40 marketing KPIs: performance indicators to monitor closely

A marketing KPI is an indicator used to analyse the performance of an action aimed at boosting lead generation to enable a company to reach new customers. The acronym KPI comes from the English term key performance indicator.

Specific indicators are used to measure and analyse the effectiveness of a digital marketing strategy at each of its phases:

• acquisition, e.g. attracting traffic to your site
• engagement; for example, generating interest via social networks; and
• conversion; example: convincing visitors through quality content;
• Retention; for example, closing the sale and initiating a customer loyalty process.

To complete this definition of marketing KPIs, in this article we provide 40 examples of KPIs accompanied by best practices, as well as several tools to help you master all the issues involved in data analysis:

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Identifying your website's traffic sources

Your website is the online showcase for your business, but it's also a powerful acquisition tool. In fact, it's the main pillar of a good digital strategy.

Identifying the sources that send visitors to your site enables you to determine the source of traffic that is most profitable for you.

Here are the main marketing KPIs to monitor in order to find out exactly which sources are driving traffic to your website.

1. Direct traffic

This indicator measures the number of URLS addresses for your site that are directly entered into web browsers to access your site's pages.

This includes :

• clicks on URLS classified in a browser's favourites,
• clicks on URLS in documents,
• clicks on URLS inserted in e-mails,
• copying and pasting URLS addresses into a browser.

Why is this indicator important?

It tells you which are the most popular pages on your website, the ones that attract the most interest.

2. Referral traffic

This refers to visitors to a site other than yours who have clicked on a link to reach your site.

This indicator shows which third-party sites link to a specific page on your website.

Why is this indicator important?

It allows you to monitor :

• the relevance of the theme of the site or blog linking to your site: a site related to your sector of activity is beneficial to the natural referencing of your site; an unrelated site is penalising;


• the strength of the site and its history: if it is a trusted site that has been established for several years, the link pointing to your site will contribute to the trust that Google places in your site;


• the popularity of your site: the more links you have, the more popular your site is (if the links are of good quality).

3. Organic traffic generated by your SEO actions

Simply put, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) actions are all those that help to optimise your site for search engines.

These actions aim to improve your site's natural referencing.

The main marketing KPI to analyse on a regular basis is the number of visitors you attract by keywords, when Internet users click on the links in the search engine results.

Why is this indicator important?

An SEO manager or webmarketing manager monitors the positions of a website's pages on keywords: the key, of course, is to always be in the top 10 results in order to attract as many visitors as possible.

4. Paid traffic from advertising

Using tracking URLs, you can measure the effectiveness of your paid advertising such as :

• buying Adwords (Google) keywords,
• same principle with Bing Ads,
• Facebook Ads,
• advertising banners displayed on third-party sites,
• etc.

Why is this indicator important?

• You can assess which paid channel brings you the most traffic, and which generates the most conversions.
• You can allocate your advertising budget to the paid keywords that generate the best results.

5. Traffic from social networks

These are clicks on links shared on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin that link back to your website.

Why is this indicator important?

It allows you to identify, for example

• which social network brings you the most traffic,
• the social network that generates the most conversions,
• the type of subject or publication that generates the most traffic.

6. Traffic from emailing

This is the number of Internet users who have clicked on a link in your email or newsletter.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI allows you to :

• study the relevance of messages sent
• improve the targeting of email campaigns,
• optimise your communication and email marketing.

Assess visitor engagement on your website

• Are you deploying your content strategy by publishing articles on your blog to attract traffic?


• Do you offer white papers for download (case studies, guides, etc.) and set up forms on each landing page to collect contact information (contact details, first name, surname)?


• Do you have product sheets if you manage an e-commerce site?

Here are a few examples of marketing KPIs that will enable you to assess the quality of the content on your site.

7. Total number of visits

This is the number of times visitors have visited your website over a given period.

Why is this indicator important?

• You can compare this indicator each month to see if you are gaining or losing traffic.
• You can then adjust your actions to increase the quantity and quality of visitors.

8. Number of unique visitors

This identifies how many different people have visited your website.

Why is this indicator important?

It allows you to study changes in the behaviour of your readers. If they return to your site regularly, then your content is interesting and represents a certain value in the eyes of your readers.

9. The number of regular vs. new readers

This is a way of differentiating between regular, or even habitual, visitors and new readers.

Why is this indicator important?

