Measuring Lead Generation with Google Analytics to Improve ROI A marketing executive s guide to Google Analytics and campaign metrics. Paul Mosenson Founder and President NuSpark Marketing February 2016
Introduction to Measurement Setting the stage to monitoring lead generation via marketing channels
Welcome to Lead Generation Analytics Thanks for downloading our latest ebook. You are probably one of many who have a somewhat clear understanding of all that Google Analytics (or GA) has to offer, but maybe you don t really understand all of the opportunities you have to analyze the results of lead generation programs with the free tool. So the focus of this ebook is lead generation measurement via marketing campaigns pure and simple. With GA you can do so much more with it (i.e. website page analysis, set up retargeting, visitor demographics) but again, the focus here is website traffic and conversions. Your goal is to make better, more efficient, marketing decisions (channels, tactics, spend, offers) that increase your ROI. This ebook will help shed some light on how to make those decisions. We also touch on tools such as Google Tag Manager (for ad and event tracking) and also a framework to measure your content marketing. Consider this ebook a primer, and a stepping stone to deeper analytics understanding. For now, enjoy, and learn something! Paul Mosenson, Founder, NuSpark Marketing
The Cycle of Lead Generation Measurement Analytics must constantly be reviewed before, during, and post campaigns in order to optimize current and make better marketing decisions for future campaigns Insight Action Improvement Measure Analyze
The Lead Management Ecosystem Inquiries enter the funnel, and are nurtured into leads until handed off to sales. Measuring the marketing pipeline is the focus of the ebook, with an emphasis on Google Analytics as a measurement tool. Courtesy Dan Fineberg
Lead Generation Objectives According to the survey from emarketer, improving lead quality is far and away the number one objective, followed by increasing sales revenue and number of total leads. Companies need to consistently assess and optimize their strategies in order to achieve these goals, and that means careful analysis of data, including what Google Analytics tells you.
Planning to Measure A lead generation measurement program should be carefully laid out with goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each campaign. It should answer what you ll be measuring, when, and how. Goal examples: Quantity of inquiries, and cost-per-inquiry. Quality of leads, which denotes MQLs or marketing qualified leads, and a cost-per-mql. Increase in annual marketing ROI. Increase funnel conversion rates (session-to-inquiry, inquiry-to-mql, MQL-to- SAL (sales-accepted leads), and sales opportunity-to-close).
Defining Analytics Data
Introducing the Inquiry An inquiry is purely that- a prospect who has taken such an interest in a content or offer that he has agreed to offer an email address in exchange for the content. Inquiry insights: For a content inquiry, he has carefully determined that your content was valuable, knowing that although he may not be ready to buy, there is some company problem that your content may help solve, and he is prepared to receive follow-up nurture emails and or qualification calls. For a bottom-funnel inquiry; a request for a quote, consultation, assessment, trial or demo, this inquiry is more valuable and should be followed-up with within a timely manner. Measuring inquiries is the foundation of all lead generation programs at the outset; your business depends on utilizing the right channels that attract quality inquiries more likely to buy.
The Marketing Qualified Lead MQLs began as inquiries, but through a mix of continued content engagement, audience demographic segmenting, and other qualifications defined by marketing and sales together (timing, budget, industry), these leads are sent to inside sales by marketing. Some MQL insights: Inquiries need to be convinced to engage with sales. They begin as researchers, but if your content is relevant and problem-solving, these inquiries will click and read more frequently, and return to your website. The concept of lead scoring, or assigning values to prospects based on who they are and what they do is typically what transforms an inquiry or top-funnel lead to become an MQL. With the use of marketing automation linked with CRMs, there is capability of measuring cost-per-qualified lead which is the better metric to measure performance if you are able. Otherwise you should have an inquiry to MQL conversion rate prepared for planned analysis.
