressions) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of sponsored contentMeasures engagement with sponsored articles or postsIgnores conversion and revenue data
Online Reviews and RatingsSum of Online Review and Rating ScoresMonitor customer feedback and sentiment onlineProvides insights into public perception and reputationMay require monitoring multiple review platforms
Marketing Email Conversion Rate(Number of Conversions from Marketing Emails / Total Emails Sent) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of marketing email campaignsMeasures email campaign performance and conversionIgnores other marketing channels and engagement
Organic Search RankingPosition in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)Track the website’s ranking in organic search resultsIndicates SEO effectiveness and visibility in search enginesIgnores other search engine factors and traffic sources
Ad Engagement Rate((Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Ad Impressions) * 100%Assess engagement with paid advertisingMeasures ad effectiveness in generating user interactionIgnores conversion and revenue data
Affiliate Marketing ROI((Net Profit from Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate Marketing Costs) / Affiliate Marketing Costs) * 100%Evaluate the profitability of affiliate marketingMeasures the return on investment in affiliate programsIgnores indirect ROI factors and program quality
Mobile App User RatingsAverage User Ratings and Reviews on App StoresMonitor user satisfaction and feedback for mobile appsProvides insights into user experience and app qualityMay require continuous app store monitoring
Influencer ReachTotal Number of Influencer FollowersAssess the potential audience reached through influencersMeasures the overall influence and reach of influencersIgnores engagement and conversion data
Online Ad Conversion Rate(Number of Conversions from Online Ads / Total Ad Clicks) * 100%Evaluate the effectiveness of online ad campaignsMeasures the conversion rate of online adsIgnores ad engagement and quality
Marketing Budget Allocation(Budget Allocated to Each Marketing Channel / Total Marketing Budget) * 100%Optimize marketing spending across channelsEnsures effective allocation of resources to different channelsIgnores seasonality and changing market dynamics

Visual Marketing Glossary

Account-Based Marketing

account-based-marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where the marketing and sales departments come together to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. Account-based marketing is a business-to-business (B2B) approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts and turn them into customers.

Ad-Ops

ad-ops
Ad Ops – also known as Digital Ad Operations – refers to systems and processes that support digital advertisements’ delivery and management. The concept describes any process that helps a marketing team manage, run, or optimize ad campaigns, making them an integrating part of the business operations.

AARRR Funnel

pirate-metrics
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.

Affinity Marketing

affinity-marketing
Affinity marketing involves a partnership between two or more businesses to sell more products. Note that this is a mutually beneficial arrangement where one brand can extend its reach and enhance its credibility in association with the other.

Ambush Marketing

ambush-marketing
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.

Affiliate Marketing

affiliate-marketing
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.

Bullseye Framework

bullseye-framework
The bullseye framework is a simple method that enables you to prioritize the marketing channels that will make your company gain traction. The main logic of the bullseye framework is to find the marketing channels that work and prioritize them.

Brand Building

brand-building
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.

Brand Dilution

brand-dilution
According to inbound marketing platform HubSpot, brand dilution occurs “when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in.” Brand dilution, therefore, occurs when a brand decreases in value after the company releases a product that does not align with its vision, mission, or skillset. 

Brand Essence Wheel

brand-essence-wheel
The brand essence wheel is a templated approach businesses can use to better understand their brand. The brand essence wheel has obvious implications for external brand strategy. However, it is equally important in simplifying brand strategy for employees without a strong marketing background. Although many variations of the brand essence wheel exist, a comprehensive wheel incorporates information from five categories: attributes, benefits, values, personality, brand essence.

Brand Equity

what-is-brand-equity
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.

Brand Positioning

brand-positioning
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.

Business Storytelling

business-storytelling
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.

Content Marketing

content-marketing
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.

Customer Lifetime Value

customer-lifetime-value
One of the first mentions of customer lifetime value was in the 1988 book Database Marketing: Strategy and Implementation written by Robert Shaw and Merlin Stone. Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the value of a customer to a company over a period of time. It represents a critical business metric, especially for SaaS or recurring revenue-based businesses.

Customer Segmentation

customer-segmentation
Customer segmentation is a marketing method that divides the customers in sub-groups, that share similar characteristics. Thus, product, marketing and engineering teams can center the strategy from go-to-market to product development and communication around each sub-group. Customer segments can be broken down is several ways, such as demographics, geography, psychographics and more.

Developer Marketing

developer-marketing
Developer marketing encompasses tactics designed to grow awareness and adopt software tools, solutions, and SaaS platforms. Developer marketing has become the standard among software companies with a platform component, where developers can build applications on top of the core software or open software. Therefore, engaging developer communities has become a key element of marketing for many digital businesses.

Digital Marketing Channels

digital-marketing-channels
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.

Field Marketing

field-marketing
Field marketing is a general term that encompasses face-to-face marketing activities carried out in the field. These activities may include street promotions, conferences, sales, and various forms of experiential marketing. Field marketing, therefore, refers to any marketing activity that is performed in the field.

Funnel Marketing

funnel-marketing
interaction with a brand until they become a paid customer and beyond. Funnel marketing is modeled after the marketing funnel, a concept that tells the company how it should market to consumers based on their position in the funnel itself. The notion of a customer embarking on a journey when interacting with a brand was first proposed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. Funnel marketing typically considers three stages of a non-linear marketing funnel. These are top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Particular marketing strategies at each stage are adapted to the level of familiarity the consumer has with a brand.

