Key per­for­mance in­di­ca­tors (KPIs) in online marketing

Online marketing metrics are collected and gathered through web analysis, web con­trol­ling, and tracking. This results in a vast amount of data, but not all of it is relevant for every web project.

How to choose the right KPI for personal goals

Before diving into specific online marketing KPIs, it’s important to define clear goals. KPIs are simply tools for tracking how well those goals are being met. The term Key Per­for­mance Indicator (KPI) refers to a per­for­mance metric — a mea­sur­able value that indicates the progress and success of your ac­tiv­i­ties.

Every marketing team must define its own ob­jec­tives in con­sul­ta­tion with other de­part­ments like sales or customer service to use the KPIs ef­fec­tive­ly. The goals can be divided into four main areas:

• Branding/brand building: Those who want to make their company known and build or strength­en a brand typically monitor website and social media channel visitor numbers, pay attention to positive mentions on social networks, and primarily aim to generate organic traffic for brand terms.
• Leads: A lead is a qualified prospect, and it is par­tic­u­lar­ly valuable for con­sul­ta­tion-intensive products with a longer decision process. Contacts, sign-ups, downloads—any lead gen­er­a­tion ac­tiv­i­ties where potential customers show interest and leave contact in­for­ma­tion are relevant.
• Sales: The classic goal in e-commerce is to increase sales. In addition to the number of orders, it is important to know where the paying customers come from.
• En­gage­ment: For what is known as user en­gage­ment—all actions and in­ter­ac­tions a user performs in con­nec­tion with a company—numerous KPIs are relevant. Social media metrics, in par­tic­u­lar, provide insights into the social context of a company and what the target audience looks like.

An overview of KPIs (Key Per­for­mance In­di­ca­tors)

Once your goals or sub-goals are set, the next step is to choose from the key per­for­mance in­di­ca­tors described below the ones that best match your ob­jec­tives. Broadly speaking, KPIs fall into primary metrics and secondary metrics. A separate category is made up of social media metrics. Each marketing dis­ci­pline also has its own spe­cial­ized KPIs — for example, in e-commerce, search engine op­ti­miza­tion, or newslet­ter marketing.

Primary metrics in online marketing

Primary KPIs in online marketing are directly tied to your goals and are mainly trans­ac­tion-focused. They reveal how prof­itable specific actions are and serve as the most critical metrics for financial reporting. These in­di­ca­tors are essential to measuring the success of any online marketing campaign.

• Number of con­ver­sions: Depending on the business model and goals, con­ver­sions can include sales, email contacts, downloads, or sign-ups.
• Con­ver­sion rate: The con­ver­sion rate describes the ratio of clicks or visits to the counted con­ver­sions. It indicates how many visitors completed the desired action.
• CPA: This key indicator quan­ti­fies the cost per specific goal or action. Often referred to as cost per order (CPO) or cost per lead (CPL).
• ROI: The ROI (Return on In­vest­ment) describes the ratio of profit to invested capital and is thus the most important economic key per­for­mance indicator for marketers. It shows whether marketing efforts are prof­itable.
• ROAS: The ROAS (Return on Ad­ver­tis­ing Spending) describes the ratio of marketing budget spent to revenue generated. It reveals the ef­fi­cien­cy of a campaign.

Secondary key in­di­ca­tors in online marketing

Secondary key in­di­ca­tors have an indirect relation to the goals mentioned above. They are primarily in­for­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion-based and provide insight into the path a potential customer takes during the in­for­ma­tion and pur­chas­ing process. This can easily identify obstacles and weak­ness­es in usability.

