KPI is one of the “fashionable” words in the business world. But this fashion is not unfounded at all. On the contrary! If you want to grow and make sure the actions you are taking are going in the right direction, you need to have tools to assess the state of affairs. This is what – in the broadest sense – KPIs are.

KPI – what is it?

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. They can be defined as data that allows you to precisely determine whether the actions taken are getting closer to achieving a specific goal.

This definition is general for a reason. There is no single set of KPIs that can be used in all situations. After all, other factors are important in direct sales, and different in the implementation of a campaign on Facebook or using sponsored links.

However, there are several elements that all KPIs have in common.
A. KPIs must be measurable. Therefore, quantitative indicators are used. Thanks to this, it is possible to create their summaries and observe trends – so that it is easier to make decisions.
B. They must relate to the previously set specific goals of the activity. So that they indicate whether the chosen course of action is correct.
C. They must be clear, transparent and objective – so that a specific value can be given at any time.
D. They cannot conflict with each other – and this means that the key campaign effectiveness indicators for you cannot be at the same time, for example, low budget for all promotional activities and high ranges thanks to paid promotion.

KPIs can be used in various aspects of the company’s operations. They are used, for example, in the production process, especially in systems based on lean management or in the area of HRM. However, KPIs are most often referred to in the context of marketing and sales.

Why are KPIs needed?

Effectiveness indicators are needed not only to measure the effectiveness of the actions taken. KPIs set above all the “gold standard” that should be pursued. So there are:

– a clear indication for the team carrying out a given task, what results are expected from it,
– an element of feedback that will allow you to efficiently introduce modifications to activities, if necessary,
– a way to clearly define the costs of campaigns and customer acquisition (and thus – profitability of marketing activities),
– a method of expressly detecting possible errors or shortcomings that weaken the results of marketers’ work,
– a tool that allows you to forecast further progress and results, and as a result prepare a promotion strategy for many months ahead.

In addition, without KPIs, it would be difficult for you to assess the effectiveness of the work of specialists you entrusted with, for example, the implementation of SEO or SEM campaigns. Without hard data, you can’t pinpoint what worked and what didn’t.

How to choose the right KPIs?

The list of indicators that could be taken into account when assessing the effectiveness of marketing activities is very long.

Imagine that you have to evaluate the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, and not 5 or 10 in front of you, but 40 spreadsheets, tables or charts. Yes, it would give you the power of information, but it would be extremely time-consuming to analyze and the results would in many cases come down to the same conclusions.

Therefore, specific KPIs should be selected – those that are most relevant to the specifics of the campaign. But the question is: how? Here are a few rules to follow.

Do not choose more than a dozen KPIs
20 is the absolute maximum that you can use if you implement the campaign on a very large scale. In the case of these more intimate 4-10 indicators, it is enough to get in-depth data on the one hand, and on the other – avoid overloading with them.

Before selecting KPIs, be clear about the goals of your actions
This is a key determinant of which data you will need. For example, when implementing a social media campaign aimed at acquiring leads, the key KPIs will be related to how many people left the leads and what percentage of all visitors to the profile were. However, this data will be less important if the main goal of the activities was to “start” the fan page or persuade customers to buy a specific product.

Choose multistage indicators
At the beginning of work with KPIs – especially when there is no access to historical data – it may be difficult for you to determine which indicators will be the most valuable for measuring the effects of activities and planning subsequent ones. Therefore, you can start with a slightly wider range of KPIs and narrow it down over time to those that actually convey the necessary information. Test, check, observe and analyze – so as to possibly modify the set of indicators that determine your effectiveness.

Choose indicators that show both efficiency and lack of it
Remember that the purpose of introducing them is to monitor the progress of activities and whether the money invested in marketing pays off. Therefore, it is worth choosing KPIs so that they show both positive and negative effects.

Don’t trust standardized solutions
This is important especially if you cooperate with an external digital agency that carries out a campaign for you. Make sure that the set of KPIs will be personalized and adapted to the specificity of the tasks that the experts will face.

Keeping in mind these few elements, you can be sure that the data obtained thanks to KPI will allow you to make the right decisions – with the current situation and the future in mind.

What KPIs are key in marketing?

Now that you know the general principles of selecting indicators and you do not have to ask what a KPI is, it is time to move on to details related to the area of marketing, and more specifically – internet marketing. This is the zone that interests us the most. This is because it is specific. On the Web:

– it is very easy to collect quantitative data on the course of any promotional campaigns,
– a number of factors are important, including with building interest, commitment or triggering interaction,
– data is provided on an ongoing basis, thanks to which it is possible to efficiently correct the actions taken.