Website versus Landing Page Goals Google Analytics can measure both websites and landing pages; much of the reporting examples in this ebook focuses on website measurement, but can be applied to lead capture landing pages as well. Your website Traffic typically comes from organic search or referral sites; and less from advertising. (SEO is in play here) The goal of website traffic is to engage a prospect to dig deep and learn about a solution. Top funnel lead generation comes into play with compelling content offers or newsletters. Bottom funnel leads are generated via consultations, demos, trials, but after a prospect is convinced to submit their info. A landing page Landing pages are designed purely for lead (or inquiry) capture. Traffic comes purely from advertising, email, or paid search Offers can be a mix of top and bottom funnel themes, but need to be planned accordingly in your offer plan. Key metrics are conversion rate and cost-per-conversion
Next we review key metrics in Google Analytics, as a foundation to lead generation measurement. What is a Session A session is simply a visit to your website that encompasses a one or a mix of page views, interactions or transactions. If a prospect visits your site 10x in one day, that is recorded as 10 sessions. Thus sessions take into account users who visit the site more than once. A session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity, at midnight, or if the prospect returns via a unique marketing campaign.
% New Sessions New sessions are the percentage of all sessions during a predetermined time frame. New sessions are always good as you are attracting new prospects to your site. A growing percentage of returning users are even better, as returning users denote prospects are interested in your content/blogs and more likely to become leads.
What is a New User and What are these Cookies? A new user is defined as the first time a device (PC, mobile phone, etc.) or browser loads your website; Google Analytics then creates a unique ID called a client ID and sends it to their servers. These users are delivered cookies, and thus are identified as a unique person. Cookies are small pieces of data sent from a website and stored in a user s browser. Users are not necessarily new to your site, but new during the time frame being analyzed. Cookies track every data point reported on GA. Source: http://analyticsdemystified.com/general/cookies-demystified/
Clicks versus Sessions (for Advertising) Clicks are how many times an ad or promoted link was clicked by a user, which is different from a session. A new user may click an ad multiple times in the same session. So if a user clicks an ad 3x within 30 minutes, ad reports will show three clicks, but Google Analytics shows one session. A new user may click on your ad from website X, then return a day later via a direct or organic visit. Google Analytics will record the click as a new user, but track that user as two sessions
Bounce Rate A bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that visit one page during the session, then exiting. If your bounce rate is over 40% (our goal is under 40%), then many of your visitors are leaving after just visiting one page, and that s cause for concern. However blogs are usually one page long and can affect site bounce rate. It s best to create a filter, whereby blog visitors are not counted. This is implemented by creating a custom audience segment within Google Analytics (more on this later).
Two other engagement metrics Pages Per Session and Average Session Duration: These two metrics measure how engaging your website is to prospects. Pages per session may be less important nowadays depending on site design, as many Wordpress themes focus more on the scroll than the link-click. Additionally a mobile site is typically less engaging than a desktop site. It may be best to look at site engagement with Google Analytic s built-in audience segments. Below shows example segments non-bounce visits and nonconverters. Looking at these segments alongside general Google Analytic reporting can give you better insight on how your website is working to attract or not attract prospects that become conversions or leads.
Campaign Tracking Tagging URLs
What is Campaign Tagging Campaign tagging allows you to add special tracking code to your destination URL (where prospects go to after clicking ads or links), aka a tagged URL, to identify in more detail the source of your website or landing page traffic. When a visitor comes to a site that has the Google Analytics tracking code installed, Google Analytics captures a lot of data via cookies: the medium (organic, referral, direct, etc.), source (site the visitor came from), browser, screen resolution, country, metro, etc. With campaign tagging you can overwrite the cookie data with your own custom tags for more granular campaign tracking. Without campaign tagging, you have to rely on Google default definitions of traffic, which often is not enough data to make marketing decisions on. By default, Google AdWords and Google Display Network URLs in ads are automatically tagged by campaigns and ad groups, but can be overridden if need be for more specific campaign tracking needs.
Why Campaign Tagging Consolidates all marketing campaigns in Google Analytics Traffic from 3 rd party sites from advertising or social media show as referrals by default on Google Analytics. Tagging URLs identify more specifically. Email clicks by default show as direct traffic on Google Analytics. Tagging URLs in email campaigns allow you to track email clicks, by campaign or by message, for more granular email marketing analysis.