• Visitors: Among the simplest and most fun­da­men­tal online marketing key in­di­ca­tors in web analytics is the number of visitors. The impact of im­ple­ment­ed ad­ver­tis­ing measures is reflected not only in revenue but also in traffic, which can be tracked through the visitors.
• Unique visits: Unique visits indicate the net number of in­di­vid­ual visitors to a website. In web analytics, the IP addresses of users are tracked, and each unique IP is counted only once within a defined time period. For instance, if the same device accesses a page five times in that period, it is still recorded as a single unique visit.
• Returning visitors: Not only the absolute number of visitors but es­pe­cial­ly the number of returning visitors reflects the appeal of a site. A high rate of returning visitors indicates loyal, dedicated users or readers and in­di­rect­ly signifies good, relevant content. However, caution is advised: if the number is too high in relation to the absolute visitors, efforts should be made to reach more potential new customers.
• Page im­pres­sions: To determine how active a site’s visitors are, you should look at page im­pres­sions. They reflect the page views per visitor. A high number of page im­pres­sions indicates strong visitor en­gage­ment. Con­verse­ly, a low value for this KPI suggests that more in-depth in­for­ma­tion should be included or the internal link structure should be improved.
• Bounce rate: The bounce rate describes the ratio between visitors who stay on a website and click on further subpages and those who leave im­me­di­ate­ly. A high bounce rate indicates that many users may not find what they expect or that the site’s usability/appeal could be improved.
• Time on page: Time on page measures the average amount of time visitors spend on a page. It indicates both user en­gage­ment and the quality of the content. This metric is es­pe­cial­ly valuable for content per­for­mance checks — for example, if users exit a long-form guide within seconds, it’s a clear sign the page may need immediate op­ti­miza­tion.
• CTR: The Click-Through Rate (CTR) is typically measured for in­di­vid­ual ads, such as AdWords or newslet­ter campaigns. It provides insight into the at­trac­tive­ness of an ad or a message by showing how often it was clicked.

Social media metrics

In social media, es­pe­cial­ly in social media mon­i­tor­ing, es­tab­lished metrics are used by marketers to keep an eye on the company’s social media per­for­mance. Online marketing KPIs are largely in­ter­ac­tion-based. In areas such as reach mea­sure­ment, sentiment analysis, en­gage­ment, and social influence, there is a wide range of metrics to consider. Below is an overview of the most important ones:

• Social media awareness: The so-called social media awareness (also known as social buzz) is mea­sur­able through common social media tools. These tools enable mon­i­tor­ing of your brand in the social network. All mentions of companies, brands, or products are captured and displayed as an online marketing KPI. The share of buzz also reveals how the number of mentions compares to com­peti­tors.
• Feed and newslet­ter sub­scrip­tions: For email marketing, there are specific tools and key in­di­ca­tors relevant to campaign success. However, because new newslet­ter sub­scribers are often generated through other marketing efforts, primarily via the website, the number of sub­scribers is also an important key per­for­mance indicator for onsite measures. Email and RSS feed sub­scribers are in­di­ca­tors of customer loyalty and an important re­tar­get­ing tool.
• Social media contacts: The number of contacts is purely a quan­ti­ta­tive figure and provides insight into the potential and reach of social media campaigns. However, it offers little in terms of qual­i­ta­tive analysis. Thousands of “likes” are worthless if users don’t interact with the page. En­gage­ment is what makes social media contacts into success-relevant numbers.
• Number of reposts/replies/posts/comments/likes: The number of reactions—such as reposts, replies, posts, comments, or likes, depending on the channel—measures the afore­men­tioned user en­gage­ment, providing a qual­i­ta­tive key indicator in the context of social media. With the right tools, one can measure not only activity but also perceive sentiment and discover the context in which one is mentioned.
• Reach/views: Reach or the number of views initially only shows how many people have po­ten­tial­ly seen a post, making it purely a quan­ti­ta­tive key per­for­mance indicator. It provides an im­pres­sion of a campaign’s vis­i­bil­i­ty but says little about its actual impact. Without further in­ter­ac­tion, reach remains su­per­fi­cial. Only when views turn into clicks, comments, or shared content does reach realize its true value for success.

Analysis and eval­u­a­tion of key per­for­mance in­di­ca­tors in online marketing

To analyze and evaluate KPIs in online marketing, one must track them over a suf­fi­cient­ly long period. This is the only way to mean­ing­ful­ly un­der­stand changes, trends, and outliers and identify them un­mis­tak­ably. Seasonal fluc­tu­a­tions and weekly rhythm dif­fer­ences can thus be over­looked. Of course, it’s always dependent on the business model which figures are relevant—KPIs only make sense in an industry-specific context.

An example from the e-commerce sector: An online store selling small items uses a com­plete­ly different eval­u­a­tion basis in terms of CTR or con­ver­sions compared to a store offering very expensive, con­sul­ta­tion-intensive products. In the B2B sector, different pa­ra­me­ters are ap­plic­a­ble since fewer con­ver­sions are needed for a good ROI. What becomes clear is that anyone working with KPIs must keep their in­di­vid­ual goals and the industry context in mind. Learn more in our guide on website op­ti­miza­tion.