As we discussed in our previous blog, 8 Reasons Why Data is Key to a Successful Inbound Marketing Strategy, when it comes to B2B Inbound Marketing - data is critical to success.
The problem is, with a never-ending stream of metrics at your fingertips, it can be overwhelming to know which ones truly matter. That’s why, in this blog, we’re going to make it easy for you.
We’ve compiled a list of the 11 most important B2B Marketing KPIs that you need to know. By focusing on these metrics, your organization will be able to better measure the success of your marketing efforts, allowing you to optimize your campaigns and, ultimately, generate more organic traffic and qualified leads for your website.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to measure the performance of a particular initiative. You likely use these KPIs across your own organization to measure performance.
Net profit, gross margin, and customer satisfaction - these are all examples of KPIs you probably measure to some extent.
When it comes to your B2B Inbound Marketing efforts, KPIs are data points that you can track to ensure that your marketing strategy is helping your business move towards its north star goals - whether that be increased awareness, more leads or customer retention.
So, you want to improve your Inbound Marketing efforts? Measuring your results is the only true way of gaining the visibility into your program that you need to make ongoing improvements.
These quantifiable metrics can help your business track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts toward achieving your overarching business goals.
Whether you want to increase your organic traffic, generate leads, increase your business sales or improve customer retention, tracking the right KPIs will give your business valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not, so that you can make the data-driven decisions needed to maximize your marketing efforts.
Organic traffic refers to visitors who find your website through unpaid search results. This metric is influenced by your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, including keyword research, content creation, and website optimization. By monitoring organic traffic and its source keywords, you can identify which keywords are driving the most qualified traffic and optimize your content strategy accordingly.
Key takeaway: Higher organic traffic indicates your SEO strategy is effective and you're attracting potential customers actively searching for solutions like yours.
Learn how to increase organic traffic in our blog, Inbound Content Marketing: How to Increase Organic Traffic.
Paid traffic refers to visitors who arrive at your website through paid advertising campaigns, such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads or social media advertising. Paid advertising allows you to target a specific audience with laser focus, but it's crucial to measure its effectiveness.
Key takeaway: Monitoring paid traffic allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising spend and identify which platforms or ad formats generate the most qualified leads.
CTR refers to the ratio of users who click on a specific link or call to action to the total number of users who view a page, email, or ad. By monitoring the CTR of key calls to action it can lead to making more informed decisions and optimizing your marketing campaigns.
Key takeaway: Monitoring CTR allows you to measure the effectiveness of your call to action and identify the effectiveness of the copy, design, and targeting.
Just because you’re getting website visitors, doesn’t mean your company is getting leads. The lead conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your website, such as downloading a white paper, subscribing to your newsletter, or requesting a demo.
Key takeaway: A healthy lead conversion rate indicates your website is effectively moving your buyer personas through their buyer’s journey, converting visitors into leads.
Cost per lead (CPL) is a crucial metric for understanding the efficiency of your lead generation efforts. It refers to the total cost you incur to acquire a new lead, including marketing spend and resources dedicated to lead generation campaigns.
Key takeaway: A decreasing CPL indicates your lead generation efforts are becoming more efficient.
Not all leads are created equal. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) are leads who have demonstrated a stronger interest in your product or service and are considered more likely to convert into paying customers.
Key takeaway: Tracking MQLs helps you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in attracting high-quality leads that are a good fit for your sales team.
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) are MQLs who have been further vetted by the marketing team and deemed ready for the sales team to pursue.
Key takeaway: The rate at which MQLs convert into SQLs is a valuable indicator of how well marketing and sales are aligned.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) refers to the total cost associated with acquiring a new customer. It takes into account marketing and sales expenses, as well as other costs incurred during the customer acquisition process.
Key takeaway: Monitoring CAC allows you to understand the profitability of your marketing and sales efforts.
In the world of B2B SEO, ranking high in search results for relevant keywords is crucial for attracting organic traffic. Keyword ranking refers to the position of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords.
Key takeaway: Monitoring your keyword ranking over time allows you to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page. While a low bounce rate is ideal, it's important to consider the context of the page being viewed - blogs for example, typically have high bounce rates (around 80-90%) while website pages will have lower bounce rates at somewhere between 30-70%, depending on your industry.
Key takeaway: By analyzing bounce rate alongside other metrics like page views and time on site, you can identify areas for improvement on specific website pages.
We’ve put this one last as the importance of social media is pretty subjective when it comes to B2B Inbound Marketing. There’s definitely value in having brand presence for all B2B businesses, but whether posts translate into tangible results is heavily dependent on your business, the industry you're in and the type of customer you are targeting. Tracking social media engagement can give your business a pretty good idea of how important social is for your marketing efforts.
Key takeaway: Metrics like likes, comments, shares, and mentions on your social media posts can tell you how well your content resonates with your audience, and how important social is for your business.
Not sure how to improve your Inbound Marketing program? SummitBound Marketing is a HubSpot agency focused on delivering data-driven B2B Inbound Marketing strategies. We’d love to help you meet your business goals.