Google s URL Builder Form Google s easy-to-use form for tagging website or landing page URLs. Campaign Source: The specific source of a visit to your site or landing page Campaign Medium: The type of media campaign (search, display, retargeting, email, social-ads) Campaign Content: Offer or ad name Campaign Name: Identify your campaign (ROIwhite paper, product name, offer name)
Campaign Tag Strategy At NuSpark we use spreadsheets to list our campaign variables and create tagged URLs. As you see below, there are a number of mediums and sources we can use to track lead generation campaigns. Mediums are grouped categories of sources. We use the content variable to organize the content or offer type. The campaign is the specific offer.
Implementing Campaign Tags Finally, we use these tagged campaign URLs for all channels we need to track. Below example is what we would send Tech Target for a display campaign. http://www.nusparkmarketing.com/?utm_campaign=roi-white- paper&utm_medium=publisher-display&utm_source=tech- Target&utm_content=Content&utm_term
Measuring Offline and Direct Mail You can measure offline media, like print publications and direct mail, by doing the following: Create a vanity URL that is unique to the campaign source (i.e. nusparkmarketing.com/download). Create a campaign tag for Google Analytics, per previous slide, and use as Medium: Offline and as Source: Directmail or TradePubName. Have your IT contact prepare a 301 redirect from the vanity URL to the actual URL that includes the campaign tag. Now we can track traffic from these offline media sources.
Goals: Conversions and Events Tracking Website and Landing Page Activity in Google Analytics
Lead Generation Mechanisms You should have some form of content/offer lead generation mechanism in order to capture a mid-funnel prospect interested in your message.
Conversion Goal Strategy Conversion goals need to correspond to your business objectives and contribute to your marketing efforts. For lead generation websites, any opportunity to capture an email address (or phone call) in exchange for something of value to a prospect is a conversion, whether that prospect is ready to buy now or later. However that name has shown an interest in solving a business problem, and that s where your content nurture begins. As you ll see, not all lead conversions have equal weight. As a business, it s up to you (with our help if needed) to determine how to route a lead. A transactional conversion, meaning a quote request or a free consultation, can bypass the nurture process as that audience is already a qualified lead and thus have the highest value. Your top-funnel content conversions require nurture, so the value of these engagement conversions will be less, but still a valuable component to building a prospect database.
Conversion Tactics Below is an example of an offer plan for a website. These plans help us determine which specific goals to track, and what value to give them. More on values in a bit, but in general a value is a measure of how much a lead from a specific offer is worth to your business.
Destination Goals Destinations are specific URLs that represent a page that follows a form submission on a website or landing page; meaning a lead conversion has been confirmed. It s best to have unique URLs for each conversion type for tracking. Thank you pages offer the opportunity for upsell/cross-sell, blog subscriptions, social media follow invitations, or even another offer. In summary, it s an opportunity to further engage prospects. Thank you page conversions can be easily excluded from retargeting campaigns offered by ad networks and social media ad platforms, so that we only retarget those who do not convert.
Other Goal Conversions Other conversions to consider are an e-newsletter sign-up, or even a blog subscription. These two goals support the quality of your content and will bring people back to your site via email promotion, social, and other channels if your content is relevant. You can set up unique Thank You pages for these activities; a redirect after a form submission, or as an event conversion.
Tracking Website Events Events are website activities that do not involve a click to another website page. Event tracking is not a lead generation measure directly when it comes to forms, but offers other engagement analysis, and can be a good barometer to determine what content or other click elements work best on a website Examples of events that can be tracked; and some can be set up as a conversion goal as well. PDF downloads Outbound links (like to LinkedIn) Mobile phone calls Email submissions Form button submits when no Thank You page exits (set up as conversion goal in this case)
Enter Google Tag Manager (GTM) GTM is a Google tool that allows marketers create events, track conversions, or optimize advertising activity by adding custom HTML and java script codes without involving IT or website managers every time a new event or ad tracking pixel is needed.