So it’s time to take a look at these KPIs that are crucial in e-marketing. Here, however, a small star should be put: different KPIs will be important for the website, different for social media campaigns, and still different for the implementation of the Google Ads campaign. That is why we have divided their description into several sections.

KPIs for websites

Do you want to check what response your website evokes and whether it is an effective marketing and sales tool? This is particularly important in the case of e-stores, but also company websites, which are one of the basic sources of information about each brand.

In the case of websites and e-commerce, the key will be:
– KPIs related to website traffic.

It is about elements such as:
– the number of unique users visiting the website – given on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis,
– the number of page views – information on how many times the recipients visited the website,
– average visit time – the longer, the greater the involvement in the information contained on the website indicates
– the so-called Bounce Rate – the percentage of visitors who stopped browsing the website in the first seconds after going to the website. The higher the Bounce Rate, the clearer the message that the website can be, for example, positioned for wrong key phrases or that the website layout needs to be changed,
– traffic sources – it is assessed whether they are organic (and therefore come from regular searches) or paid for. Analytical tools also record from which websites the user was redirected to the website, which allows, for example, to decide on promotion channels,
– indicators related to user behavior and engagement.

In this context, the following works:
– duration of a single session on the website,
– number of visited subpages (and what subpages they were),
– the number of interactions per visit – e.g. clicks for more information, go to additional subpages, leaving a lead, etc.

In e-commerce websites and those focused on acquiring leads, the conversion rate is also important, indicating how many people took the action expected by the creators of the website, i.e. left an email or made a purchase.

The indicators listed above are easy to determine. But it doesn’t stop there. Marketers also pay attention to the proportions between certain values. Their attention in the context of the assessment of the effectiveness of the project may be attracted by the relationship between:
– the number of visits and the number of interactions / conversions,
– the number of leads and the number of customers,
– visits from organic sources compared to those that are paid.

KPIs for online advertising campaigns

Other KPIs will be important when you decide to pay for promotion on the Internet, e.g. using the Google Ads system. In this case, the most important things will be:
– number of ad views – indicates how many times the message (e.g. banner or sponsored link) has been successfully displayed to the recipient, important when assessing the daily, but also weekly or monthly results of the campaign,
– CTR (click-through rate) – the number of clicks on the ad, and thus the interactions with it. The higher it is, the more effective the CTA message is to convey promotional content,
– conversion rate – crucial especially if the ad leads on a landing page designed to generate sales leads. The higher the conversion rate, the more engaging your campaign is,
– conversion cost of one person – this is a proportional calculation of how much it cost you to acquire one sales lead. The lower the better
– “Quality Score”, i.e. an indicator of content quality and trust in it – is related to the quality of content, e.g. on your landing page or website. The more substantive content, the more you will gain from organic promotion on the Web.

KPI for social media campaigns

Communication on Facebook or other social media also requires specific KPIs. In this case, the following are, for example:
– the ratio of the amount of published content to conversion – marketers observe how the number of posted posts and other materials translates into audience engagement in order to correct the current campaign and plan the next campaign without errors,
– number of interactions – understood, for example, as “liking” a post, sharing it or writing a comment. The higher the interaction rate, the higher the effectiveness of the campaign,
– organic and paid ranges – the former result mainly from a large number of interactions with the post and its frequent sharing. The better the organic results, the more positive this message is for a promoting company,
– the number of customers involved in contact with the brand – i.e. those who, for example, liked the fan page or turned on notifications regarding its content.

KPI for mailing

Still other KPIs will be important when running an email campaign. This is an underestimated, but very effective way of promoting online at a low cost. Although conversion rates are relatively low here, as long as the message reaches a well-targeted client and is skillfully prepared, it can bring specific results.

In the case of mailing, effectiveness is measured using parameters such as:
– Open Rate – the number of recipients who opened the sent message at all. If it is small, it is a clear sign that you need to change, for example, the wording of the message titles or make it more attractive in some way;
– CTR – in this context, the number of people who clicked on the link contained in the e-mail is important,
– Subscription Rate – an indicator informing about the number of new users subscribing to the newsletter;
– Unsubscription Rate – this is the opposite indicator, showing how many people have unsubscribed from the mailing;
– the number of “returns” – e-mails that did not reach the addressee at all. Their large number indicates the weakness of the database, and hence the need for more effective acquisition of real leads,
– increase in the list of subscribers to the newsletter – if it is dynamic, it means that the actions taken in the context of obtaining leads are carried out correctly.

