Marketing campaigns are often the most exciting projects in your company. After all, the purpose of marketing is to get people feeling good about your business and the products and services it offers.
But behind every great marketing campaign is great metrics — numbers that help marketing teams figure out how well they’re doing, how they can build on success, and how to avoid pitfalls in the future.
Here are three helpful metrics that you can use in your next marketing campaign to maximize your conversions.
1. Cost per Lead (CPL) and Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
Every marketing campaign costs money to run. Even “free” platforms like social media take time and effort to create content and engage with users.
The question is how much it costs to generate a new lead or customer as a result of that marketing campaign. That’s why cost per lead (CPL) is such an important marketing metric.
To calculate CPL, divide the total campaign cost by the number of new leads to get a dollar amount per lead. The lower the CPL, the more effective the marketing campaign is performing.
But even more critical is measuring the marketing campaign’s cost per acquisition (CPA), which is a measure of how much of the campaign budget was spent for every new customer.
Businesses use CPL and CPA to help them decide how to spend their marketing budget in the future. When resources are limited, it usually makes sense to scale back on marketing campaigns with the highest CPL and CPA.
You may decide to look at CPL and CPA metrics at a higher or lower level depending on your marketing strategies and goals. For example, a marketing manager may compare CPL and CPA numbers across general marketing channels such as print ads, online ads, email, social media, and call-based marketing.
However, it might also make sense to look at CPA and CPL in more detail — for example, comparing costs between using different social media channels or using a local versus a toll-free vanity number.
2. MQL to SQL Ratio
Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) are at the beginning of the funnel or sales journey. They’ve shown interest in buying a product or service by downloading material from your website, asking for a demo or presentation, or signing up for a free trial. Once they’re ready for direct follow-up with a salesperson, then MQLs become sales-qualified leads (SQLs).
Ideally, your marketing team will identify, qualify, and screen leads so that there’s a healthy proportion of MQLs that become SQLs. Depending on the marketing channel, an average MQL to SQL conversion rate could be as low as 1% or as high as over 30%.
If there’s an unusually low percentage of MQLs converting to SQLs, then you should consider revisiting your marketing campaign. Chances are that there’s a misalignment or disconnect between your marketing and sales teams. The sooner your teams can realign their priorities and goals, the sooner you can optimize your conversion rates.
3. Call Tracking Metrics
Most sales and marketing managers would agree that tracking website activity is important for understanding customer behavior. But website visits are only part of the customer journey. It’s just as important to track activities further down the sales pipeline, especially call activity.
How can you track call activity? By using call tracking.
Here are just some examples of call tracking metrics you can bring to your marketing campaign:
- Call volume
- Call length
- Hold times
- First-time vs. repeat callers
- Best time of day/week to contact leads
- Conversion rate of calls, both in general and grouped by demographic
The best part about call tracking is that helps link call activity with specific marketing campaigns, social media platforms, and even specific pages on your website. This makes it easier for you to determine which campaigns and marketing channels are generating the most leads and customers.
Call tracking also helps your sales team anticipate customer needs — your sales reps can track how the caller found your business number before even answering the phone.
Here’s another secret about call tracking: it’s easier to set up than you think. You don’t need a complicated switchboard or phone network, and you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars upfront to get started.
Get an 800 vanity number with call tracking today and make the most of your next marketing campaign.