Events with GTM Here are some examples of events we can set up with GTM Form submit buttons (when no Thank you page) Mobile calls (since they require clicks) Email clicks Video clicks Content downloads
Events with GTM Here s an example of creating an event to measure the number of times an ROI white paper gets downloaded (since there is no form gate). First we create a trigger (an action that causes Google to track an activity) for when the event should occur; then create the actual event so Google Analytics can measure; the event is counted only when a PDF is downloaded that contains ROI in it s title.
Advertising Tracking with GTM The goal of implementing tracking pixels is that when they fire, the ad platforms become aware, and serve ads based on click and conversion behavior. In the example: AdWords conversion pixel fires on thank you pages. Facebook, Twitter, and retargeting platforms track visits for retargeting and conversion optimization purposes. Most ad networks, DSPs (Demand Side Platforms), exchanges offer pixels for websites and landing pages, so that they can optimize ad delivery based on click-through rates and conversions.
Example 1: Adwords Conversion Tag Fires the tag when page URL contains Thank-you Then, AdWords can optimize bidding based on conversion data
Example 2: Demand Side Ad Platform (DSP) or Ad Network Tag fires when applications are submitted or purchases are made (checkout success). This conversion pixel allows networks to optimize ad delivery towards websites or audience segments most likely to convert The same ad networks offers a pixel to track all pages of a website; to optimize on click-through-rate and also serve ads for retargeting campaigns
Example 3: Facebook Facebook s pixel tracks every page on your site or landing page. Once set up, events can also be tracked by including a unique conversion code to track specific actions. These are listed to the right. For lead gen, the bottom two conversion events, lead and complete registration are most common.
Facebook Conversion Process Facebook has an alternative method to track conversions as well. Called custom conversions, these are based on various page URL rules. The purpose of setting up conversions on Facebook is to allow the platform to optimize campaign performance based on website or landing page conversion goals. To the left is an example of a lead conversion, because the URL contains thank for a Thank-You page conversion URL (confirming a lead capture).
Example 4: Other Media Twitter has its own tracking pixels for Twitter ad conversion optimization and retargeting Many default tags are available on GTM from trusted partners. Facebook is an example of a custom HTML tag
Goal and Lead Values ROI and Conversion Measurement with Google Analytics
Goal Value of Leads The value of a lead is an essential metric in order to compute ROI with Google Analytics. Values help determine how conversions impact business. By assigning different levels of values to conversions, you can weight which conversions are more important, if actual cost per lead values aren t available. Determining a Goal Value Have the average value of a sale (including lifetime value) handy and a lead-tosale conversion rate. If your average sale is $5,000, and your close rate is 5%, then the goal lead value is $250 (Average sale x close rate) Google Analytics measures value of ALL leads, whether qualified or not, so be sure to calculate the value for all leads. If you do not track lead to sale conversion rate, you can estimate value by the type of conversion as we have shown earlier.
Setting Up Goal Values You can give your goal conversions a value, especially if you have various conversions to track. Let s say 10% of inquiries become MQLs, and 10% of MQLs become sales; and your average sale is $5,000. This means that 1% of inquiries become sales, so a goal value for a content download inquiry could be $50. Or, you can use value to weight an inquiry. For example, a contact-us inquiry could be worth $100; a content download lead $20, and a newsletter sign-up $10.
Event Values You can give specific key events values as well, again depending on estimated sales conversion rates and value of a sale. This is an example of an Email goal event tracked as a conversion, using the event value as a goal value. When measuring media performance, you may wish to also give small values to items such as pages per session (like over 3), duration (over 2 minutes), or nongated PDF downloads (no form)
Calculating ROI with Conversion Goal Value Calculating ROI with Google Analytics using goal values: ((Goal Value Advertising Cost) / Advertising Cost) x 100 = ROI Example: Goal value of a lead conversion goal is $500, and the advertising cost per lead was $250 on average, the ROI would be (($500 - $250)/$250) x 100 = 100%, meaning for every dollar spent, two dollars were generated in revenue.
Using Goal Value; Example 1 To measure ROI of lead generation campaigns over a given time period, we create an Excel chart with all of the channels and lead values, with the ROI calculation ((Goal value x leads) Cost)/Cost) For the below example, paid search has broken even, and content syndication has doubled the investment. Below assumes all campaigns were promoting the same offer (and thus same lead value).
