The Marketing KPIs That Matter (and the Ones That Don’t)
Likes and impressions feel good but rarely pay the bills. These are the marketing metrics that actually show whether your investment is working.
Marketing reports are often full of numbers that look impressive but say little about business results. Here is how to separate the metrics that matter from the ones that only look good.
Metrics that matter
Leads and enquiries
Calls, form fills, bookings and messages, broken down by channel. This is the first number to check.
Cost per lead (CPL)
Total marketing spend divided by leads. Track it by channel to see where budget works hardest.
Lead-to-customer rate
The percentage of leads that become customers. A channel with cheap leads that never buy is not cheap.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
What it costs to win one paying customer. Compare it with how much a customer is worth.
Return on ad spend (ROAS) and revenue
For e-commerce and trackable sales, revenue generated per unit of ad spend.
Organic search growth
Non-branded organic traffic and the key events it produces show whether SEO is building a long-term asset.
Metrics to treat with caution
- Impressions and reach: useful context for awareness, but not proof of results.
- Followers: a large audience that never buys has little value.
- Likes: easy to get, weakly linked to sales.
- Total traffic: traffic from the wrong audience or wrong country can inflate numbers without benefit.
- Keyword rankings alone: ranking for terms nobody searches, or that do not convert, means little.
Leading indicators still help
Some softer metrics are useful early signs: engagement rate on social, click-through rate on ads, and time on page for content. Use them to optimise, but judge success on leads and revenue.
A simple monthly scorecard
- Leads by channel
- Cost per lead by channel
- Customers won and revenue
- Customer acquisition cost
- One or two leading indicators per channel
Every Vayura Digital engagement includes a monthly report built around these KPIs. Talk to us about yours.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I review marketing KPIs?
Check key numbers weekly for paid campaigns, and review the full picture monthly. Make bigger strategic changes quarterly.
What if I cannot track sales back to marketing?
Start by tracking leads and asking every new customer how they found you. Even simple tracking is far better than none.