If your main customer acquisition channel is your website, you need to regularly increase the rate of new readers. A new blog post optimised for search engines should therefore generate new entries... while retaining old readers through other actions.

10. Time spent on your site

It's worth analysing the time spent on your site, and more specifically on certain pages.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI is essential in more ways than one, because :

• It reflects the quality of your content: the longer the time spent on a page, the more relevant the content;


• it contributes to your site's ranking: if the time spent on your site is long, Google will give it credibility and improve its ranking;


• it shows whether your site has the capacity to retain readers by offering them other content.

11. Most-viewed, least-viewed and "ghost" pages

In addition to the number of pages viewed, you need to determine which pages are most viewed, least viewed and never viewed.

Why are these KPIs important?

• You can identify the pages that are performing well and the pages that need improving,
• You can compare the pages that are performing well to identify their strong points (content, SEO, etc.),
• You can correct your site's internal links to improve the user experience,
• you can identify phantom pages that don't appear in the tree structure of your site and correct the arrangement.

12. Bounce rate

These are Internet users who visit a page on your site and then leave it without taking any further action: they don't click on any links or visit any other pages. They "bounce".

Why is this marketing KPI, expressed as a percentage, important?

• If the bounce rate is high, it is highly likely that your content is not interesting enough, or that your call-to-actions (CTAs) are not relevant;
• if the bounce rate is low, your content is of high quality, visitors remain captive on your site and your CTAs are effective.

13. Conversion rate

This is the percentage of people who have carried out the desired action according to an objective.

If your objective is to generate qualified B2B leads, only those people who have filled in their contact details in a form on a landing page will be counted.

This percentage is also known as the conversion rate.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI is used to assess the effectiveness of a communication tool in relation to the objective set.

• If the conversion rate is high, you have a well-oiled machine.


• If your rate is low, your mechanics need to be reviewed.


• Beware, however, of web pages that generate a lot of leads but are of poor quality. You'll be wasting time requalifying relevant leads from uninteresting prospects. If your leads are of poor quality, your sales staff will waste too much time unnecessarily.

Social network performance indicators

Here are a few examples of relevant KPIs for evaluating your social networking strategy.

This communication channel is a tool for developing your company's reputation, and a powerful vector of positive or negative e-reputation that needs to be monitored closely.

14. The number of subscribers

Depending on the social network, this may be :

• the number of fans of your Facebook page
• the number of users who have subscribed to your Twitter or Linkedin profile,
• the number of users who have subscribed to your Linkedin profile or page,
• etc.

Why is this indicator important?

While the quality of exchanges takes precedence over the number of fans, it is still important to recruit subscribers in order to raise your company's profile on social networks.

The more subscribers you have, the more likely your publications are to be seen. You can compare your number of followers with that of a competitor to give you an idea of the range of possibilities...

15. The reach of your publications

A community manager also talks about reach when assessing the potential reach of his publications on social networks.

As with SEO, you have two types of reach: organic reach (free) and paid reach (advertising).

Concrete examples:

• organic reach is expressed by the number of potential subscribers who can see a publication in their respective news feeds,
• paid reach is expressed by the number of potential users who can see a sponsored publication in their respective news feeds.

Why is this indicator important?

• Reach is a marketing KPI that enables you to assess the potential visibility of a given audience.
• In this way, you can estimate the maximum number of users who can be exposed to your message.

16. Number of impressions of a publication

This is the number of times a publication has been viewed.

Number of impressions = number of views.

Why is this indicator important?

As with a web page, the number of impressions of a publication enables us to assess its visibility, popularity and whether or not it has been appreciated by web users. The number of impressions reflects the quality of the publication.

Note: the same user may have seen the same publication several times.

Facebook, for example, explains the difference between reach and number of impressions as follows:

• Impressions measure the number of times a publication on your Page is viewed, regardless of whether or not the user clicks on this publication. Users can view the same publication several times. For example, a person may view a Page update for the first time in the News Feed, and then a second time if one of their friends shares it.


• Reach measures the number of people who have received impressions of a Page publication. Reach may be less than impressions, as one person may view several impressions.

17. Engagement generated by type of publication

Engagement is the number of interactions with your publications:

• shares
• likes, favourites
• comments
• clicks on your links,
• reactions via emoticons on Facebook.

Why is this indicator important?

This indicator allows you to define a positive or negative feeling towards your presence.