Goal Value Example 2 Here s an example of measuring results of an ongoing eblast program with CIO.com s opt-in newsletter recipients. Four different offers were promoted. Each eblast cost you $1,000. For this example, white paper 2 generated the highest ROI. The free assessment has a higher goal value (as those leads have higher closing rates) but because there were fewer leads, the ROI wasn t as good.
Goal Value Example 3 Here s an example of a paid search channel, comparing three ad groups and four campaigns. Two of the white paper campaigns rotated in the Researching solution keywords Ad group. In this scenario, the free trial shows the best ROI, and white paper #1 performing better than white paper #2.
ROI and Google Adwords With Adwords, we can now track revenue per click and ROI based on compiled goal values from your campaigns. Advanced alert: You can upload cost data for non-google search campaigns, email, or social campaigns by uploading cost data as a CSV. See link for details: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2803329?hl=en
Summary: Two methods for computing lead value
Goal Values on GA Reports Remember, goal values can be measured for non-advertising channels. Thus, they can give you a measure of how each paid and non-paid source contribute to lead generation by tracking values for each conversion goal on your website
Measuring Website Leads with Google Analytics A look at reporting Photo source- Megalytic
Conversion Reporting with Google Analytics Google Analytics provides a number of primary and secondary dimensions to provide marketing campaign analysis. We Can Track These Dimensions: Channel Medium Source Campaign Landing page Ad Content Keyword Referral Social Media
BY Secondary Dimensions Above are a sampling of the many available. By combining primary and secondary dimensions, conversion analysis is much more meaningful, with better decision making the goal
Google Analytics Default Traffic Source Dimensions: More Detail Source: The origin of your traffic (Google, Facebook, Newsletter, Ad Network, Publisher, Blog) Medium: Every source has a medium; which is defined as the type of source Google defines the traffic (Organic, cpc or cost per click campaigns, referral, or none which is direct traffic to your site) Keyword: If prospects aren t signed into Google (a Google email account), keywords can be tracked. Most keyword traffic comes from when secure search occurs and people are signed into a Google account, and show as not provided Campaign: Names of campaigns from AdWords or custom campaigns from tagged URLs. Content: Identifies specific content links in campaigns and can only be tracked via campaign tagging.
Segments As a third level of measurement, you can combine primary and secondary dimension reporting with up to four audience segments. Below are the default segments available
Custom Segments Or, you can create custom segments, and save them for more granular analysis along with your dimension selections. Below example shows four segments, which can be defined as a mix of OR and AND. Below shows sessions that include a PDF download event label, mobile traffic only, excluding any sessions that contain a conversion, and sessions do not include pages with LP in the URL (or landing page for advertising purposes). We create custom segments based on client need. It s fun!
By combining dimensions and segments very detailed (or a bit overwhelming) analyses can be done.
At the end of the day.. All the data you can measure is great, but you really want to have a plan of what reports are meaningful that lead generation decisions can be made on. We help clients define these goals and develop custom reports that make data analysis easier. Example analyses: How do mobile conversion rates compare to desktop? Does the mobile site or lead gen tactic need to be tweaked to improve conversion rates on mobile devices? What sources and channels generate the best conversion rates, conversion values, and ROI? Do some campaigns perform better than others over time; or do some campaigns perform better on display channels than social channels? Do people who visit blog pages move on to other pages and perform conversions or events?
Advanced Conversion Reporting A look at goal paths, multi-channel funnels, and attribution
Reverse Goal Path Here s a report that shows what pages lead up to a conversion (leading up to three pages), and which conversion goal occurred. It helps to know the order of pages lead up to lead-submit conversions. The paths can give you a clue on what pages are most valuable that lead to the lead capture.
Goal URL Report This one simply tells you on which pages conversions occur. Thank you pages are lead submits, but for blogs we offer free ebooks and track them as well. On our site ebooks are offered in page sidebars.
