B2B Marketing Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Introduction

Digital business marketing has become increasingly important for organizations selling services and products. Digital business marketing is data-driven. Focusing on the right metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for successful customer acquisition and repeat purchases.

But what is the difference between metrics and KPIs?

Metrics are measurements of performance, such as sales or website visits, whereas KPIs track the results of the metrics, such as growth or improvement.

Business to business (B2B) companies rely heavily on marketing metrics and KPIs to measure their success in acquiring customers, increasing revenue, and producing repeat customers. To this end, companies use a range of metrics and KPIs that focus on customer acquisition, campaign effectiveness, customer service, and process improvement.

This article will examine in detail the various metrics commonly used in B2B digital marketing and the key performance indicators (KPIs) they feed into. This article is designed to give B2B marketing teams the knowledge and understanding needed to ensure that their campaigns are measuring progress towards their defined goals.

Customer Acquisition Metrics

Customer acquisition is perhaps the most important goal of any digital marketing campaign. The metrics and KPIs used to monitor and measure customer acquisition focus on tracking campaigns and acquiring new customers.

Lead-to-conversion Rate

Lead-to-conversion rate measures the effectiveness of a campaign in converting potential customers into paying customers. This metric tracks the number of leads generated from an ad, email, or other digital marketing efforts, and compares it to the number of customers who actually convert from those leads.

Customer Acquisition

Cost Customer acquisition cost (CAC) tracks how much is spent to acquire each customer. CAC is calculated by dividing the total cost of marketing by the number of customers acquired during the period being measured. CAC is useful for making decisions about how much to spend on a campaign and setting ROI targets.

Campaign Effectiveness Metrics

Campaign effectiveness criteria, such as the amount of money made from an advertisement, the number of responses to an email, or the number of webinar attendees, gauge the campaign’s overall success.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate tracks the percentage of people who complete a desired action after clicking on an advertisement, email, or other digital channel. An example of a conversion rate would be the percentage of visitors to a website who register for a product or service.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

 Click-through rate (CTR) measures the percentage of people who click on a link, ad, or email after seeing it. CTR is especially important to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns sent out via email or other digital channels.

Customer Service Metrics

Customer service metrics measure the effectiveness of customer service, tracking the effectiveness of customer support and satisfaction levels among customers.

First Response Time (FRT)

First Response Time (FRT) measures how quickly customer service representatives respond to inquiries or complaints from customers. FRT shows how potential customers are greeted when they contact your business, giving a good indication of how customers perceive your customer service.

Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

 Satisfaction Score (CSAT) tracks customer satisfaction with a product or service. Customers fill out survey questions that rate their overall satisfaction with the product or service on a scale. CSAT provides an insight into how customers feel about the product, and any areas for improvement can be addressed accordingly.

Process Improvement Metrics

Process improvement metrics measure the effectiveness of processes, such as how much time is spent onboarding new customers or how quickly marketing campaigns are launched.

Onboarding Time

Onboarding Time measures how long it takes for customers to successfully set up their account or access a service. Tracking onboarding time helps identify areas that may need improvement in order to reduce the time it takes for customers to successfully use your product or service.

Time to Launch (TTL)

Time to Launch (TTL) measures how long it takes for a marketing campaign to go live. TTL is an important metric for understanding the effectiveness of marketing teams in launching campaigns quickly.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure the success of campaigns, tracking the effectiveness of customer acquisition, campaign effectiveness, customer service, and process improvement metrics.

Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition KPIs measure the success of customer acquisition campaigns, such as lead conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value.

Lead conversion rate measures the percentage of leads that convert to customers. Customer acquisition cost tracks how much is spent to acquire each customer. And customer lifetime value tracks the total revenue earned from a customer during their time with the business.

Campaign Effectiveness

Campaign effectiveness KPIs measure the success of a marketing campaign in achieving its desired outcome, such as increased sales. Examples of campaign effectiveness KPIs include conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR), and cost per lead (CPL).

Customer Service

Customer service KPIs measure the effectiveness of customer service and customer satisfaction, such as first response time (FRT) and satisfaction score (CSAT).

Process Improvement

Process improvement KPIs measure the effectiveness of processes in an organization, such as onboarding time and time to launch (TTL).

Conclusion

Business to business (B2B) companies must focus on the right metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of their digital marketing campaigns. Metrics measure performance, such as website visits or sales, while KPIs measure the outcomes, such as growth or improvement, resulting from the metrics.

About Apoorva: 

Apoorva is a technology services company that assists software products with ideation, developing prototypes, programming, creating a digital marketing presence and accelerating sales through direct contact. Over 150 for-profit and non-profit organizations, such as Xcel Energy, PeopleCare Health Services, Frontier Airlines and Centers for Spiritual Living have trusted Apoorva to build software. 

Apoorva was founded in 2001, has more than 50 employees, and uses proprietary and proven methodologies to bring technology products to the market. Contact us / Visit apoorva.com for more information.