How to Measure Marketing Effectiveness

What does it mean when someone says your marketing is working? Deciding on how to measure the effectiveness of any marketing campaign is based on measuring how well your marketing supports your business goals. Whether it means clicks, leads, or increasing your brand visibility, here are three indicators that could help you decide how to measure marketing effectiveness.

Improvements in SEO Ranking

When you launch a new site, choosing what keywords to target can be a daunting process. Some industries, products or services have different levels of local and national competition, and require a significant amount of research and competitive analysis to see what opportunities might exist. Always be weary of an inbound marketer who promises to “get you on the first page of Google,” for that undertaking can require months of marketing effort to even start ranking at all. In fact, we’ve even seen that some SEO’s might try to flat out scare you with false claims about your website in order to gain your business.

Seeing your site start ranking for keywords, then raising its position over time is a very clear and measurable way to see how your marketing efforts are paying off. Using tools such as Google Search Console (formally known as Webmaster Tools) can show the trends over time and also which specific queries your site ranks for. If your marketing is working, your rankings will improve over time.

Leads, not just likes

The number of “likes” on a Facebook page seems like the Holy Grail for success when it comes to social media marketing, however that is not really the case unless those likes are making a return for you. Valuing true engagement that results in a lead, completed form or phone call is a better indicator of success rather than acquiring likes on a picture shared.

It’s worth noting too however, that social media marketing can have a great effect on your company’s marketing as well. Being active on social media can improve your online presence by building your brand, increasing awareness and developing trust between your business and your audience. At the end of the day, how much you make in sales as a result of new marketing efforts will be measurable in the analytics data.

Continual Growth in Organic Web Traffic

It’s common for sites to experience a cycle of traffic peaks and dips over the course of a year for seasonal or other reasons. It can depend on the nature of the business. But one key indicator of effective marketing is a continual growth in organic traffic. Organic traffic is registered on your site every time a user inputs a search term, and is led to your site. Remember to filter out unnecessary information (for instance, searches from other countries that would never be a conversion) and look at the data over time to see if improvements are being made, and where. When a site is continually updated with fresh, relevant content, organic growth occurs. Overall, this is always a great indicator to measure marketing effectiveness, and to see if this channel needs more time dedicated to it.

There are other ways of defining and measuring marketing success, but one that is often overlooked is how well an agency manages your brand and how that is experienced by the end user. Customer surveys, comments and reviews are other instances where you can clearly see where your business or brand is working, and where it’s not. Some of the world’s finest content marketers build their brands up as resources for their customers, build communities, and make a true, measurable impact.

For more information about how to measure your marketing strategy, contact Absolute Marketing Solutions today!