These are, of course, just examples of KPIs that matter. It should be remembered that other indicators will be important for campaigns carried out with the use of different tools. For example, in mobile campaigns, the number of users of the application created, traffic on the company’s mobile website or the frequency of visits via a smartphone will be important.

You have set a KPI and what next?

Setting key KPIs is only the first step towards effective verification of the effectiveness of your marketing activities. In the next section, it is necessary to indicate the tools that will be used to collect and analyze this information. You will receive many of them from the system you use – the data is provided by, for example, Google Analytics or the Facebok advertising system. Specialized software is required to receive in-depth information.

It should also be remembered that the data obtained from KPIs must be processed, developed and analyzed – so that it is possible to take specific actions on their basis. It is best to entrust this task to specialists.

Marketing indicators – what for?

Why measure at all? The answer seems obvious. Thanks to the analysis of key performance indicators (KPI), among others:
– you get measurable results of your marketing activities,
– you see which of the published content worked better and which worse
– you can accurately calculate the translation of the costs of marketing activities into profits from finalized transactions,
– it’s easier for you to plan your next promotional campaigns – so as to better tailor them to market requirements.

The problem, however, is that with the development of tracking and analytical tools, the number of indicators has also increased significantly. Of course, each of them matters. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to break through the thicket of numbers and percentages. So it’s worth knowing which indicators – available e.g. in Google Analytics, on the FB fanpage’s administrative page or in CRMs – have a really great impact on the assessment of the effects of marketing activities. So we discuss the most important ones.

Different marketing indicators for each type of message

Remember that when it comes to indicators that are important from the marketer’s point of view, there is no single, universal combination of the key ones. There are no indicators that will be relevant in every situation. All because the interactions with the recipient of each type of content released to the web are slightly different. For example, on the landing page you will observe data related to the acquisition of leads, but already in organic activities in social media – rather those related to the involvement of users under your posts. So choose the meters for each type of marketing message that you release into the world. The indicators depend on the purpose of the campaign.

What to measure by analyzing the effectiveness of the website?

When looking at website traffic, it’s worth paying attention to:

– traffic on the site – the number of page views, the number of unique website users and the percentage of those returning to the website are important,
– average time spent on the website and Bounce Ratio – this will show you whether the prepared content engages users so much that they want to get to know the information closer, or reject them immediately,
– traffic sources – so how did the users get to your site: by entering its address in the browser, via the search engine, or maybe from social media or thanks to other external links? This will help you spread out your accents well when it comes to promoting your site on individual channels,
– conversion rate – how many visitors to your site took the action that you expected. For example, on a landing page it is leaving a lead;
– the proportion of leads to conversions – so how many of the people who initially expressed interest in your offer went through the entire marketing funnel,
– cost of acquiring a lead / client – i.e. the proportion between the amount of expenditure on the promotional campaign and the results obtained.

It is also worth making a “heat map”, so check which areas of the website were of particular interest to readers – so as to make any corrections to the layout and increase the range and conversion rate.

Analysis of marketing indicators in social media

Slightly different indicators count in social media. It is also an important marketing communication channel that strengthens the brand image and acquires sales leads. But what indicates that your actions on the fanpage bring results? The indicators that should pay your special attention are:

– number of views (reach) – of course, organic reach is the key, i.e. the one achieved without reaching for a paid promotion,
– the number of clicks on the post – will show how much information you presented on FB or Instagram was of interest to the recipient. Each click is evidence of initial interest in communication and that the post attracted attention but was not scrolled,
– leads obtained through posts in social media – i.e., e.g. contact details left on the landing page to which they directed messages on FB or from lead ads,
– engagement rates – it’s about the number of: likes / reactions, comments and interactions – the more, the higher the effectiveness of your actions,
– user generated content – i.e. posts / materials related to your fan page by users, e.g. those in which your profile has been tagged. This type of traffic can be obtained, for example, by working with influencers, or by organizing competitions in which the task is to perform just such an action.

If you reach for paid promotion tools – conversion rates are also important, i.e. the cost of a single post view, click and conversion.

What about sales-related indicators? When analyzing activities in social media, it is usually difficult to obtain unambiguous and error-free data. However, the cost of activities carried out here should be included when calculating ROI, and thus the overall return on investment in promotion compared to the outlays made.

How to find yourself in the ocean of data?