You can also monitor interactions:

• to see what type of post is the most popular,
• to understand what really interests your subscribers,
• to improve relations with your community by responding to every comment.

It's also interesting to analyse the results provided by social networks, particularly in terms of the number of clicks: you can correlate these statistics with those for your site.

18. The number of influencers linked to your brand

Influencers who subscribe to your accounts are a goldmine! They are followed by thousands, even millions of subscribers. So many potential contacts and leads for you.

Why is this indicator important?

When an influencer shares one of your publications, you multiply its visibility and the awareness of your brand, product or service.

Provided that the influencer talks about you in a positive way... and becomes an ambassador.

Recruiting influencers is one of the most successful social media strategies.

Measuring the effectiveness of your email campaigns

Let's talk about measuring the performance of your email marketing campaigns. Email marketing is an essential communication, acquisition and engagement tool.

However, there are a number of criteria, rules and laws that need to be respected if it is to be effective. Here are the marketing KPIs that need to be scrupulously analysed on a regular basis.

19. Deliverability rate

This rate expresses the number of emails that actually arrive in the recipients' inboxes, and not in the spam folder.

Why is this indicator important?

• you need to monitor this indicator very closely, every time you send an email, because your reputation as a sender is constantly at stake;


• Internet service providers have introduced filters to prevent unwanted emails from reaching your inbox;


• in addition, the RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) has prohibited you from sending unwanted commercial emails (especially in B2C) since 25 May 2018.

Among the issues to be resolved, deliverability must be one of your priorities. You need to maintain a high emailing deliverability rate and reduce the number of bounces.

20. The open rate

This rate reflects the number of your emails that have been opened by recipients.

Why is this indicator important?

• Poorly targeted email marketing results in a very low open rate,
• Likewise, an email subject that is of no interest to your target audience,
• You need to segment your contact lists, adapt your messages to your targets and carry out A/B testing to optimise your open rate.

21. Click-through rate

These are emails opened containing at least one link. The click rate refers to the number of clicks made on these link(s) as a percentage.

Why is this indicator important?

• No recipient clicked? Your content isn't interesting enough or your call to action isn't engaging enough.


• 80% of recipients clicked? Don't change a thing, you've got the secrets of email marketing success - congratulations!

22. The rate at which an email is placed in a folder

In the same way as a URL is bookmarked in a web browser, the recipient of your email may place your message in a specific folder.

Why is this indicator important?

• This data is interesting: a message placed in a folder means that the recipient attaches importance to your email;
• you can therefore detect which email campaigns or newsletters have aroused the most interest;
• Furthermore, a lead who has placed one of your emails in a folder means that this lead is maturing in the conversion funnel: keep a close eye on this!

23. Transfer rate

This rate shows how many times your email has been forwarded.

Why is this indicator important?

• If the forwarding rate is high, then your email has aroused a great deal of interest, so much so that it's causing word-of-mouth to spread!
• If not, ask yourself why your recipients would share your messages.

24. Deletion rate

This rate expresses the number of recipients who have deleted your message without opening it. This is a serious blow to your marketing campaign.

Why is this indicator important?

If your deletion rate is high or rising steadily, there's a good chance that you're delivering messages that are of no interest to your contacts.

Perhaps you're sending messages too often? Survey your mailing list! Rethink your content! Propose new offers!

25. Unsubscription rate

This rate expresses the proportion of contacts who unsubscribe from your list. These contacts no longer wish to receive your emails.

Why is this indicator important?

Don't panic: it's quite possible that the contacts in question are simply not potential buyers. In this case, it's a positive sign, because you're improving the quality of your list, and therefore the deliverability of the emails sent to this segmented base.

In the case of mass unsubscribing, it is urgent to question the segmentation of your contact list, the form and content of your messages, everything that might encourage your visitor to subscribe to your newsletter.

In the infographic below, SEMrush illustrates content metrics that summarise the indicators we have just detailed:

Determining the profitability of an advertising campaign

Let's now look at the KPIs that will enable you to measure the effectiveness of your online advertising campaigns , bearing in mind that they must generate a certain return on investment...

26. CPC or cost per click

You buy paid advertising, a sponsored link based on a keyword on Google or Facebook, for example. Each time someone clicks on the link, you pay.

Why is this indicator important?

Calculating the CPC allows you to know :

• Which keyword generates the most clicks,
• which keyword generates the most conversions on your site,
• which keyword is the most profitable.

