For those who may not be aware of KPI, let me tell you that KPI is an abbreviation for key performance indicators. It’s a tool that is used to assess the performance of a task being measured.
So, I would say it’s a metric for determining the success or workability of the goal to be achieved. However, while considering marketing KPIs, one needs to know about its certain parameters. I am saying this because these parameters help us understand the effectiveness and reach of our marketing.
Here I’ll Explain to You All About KPI in Marketing and How It Works
A KPI in marketing will tell you about the marketing and advertising performance of the company. How well did your campaigns perform, how does the fund need to be relocated, or should there be other tweaks to be made?

Since these can be tracked so easily, year-on-year comparisons can also be done; so let us now see what are the different KPIs in marketing.
1. Conversion Rate
The term is self-explanatory and means that what is the conversion from the campaign or what activity you had conducted? So, if you conducted a new campaign on social media what was your outcome?
What kind of engagement did you receive and since it is a rate it is basically the percentage of people you tapped using your marketing.

The higher the percentage, the better the persuasion, and more customers might purchase your product. It is almost the most important KPI in marketing.
In an interview with the Icy Whiz team, Chelsea Evans-Flower, Owner of Scott Social, talked about prioritizing impressions, reach, and engagement in their KPI strategy. Here is what she said:

“In our marketing strategies, we prioritize impressions, reach, and engagement. Impressions inform us of how many people the content is being seen by, reach tells us whose FYPs we’re landing on, and engagement tells us who our target audience is through their interactions.
If all three of these metrics are up, it’s safe to say that the content being shared on the client’s pages is effective and hits the key markers of what they want and need to see.
If one or all of these metrics are declining, it’s a clear sign that something in your strategy needs to be shifted. This could be anything from post type, and posting time, to hashtag and keyword strategies, etc.
By taking stock of what performs well and what doesn’t, you can pinpoint where a change needs to be made, especially if these low numbers are impacting the goals you set for social media!”
2. Cost per Lead
What is the cost of getting a consumer, is basically the meaning of cost per lead. So, when you are putting out any money on marketing activities, you calculate the money being spent on any potential consumer of your product/service.
This value needs to be less, the lesser the value, better the consumer conversion, and the higher the profits.

It also implies that you do not need to spend a lot on marketing to get consumers or that the money spent is well paid off.
3. Social Media Engagement
All social media activities that are done for marketing your product or service, can be analyzed to check their reach and progress. Any campaign’s success can be assessed by checking for likes, shares, and clicks.
The higher the engagement, the better the reach, and people are more aware or interested based on what marketing content is being analyzed.

This analysis can also help you to tweak a few little edits for better engagements. This nowadays is the most relevant KPI in marketing.
4. Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value is basically the amount of money that a customer can generate for a company over the span when he/she is associated with them as a customer.
This is one of the most important KPIs in marketing when we consider the customer-building process. Because this retention requires more engagement and better marketing.

So to keep the customers interested in the long run, marketing campaigns have to be designed under those requirements.
Customer Lifetime Value is the core strategy for Julia Lozanov, Chief Editor at Verpex. She shared her novel KPI strategy with the Icy Whiz team in an interview. Here is what she said:

“One of the key performance indicators (KPIs) I prioritize in our marketing strategy is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This metric is crucial as it helps us gauge the long-term value of our customer relationships, which is essential for a web hosting company like Verpex.
CLV takes into account not only the initial purchase but also the potential for repeat business, upsells, and referrals throughout a customer’s lifetime with our brand.
By accurately measuring CLV, we can make informed decisions about customer acquisition costs and allocate our marketing resources more effectively.
A high CLV indicates that our customers are satisfied with our hosting services and are likely to continue their subscriptions or upgrade to more advanced plans.
This insight informs our retention strategies, prompting us to invest in exceptional customer support, value-added features, and targeted loyalty programs to nurture these valuable long-term relationships.
Moreover, understanding CLV enables us to justify higher customer acquisition costs, as long as the lifetime revenue generated by each customer exceeds the initial investment.
This knowledge empowers us to confidently allocate more resources towards marketing campaigns that attract high-quality leads aligned with our ideal customer profile.
By consistently tracking and optimizing for CLV, we at Verpex can cultivate a loyal customer base, maximize revenue streams, and drive sustainable growth in the highly competitive web hosting market.”
5. Return on Investment
Basically, just a comparison of what you are spending and what you are earning is known as a return on investment. So, given you are spending a certain amount of money on marketing and getting a good return on it.