As you can see, there are still quite a few marketing indicators that matter, and the ones above are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, CSR actions (related to corporate social responsibility) may have completely different performance evaluation indicators, and nevertheless enter into marketing areas (e.g. from the purchase of each product X we allocate the amount of Y to the organization Z).

If you have the impression that it is difficult for you to be among the indicators, you can always go to specialists. They will look at all the data and indicators that have been generated, analyze their relevance and draw conclusions. As a result of their work, you will receive a transparent report that will show you clearly how your marketing activities translated into achieving your goals. It will also be a source of tips for the future – you will learn from it how to improve your work so that its results are even better. Marketing indicators – and more precisely their design in the context of a given action and goal – is one of the most important challenges for a marketer. However, the correct architecture will also make them an unparalleled ally in operations and reporting.

Affiliate Programs – What is it?

Affiliate programs are nothing more than affiliate marketing. It is an efficiency channel based on the relationship: seller (advertiser) – partner (publisher / affiliate). The specificity of this channel means that it is not a direct marketing technique. Closer to the model of employing independent marketers, who – motivated by a commission system – take the most effective actions to attract the largest number of customers performing the desired actions.

Participants of partner programs

Before you implement affiliate marketing, you should know the essence of its functioning. In this case, four “links” play an important role.

Seller (advertiser)
The salesperson is the main element in affiliate marketing – it is he who “launches” the affiliate program, wanting to promote his products and acquire customers in order to achieve his business goals.

Partner (publisher)
The partner has an advertising space that can be used to promote specific products / services. Any publisher or social media users who, as part of the affiliate program, intend to present the seller’s offer can become a publisher.

User
The user is simply a potential customer who clicks on a special affiliate link. As a result, he is redirected to the advertiser’s website and makes a purchase or performs any other desired action there.

Affiliate Network
An affiliate network is a platform that provides technology that allows collaboration between the seller and the partner. Its role is also to control the correctness of cooperation and optimization of activities carried out by advertisers and publishers.

Affiliate programs – types

All affiliate programs operate on similar principles. However, their types may be different, taking into account, for example, how advertisers are billed with publishers and the affiliate network. So let’s explore the available options to choose the most favorable and best suited to your needs

Pay per sale
Pay per sale (PPS) is a method of accounting for participants of affiliate programs, which consists in granting a specific amount on sales. It can also be a percentage of the amount of the final purchase made by the user. Accounting in the PPS model is the most popular in partner programs. Due to the fact that they are characterized by a relatively low conversion, the paid commissions are quite high – often up to 50% (in the case of services, software).

Pay per lead
Pay per lead (PPL) means the specific amount paid for each specific action taken by the user. In this case, it does not have to be only a customer’s purchase. Acquiring leads may include, among others to sign up for the mailing list, fill out the contact form. This type of affiliate program allows advertisers to measure the performance of specific ads. By calculating the average income in relation to the leads obtained, it can estimate the amount of profits made.

Pay per click
Pay per click (PPC) is a method of accounting for affiliate programs, the essence of which is to pay a specific amount for each click on an ad – similar to Google Ads. The number of products sold does not matter. Of the available types of affiliate programs, settlement in the PPC model enjoys the least popularity.

Affiliate programs are mutual benefits?

Affiliate programs are gaining popularity year by year. According to the latest Paraphrase-Online.com report, total investment in affiliate marketing in Europe has exceeded EUR 12 trillion. Although it is primarily popular among top advertisers, it really benefits every seller. This is due to the simple fact – affiliate programs are a model based on high performance and profitability. The biggest advantage of affiliate marketing are mutual benefits – especially when settling in the PPS model.

The advertiser is sure that the partner will take the most effective actions translating into increased sales of products. The publisher is highly motivated because his dedication depends on how much he can earn. It can also use any marketing methods that are most effective in acquiring customers.

Low cost to the advertiser
Participation in the affiliate program requires advertisers to bear the costs. However, they are relatively low, taking into account the payment of commission only when, for example, there is a sale.

Attractive earnings for the publisher
In the case of affiliate programs settled on the basis of PPL or PPS, the publisher has a chance to earn well. Much, however, depends on his activities. The more thought-out the campaigns, the greater the chance for profit.

Affiliate marketing – where to start?

Are you a salesman and want to run affiliate marketing? You need to start by creating an affiliate program and then invite publishers, e.g. through an affiliate network. Are you the owner of an advertising space and want to start earning? Join selected partner programs to receive sales and lead generation commissions through properly conducted marketing activities.