The aim is to generate as many qualified contacts as possible while spending as little money as possible. Depending on your objectives and your ambitions, you might consider buying less competitive keywords, or allocating a larger budget to your advertising investments.

27. CPM or cost per thousand

In a display campaign, you pay for your advertising to be displayed on third-party sites. You spend a budget for every thousand times your ad is displayed.

Why is this indicator important?

Depending on the objective of your advertising, calculating the CPM enables you to determine the investment needed to achieve that objective.

For example: if your objective is to generate 200 leads by offering a white paper for download, the CPM allows you to study how many times you will need to invest per thousand displays in order to capture 200 leads.

28. CPL or cost per lead

Divide the number of leads you've generated by the amount you've spent on advertising: this gives you the cost of obtaining one lead.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI is vital for determining the return on investment over a given period.

While the ideal objective is always to spend less to obtain more leads, this general rule is not always verifiable.

In fact, depending on the quality of leads required, the actions and results obtained, or even the potential purchase value of a lead, it may be appropriate to increase the amount of your advertising investment, especially if the content of your site is not yet generating leads...

29. Income from conversions

By revenue we mean the profit generated by a conversion.

To calculate the revenue generated per conversion :

• multiply the value of conversions by the gross profit in %,
• divide the result by the total number of conversions.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI enables you to assess the R.O.I. (return on investment) of your advertising campaigns in terms of profits generated. The more revenue you generate, the better your campaigns perform.

Inbound marketing and key indicators

Here are a few additional B2B marketing KPIs , specific to inbound marketing and full of lessons to be learned.

In B2B, prospects go through several buying phases. The sales funnel is longer than in B2C.

Thanks to inbound marketing methods, the contact is guided through several stages, during which they are fed information, in order to mature through to the act of buying.

30. The number of qualified marketing leads

A qualified marketing lead is a contact who shows interest. This contact is identified in the conversion tunnel: it corresponds to the targeted customer profile.

Why is this indicator important?

Based on a precise scoring system, the contact's degree of interest needs to be detected so that we can send them appropriate messages that will guide them step by step through the sales funnel. This is known as lead nurturing.

31. The number of qualified sales leads

A qualified sales lead is a contact who is ready to buy. This is a hot lead: it has reached the end of the sales tunnel.

Why is this indicator important?

Here again, precise scoring can be used to detect this type of contact. Depending on the behavioural criteria you have determined beforehand (request for a demonstration, etc.), you need to send these hot leads back to your sales force so that they can prepare and conclude the sales stage.

32. The value of opportunities generated by marketing

The actions of the marketing department generate qualified sales opportunities at each stage of the sales funnel.

The aim is to determine all the potential sales that marketing brings to the sales department, by putting a figure on it.

Why is this indicator important?

• The marketing manager has a marketing KPI that reveals the validity and importance of his actions;


• Using this data, they can demonstrate marketing's ability to generate opportunities;


• Generally speaking, measuring this indicator also helps to better align the sales and marketing departments with the company's development objectives;


• sales staff should regularly enter data into their CRM, so that marketing can make the most of this customer knowledge.

33. Salespeople's reaction time

This is the time that elapses between a prospect's request and the sales rep's response.

Why is this indicator important?

You have to strike while the iron is hot. A customer who is showing strong interest, and whose business potential is high, should not experience any "latency time" when requesting a quote !

The risk of keeping this type of contact waiting is that they will go and see the competition.

It's crucial to evaluate this indicator regularly so that your sales staff are as responsive as possible... and don't waste the opportunities triggered by your marketing efforts.

Tips: use marketing automation methods, which are particularly well-suited to BtoB marketing, by scheduling the sending of automated messages following registration on your site, for example. This way you can offer a better customer experience.

34. The lead-to-customer conversion rate

To obtain this rate, divide the number of leads by the number of deals closed in a month, for example.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI tells you how many leads you need to get a contract signed. Based on this figure, your aim will be to readjust your efforts to generate more leads that turn into customers.

Other marketing KPIs you need to know

There are a number of indicators that will help you to stand back and compare the investment you've made in all your actions with the results you've achieved.

Here are the main marketing KPIs you should be aware of.

35. Number of marketing leads per acquisition channel

This is the number of contacts corresponding to the targeted profiles generated by a specific channel: email, website or other.

Why is this indicator important?

