Metrics

“Metrics” in digital marketing commonly refers to the performance indicators that marketers use to measure the success of their marketing campaigns. There are many key metrics that digital marketers use to analyze their efforts. Some of them are web traffic sources, cost per lead, brand awareness, online conversion rates, page views, and unique visitors, among other metrics (Kipfolio, n.d). It will make no sense if a website owner keeps marketing it without checking where the campaign is making an impact to their business. For this reason, identifying suitable metrics is vital. The primary reason metrics are used is to see the big picture and evaluate whether the strategies used are working. It is a marketing department’s function to identify the types of metrics to track an organization’s success.

A perfect example of a metric is the returning visitor metric. Using this metric, the marketer can know how many times web browsers return to a website and what they do the second time they return. It helps a marketer know how good they are in retaining audiences. It also gives an insight into the value of the content because depending on how an audience finds the content, they will either come back or go away. Another example is the first visit metric. It allows marketers to understand which sources are driving more audiences to their websites. For instance, if a marketer has posted the link to their website on Facebook, Instagram, or someone else’s website, it will be easier to know which of the three platforms directed more first time visitors to the website.

Part B

Total Visits: A bigger picture of how well a marketing campaign is doing will be given by the total number of visits to a website.  This metric is found on Google Analytics, and it shows how well a campaign has successfully attracted many audiences. The metric also measures the number of audiences that return to a website. Hence, a marketer can know if the website content is appealing to audiences or not. Through this, they will know that they need to improve on the content.

Bounce Rate: This metric gives insight into the number of visitors that visit a website and go. It shows the number of visitors that leave the website without exploring any further links. For instance, there are other links provided on the first page of a school website that direct visitors to other services or details that the school offers. The first page often indicates everything about an organization on the surface. The bounce rate metric enables one to know how many visitors explored further links (Kipfolio, n.d).

Unique Visitors: this metric accounts for both new and returning audiences but do not duplicate them. The audiences are only counted once. For instance, a visitor is only tracked at the first time of visit, and if they return, they are not counted because they are not unique. This metric enables a marketer to know whether the audiences are increasing, decreasing, or staying stagnant. If, for example, they are dropping, then the website owner tries to identify why they are leaving. For instance, it could be that the content is not promising enough, or there is a problem with a website.

Page views: the metric shows the cumulative number of pages visitors view or click for a particular time. This is crucial in understanding traffic and the nature of audiences (Osman, 2018). If a page has a good number of page views, then that page is driving high traffic. Also, pages that have many views show that their content is appealing. Furthermore, a marketer can know audiences’ nature by checking what pages they view according to content. For instance, a fashion page can have more viewers, which means the audiences love fashions or are models.

Inbound links: it indicates how many external links from other websites have been directed to your website. If there are many external links, then the website is driving more traffic and hence more audience. In the end, it shows the marketing campaign has been successful. Also, many external links show that people like the content, and they find it useful, hence linking visitors to your website.

Search Engine: this metric shows the amount of traffic originating from search engines such as Google and Microsoft Bing. The metric gives an insight into how well the campaign techniques are making it successful. For instance, if the content optimization for search is effective or not.

Part C

I will talk about the booking.com site (www.booking.com ). It is a site that primarily focuses on helping travelers book their flights, taxis, and hotels. The customer segment who visits the site is mainly local and international tourists, bloggers who blog about travel, and any other person wishing to book a flight. When the audiences visit the site, the first thing they see is an insight into the company’s services in line with photographs of various destinations. The audience then proceeds to the service they want, maybe a flight to Dubai in which there is a search button. They choose the type of airline they want to use, date, time, and fill in all the details required when booking a flight. After completing all the requirements, they receive a confirmation email of successful booking, and later another email with a confirmed receipt of their booking.

Metrics to Measure Customer Satisfaction

Bounce rate: it indicates how many visitors go back to a website. If a visitor returns to the website, it is likely that the content there is satisfying them. In this case, if a traveler uses the booking.com website for a second time, then their experience is satisfactory.

Pages per session: it explains how many pages the visitor turned on in one session. After seeing the first page, what did they do next? For booking.com, it is an indicator of which pages are satisfactory and which ones are not.

Average Session Duration: if a customer spends much time, it means their intentions are being met; if they spend less time, their needs are not being met (Buckland, 2020). For booking.com, if customers find satisfaction, they will take more than three minutes because booking cannot be made with less than 2 minutes.

Conversion Rate: it involves setting a goal to track visitors who complete that goal. It could be a form download, a button click, or a sign-up. If users download a form or sign up, it is reflected in Google analytics. This will give an insight into whether users are being satisfied or not. If a user fills a form or fulfills any goal, the content is likely to be satisfying.

References

Buckland, P. (2020, September 7). Goal conversions – What? Why? How? | The typeface group. Retrieved from https://www.thetypefacegroup.co.uk/goal-conversions/

Kipfolio. (n.d.). Resources. Retrieved from https://www.klipfolio.com/resources

Osman, M. (2016, November 18). Metrics for measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Retrieved from https://www.mabbly.com/ideas/metrics-measuring-effectiveness-marketing-campaigns/