We often get approached by prospects who aren't quite sure if the agency they're working with is doing a poor job or just doing a poor job communicating on what they're working on. 

Our answer to this question is always: set goals with your agency and then track progress to those goals. Once you have those goals and measurements in place, you will KNOW if they're doing their part to help you reach those goals. 

What metrics should you measure to determine marketing success?

So glad you asked! Here's a quick pick list of the most common KPIs clients are striving towards. Determine what's most important for your company and start there. 

Organic Traffic Growth (MoM & YoY)

This one might be a bit misleading if your rankings and traffic dropped after the new site launch or if you're launching a new site for the first time because it's all going to look amazing as you re-gain that traffic. If you're working on a site launch, I'd press to ensure that you're benchmarking and measuring pre-launch to post-launch to ensure you're getting back to where you were.

Organic Traffic Growth (as a % of all traffic)

I'd suggest that a healthy traffic spread should be about 70% organic so that you can diversify and sustain traffic through the ebbs and flows of advertising budgets. However, organic traffic % is easy to manipulate. If you turn off your paid search or social ads now your % of organic traffic will shoot up but your overall traffic numbers will tank. Organic traffic percentage shouldn't be a cornerstone metric but one to use as a support in addition to the others. 

Leads

How many actual leads are coming in through various channels? Leads are far more important than website visitors. 

SQL Leads

If you're using HubSpot or another CRM to classify your leads, see how many SQL leads you're getting each month and from which sources and campaigns. 

Customers

For most businesses, customers are far more valuable than leads or just website visitors. Again, using a tool like HubSpot and updating your contact records so your conversion goals are actual customers and not just Google Analytics tracked form submissions can greatly help you improve your campaigns and to show the value of the work your agency is doing. 

Paid Search Stats

Cost per click (CPC), cost per lead (CPL) and return on ad spend (ROAS) are critical here. Your overall ad spend is important but just watching how much you spent doesn't mean much until you tie it back to how much you're spending per customer (cost per acquisition). 

In addition to your cost metrics, you should be looking at the quality of the traffic coming from paid ads. Review the keywords regularly to ensure they're still relevant. Check your bounce rate to ensure that the landing pages are sticky and engaging. Check your landing page conversion rate to make sure you're always working on improving that conversion experience. 

Set SMART Goals

Tracking data is critical. Setting goals and striving to hit them will lead you to marketing excellence. 

When tracking KPIs and setting goals, make sure that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. We'd all like 100% market share and 100% conversion rate, but you're doomed for failure if those are your goals. Instead, opt for a goal like doubling your conversion rate on mobile within the next 6 months. It's specific, it's measurable, it's attainable, relevant to your business growth goals, and has a set timeline. With this goal set you can identify and enact the strategy and tactics to get there - or at least move the needle closer. 

Ask Questions

This pick list is by no means the Holy Grail of agency performance metrics. It should be used instead as a conversation starter to ask more questions and get some visibility into what your agency has been working on. Then you'll get the real info as to how the campaigns are going. Some clients prefer to be very hands off and as a result, some agencies get in the habit of not having regular meetings or sharing reports. If you want more communication from your agency you generally only need to ask for it.