Go-To-Market Strategy

go-to-market-strategy
A go-to-market strategy represents how companies market their new products to reach target customers in a scalable and repeatable way. It starts with how new products/services get developed to how these organizations target potential customers (via sales and marketing models) to enable their value proposition to be delivered to create a competitive advantage.

Greenwashing

greenwashing
The term “greenwashing” was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 at a time when most consumers received their news from television, radio, and print media. Some companies took advantage of limited public access to information by portraying themselves as environmental stewards – even when their actions proved otherwise. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice where a company makes unsubstantiated claims about an environmentally-friendly product or service.

Grassroots Marketing

grassroots-marketing
Grassroots marketing involves a brand creating highly targeted content for a particular niche or audience. When an organization engages in grassroots marketing, it focuses on a small group of people with the hope that its marketing message is shared with a progressively larger audience.

Growth Marketing

growth-marketing
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.

Guerrilla Marketing

guerrilla-marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.

Hunger Marketing

hunger-marketing
Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy focused on manipulating consumer emotions. By bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase.

Integrated Communication

integrated-marketing-communication
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by businesses to coordinate and brand their communication strategies. Integrated marketing communication takes separate marketing functions and combines them into one, interconnected approach with a core brand message that is consistent across various channels. These encompass owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated marketing communication has been used to great effect by companies such as Snapchat, Snickers, and Domino’s.

Inbound Marketing

inbound-marketing
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.

Integrated Marketing

integrated-marketing
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.

Marketing Mix

marketing-mix
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.

Marketing Myopia

marketing-myopia
Marketing myopia is the nearsighted focus on selling goods and services at the expense of consumer needs. Marketing myopia was coined by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt in 1960. Originally, Levitt described the concept in the context of organizations in high-growth industries that become complacent in their belief that such industries never fail.

Marketing Personas

marketing-personas
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.

Meme Marketing

meme-marketing
Meme marketing is any marketing strategy that uses memes to promote a brand. The term “meme” itself was popularized by author Richard Dawkins over 50 years later in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the book, Dawkins described how ideas evolved and were shared across different cultures. The internet has enabled this exchange to occur at an exponential rate, with the first modern memes emerging in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Microtargeting

microtargeting
Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes consumer demographic data to identify the interests of a very specific group of individuals. Like most marketing strategies, the goal of microtargeting is to positively influence consumer behavior.

Multi-Channel Marketing

multichannel-marketing
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.

Multi-Level Marketing

multilevel-marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.

Net Promoter Score

net-promoter-score
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.

Neuromarketing

neuromarketing
Neuromarketing information is collected by measuring brain activity related to specific brain functions using sophisticated and expensive technology such as MRI machines. Some businesses also choose to make inferences of neurological responses by analyzing biometric and heart-rate data. Neuromarketing is the domain of large companies with similarly large budgets or subsidies. These include Frito-Lay, Google, and The Weather Channel.

Newsjacking

newsjacking
Newsjacking as a marketing strategy was popularised by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Newsjacking describes the practice of aligning a brand with a current event to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.

Niche Marketing

microniche
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.

Push vs. Pull Marketing

push-vs-pull-marketing
We can define pull and push marketing from the perspective of the target audience or customers. In push marketing, as the name suggests, you’re promoting a product so that consumers can see it. In a pull strategy, consumers might look for your product or service drawn by its brand.

Real-Time Marketing

real-time-marketing
Real-time marketing is as exactly as it sounds. It involves in-the-moment marketing to customers across any channel based on how that customer is interacting with the brand.

Relationship Marketing

relationship-marketing
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.

Reverse Marketing

reverse-marketing
Reverse marketing describes any marketing strategy that encourages consumers to seek out a product or company on their own. This approach differs from a traditional marketing strategy where marketers seek out the consumer.

Remarketing

remarketing
Remarketing involves the creation of personalized and targeted ads for consumers who have already visited a company’s website. The process works in this way: as users visit a brand’s website, they are tagged with cookies that follow the users, and as they land on advertising platforms where retargeting is an option (like social media platforms) they get served ads based on their navigation.

Sensory Marketing

sensory-marketing
Sensory marketing describes any marketing campaign designed to appeal to the five human senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are enabling marketers to design fun, interactive, and immersive sensory marketing brand experiences. Long term, businesses must develop sensory marketing campaigns that are relevant and effective in eCommerce.

Services Marketing

services-marketing
Services marketing originated as a separate field of study during the 1980s. Researchers realized that the unique characteristics of services required different marketing strategies to those used in the promotion of physical goods. Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that promotes the intangible benefits delivered by a company to create customer value.

Sustainable Marketing

sustainable-marketing-green-marketing
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

word-of-mouth-marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy skewed toward offering a great experience to existing customers and incentivizing them to share it with other potential customers. That is one of the most effective forms of marketing as it enables a company to gain traction based on existing customers’ referrals. When repeat customers become a key enabler for the brand this is one of the best organic and sustainable growth marketing strategies.

360 Marketing

360-marketing
360 marketing is a marketing campaign that utilizes all available mediums, channels, and consumer touchpoints. 360 marketing requires the business to maintain a consistent presence across multiple online and offline channels. This ensures it does not miss potentially lucrative customer segments. By its very nature, 360 marketing describes any number of different marketing strategies. However, a broad and holistic marketing strategy should incorporate a website, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, public relations, in-store relations, and traditional forms of advertising such as television.

Read more:

Read also:

More Resources

Scroll to Top

Discover more from FourWeekMBA

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

FourWeekMBA