• This KPI enables you to see which channels are performing best in terms of acquisition,
• you can also see that other channels are more effective in terms of sales,
• You can therefore rebalance your budget allocation to the channels that bring you the most opportunities.

36. Number of leads generated per offer

This is quite simply the number of contacts interested in an offer.

Why is this indicator important?

• You can identify the offers that are most in demand and the offers that generate the fewest leads,
• you can concentrate your communication efforts on the most successful offers, because they are the most attractive.

37. The CAC or customer acquisition cost

This is a measure of the actual cost of converting a prospect into a customer.

Why is this indicator important?

Customer acquisition marketing strategies always aim to maximise the return on the actions taken to generate leads.

Using this indicator, you can assess the value of a lead by comparing the investment required with the effectiveness of the actions carried out.

38. The churn rate

The churn rate represents the proportion of customers or subscribers lost.

Depending on your business model and growth objectives, you can measure it monthly, quarterly or annually.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI is very important, particularly for service activities that are sold on a subscription basis, such as SaaS software.

What's more, a prospect who has yet to be won over costs more than a customer who buys again. Take the lead: set up a relationship programme that will keep your existing customers coming back.

39. Customer repurchase rate

This identifies the number of customers who have made at least two purchases during the year.

Why is this indicator important?

A customer who buys again is a satisfied customer. If the majority of your customers make several purchases during the year, this is an excellent indicator of customer satisfaction.

40. Customer lifetime value

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) expresses the total benefits that a company derives from a customer.

This value is measured over the period during which the person has been a customer of the company.

This measure should be segmented according to your customer profiles.

Why is this indicator important?

• By comparing your segments, you can determine which customer profile generates the most revenue,
• you can focus your investments on the actions that yield the highest returns,
• By comparing the cost of customer acquisition and the CLV, you obtain an indicator that enables you to assess the effectiveness of your actions in relation to the results obtained.

See all software Data Analytics

Tools for tracking your marketing KPIs

Tired of tracking your marketing KPIs with Excel? You're right!

To get a clear and coherent picture of your indicators, you need marketing indicators integrated into a personalised dashboard that includes your objectives.

In 2015, a study by Adetem (National Association of Marketing Professionals) revealed the importance of data analysis tools:

• Only 60% of marketing directors had marketing measurement indicators that enabled them to assess the impact of marketing on their company's economic performance;
• 81% had a dashboard.

Do you spontaneously think of the data provided by Google Analytics? You'd be right.

However, certain cloud technologies are becoming indispensable, enabling you to manage your marketing activities more effectively. Here's an overview of the different tools you can consider.

The ClicData solution

ClicData is a business intelligence solution that simplifies data aggregation. The tool also enables agencies and marketing managers to create a bespoke graphical dash board that makes marketing KPIs easier to read and decisions easier to take.

For example, the software centralises all the data from Google analytics, Adwords, FacebookAds, your social network accounts and your CRM tool.

A host of connectors are available for aggregating data from third-party applications. With a simple drag and drop, you can customise your dashboard with your marketing kpis and objectives.

ClicData makes your work easier, allowing you to concentrate on analysing your data. You can even configure real-time alerts based on the type of interaction with your contacts.

• ClicData is available in French, German, English, Portuguese and Spanish.
• ClicData price: from 19 euros per month/user.
• Free 15-day trial.

Cyfe software

Cyfe is a data analysis platform that lets you extract data to create a customised dashboard.

You configure your pre-built widgets to import statistics from your social networks, Google Adwords, Analytics, Mailchimp, Shopify, Salesforce and many other services.

You can monitor your metrics in real time, create performance reports and set up alerts.

The Californian company has won over American marketers with a host of visualisations designed to make reading the data more enjoyable.

• Cyfe is available in English only.
• Cyfe costs from $29 per month/user.
• Free trial available.

The Supermetrics tool

The Finnish tool Supermetrics also offers connections to numerous online services and applications such as Google AdSense, Google Analytics, Bing Ads, your social network accounts and a database.

The downside is that the number of connectors is less impressive than those of its 2 competitors.

However, there are some very advanced integrations with Google Sheets, Google Data Studio and Excel, as well as a highly functional Supermetrics Uploader for evaluating the profitability of your advertising campaigns.

The software allows you to customise your dashboard and draw up reports, while saving time on data extraction.

• Supermetrics is apparently only available in English.
• Supermetrics costs from $69 per month/user.
• Free 14-day trial, but limited to a 10-day trial period to view statistics.