It implies that the money spent on marketing is actually paying off which in turn means that you can keep that up, even in your future projects. If the difference is very huge it means that the expenditure needs to be thought about again. Economics-wise, or financially it is the most important KPI in marketing.
6. Search Engine Rankings
I’m sure you know about the search engine rankings. The rankings on the search engine optimization process actually speak about the online presence and reach of the company.
I believe this KPI in marketing is like a leader KPI when we’re talking about all online products/services.
When a customer is looking for something through their search engine they type in some keywords, and the websites which are falling in that category are displayed. The ones that are visited most are those that are viewed higher on the list. So, to get a better ranking you need a strategic use and placement of the keywords.
We interviewed Arkadiy Ostrenko, CMO at BI-Box, about their KPI strategy. Here is what he had to say:

“As the CMO of an education platform, our primary metrics for success are the number of students enrolling, their active participation in learning activities, and the percentage of students completing courses.
Enrollments indicate the level of interest in our offerings and the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.
Higher engagement rates signify that our educational content resonates with users and contributes to feedback, which is significant in spreading word-of-mouth recommendations and retaining learners.
Course completion rates reflect how well our courses deliver value and achieve their intended outcomes.
By examining these performance indicators, we can enhance our marketing strategies, target audiences more precisely, and improve our course offerings to better address learner requirements, ultimately fostering growth.”
7. Brand Awareness
I want to ask you a question. So, how do you measure the success of your company? basically, the online success of a company is measured by analyzing the reach of your website, social media, and all digital marketing activities.
This KPI in marketing is basically an analysis of how people are engaged and involved in your brand.

The different factors to figure this out include brand mentions, consumer reach, and searches. This can also be assessed by looking at the kind of engagement by influencers and similar social media people.
8. Referral Traffic
A measure of the number of customers who are visiting a company’s website not directly but through referrals from other websites is called referral traffic.
This helps you to understand what is the success of your relationship marketing strategies and how good is your sponsorship management.

Looks a little less efficient but this KPI in marketing really shows the relationship-building system’s strength.
9. Email Subscribers
This is the list of people who get your emails and have agreed to get the same in the future for newer updates or product launches. These metrics basically tell you the efficiency of your email marketing campaigns and in turn the reach of your brand.

It also tells if your content is good enough and keeps your target audience engaged or not.
The Icy Whiz team talked to Rafi Friedman, President of Coastal Luxury Outdoors, on this topic. Here is what he said:

“We keep a pretty diverse KPI dashboard since each metric can provide its useful insights, but if there’s one we prize above all others, it’s organic traffic.
This provides us with a holistic sense of how many customers are finding their way into our marketing funnel, whether they come from Google searches, referrals, or social media posts.
Especially since we’re not a high-volume business, we know that simply being easy to find is going to help us be at the top of our minds when customers finally do decide to invest in a new backyard space, even if it’s months or years after they visited our site.”
I hope you now have a better understanding of the KPIs in marketing and how these affect your overall brand and marketing.
We have seen the different KPIs in marketing in the article above and understand how these affect your overall brand and marketing. So, based on all the data above now we are in a place to make informed decisions about our marketing activities.
Guest Author: Saket Kumar
Last Updated on May 12, 2024 by Pragya
This article really opened my eyes about marketing. i usually only prioritize social media engagement,brand awareness and branding. but i don’t know about others. I’ll try to apply it in my business..
This insightful article has given me a new perspective on marketing. While I typically focus on social media engagement, brand awareness, and branding, I now realize there’s more to explore. Excited to implement these learnings in my business!
Well explained. This wasn’t elaborated when I was studying marketing in college. However, KPI is a very important tool as an employee in marketing department.
The author brilliantly breaks down various essential marketing KPIs, shedding light on their implications and the insights they offer. From Conversion Rate and Cost per Lead to Social Media Engagement and Customer Lifetime Value, the article meticulously explores each KPI, providing a nuanced understanding of its relevance and impact on marketing strategies. The inclusion of real-world examples and scenarios enhances the practical applicability of the information.