Top Conversion Paths Google Analytics includes some special reports to address the effect of a channel s (and a source/medium s) role within the conversion process. The Top Conversion Paths reports answer these questions and others by showing how your marketing channels work together to create sales and conversions This basically measures the prospect s click journey to conversion, and what channels are used to research, then perform a conversion at the end. The default path defaults to 30 days, but can be adjusted up to 90 days. Unfortunately with long buying cycles certain older paths won t show. But nevertheless this does give some insight into the effect of display and social channels, which typically do not generate impulse conversions on websites.
Assisted Conversions The Assisted Conversions report summarizes the roles and contributions of your channels. A channel can play two roles in a conversion path: Last click conversion is the interaction that immediately precedes the conversion. Assisted conversion is any interaction that is on the conversion path but is not the last click conversion. So this gives another look at how channels (and sources/mediums) when clicked, contribute to a conversion via another channel. And this is all because many of those who click on display ads, email, or social ads are in attention or interest mode, but not convert or buy mode.
Time Lag The Time Lag report shows you how many days it takes a user to perform a goal. It s interesting to compare same day visits with future visits, all the way up to 90 days. Again, nurture programs can take longer with long buying cycles in B2B, but at least here we can measure 90 day decisions. This is more of a website report rather than a landing page report, so it takes into account how your content and retargeting can bring prospects back to convert on your website.
Path Length Path Length is similar to Time Lag, except that instead of measuring days to conversion, Path Length measures the number of visits (via various channels) to conversion. The sample to the right shows a majority of the conversions occurring after two visits which is really good. After three visits, it is taking people longer to make a decision to convert. The best way to increase shorter visit conversion paths is to have more compelling website content and more opportunities for lead capture, especially within blog pages.
Google Analytics Report Notes A few keep in mind slides
Direct Traffic and non-trackable data Direct traffic is typically website visits with no identified source; usually a visit directly from a typing the URL of your website into a browser. However, if there is no identifiable source of traffic, like an untagged email click, then this is also put under Direct traffic. Again the importance of campaign tagging. Source = None, when the medium is Direct Traffic Not Provided : As stated elsewhere, this phrase shows as a keyword if a query is done on Google s engine and the user is logged into Google at the time of the search.
The dreaded Not Set This usually denotes an issue with tracking, as Google is having issues with determining the source of the visit. If you see not set showing up as the source or medium, it is likely from a mis-tagged link. If not set shows up for campaign or ad content, it is likely because these traffic sources did not have campaign or content information. If you see not set in your Paid Keywords report, this is a sign that something isn t configured correctly. You re getting Paid Search traffic from somewhere, but you re not getting the details about that traffic.
Attribution Modeling Giving credit to multi-touch campaigns
Why Attribution Modeling So you ve read about goal lead value for each conversion on your website or landing page, and about analyzing goal value with primary/secondary dimensions and segments, AND you recently have seen reports that show how channels work together to generate a last-click conversion. BUT as you can surmise, is that all of those other channels that generated non-converted clicks or assisted conversions do have value, and attribution attempts to put a monetary lead value on these channels that contribute to final last-click conversions. Depending on your business model and how important first, middle, and last interactions are, attribution modeling attempts to give these other channels a value weight as compared to the current default of 100% to the last-click to conversion channel.
The Seven Default Attribution Models in Google Analytics Last Interaction Model The Last Interaction model attributes 100% of the conversion value to the last channel with which the customer interacted before buying or converting. It s the best model if your campaigns are purely designed for impulse decision-making Last Non-Direct Click Model This is the default model in Google Analytics. Use this model to compare to other models. The last non-direct click model attributes conversion credit to the last channel in the conversion path that is not direct. Last AdWords Click Model The Last AdWords Click model attributes 100% of the conversion value to the most recent AdWords ad that the customer clicked before buying or converting. Use this to analyze AdWords effectiveness no matter at what point a click happens in the conversion path. First Interaction Model The First Interaction model attributes 100% of the conversion value to the first channel with which the customer interacted. This model is appropriate if you run ads or campaigns to create initial awareness of your brand. Linear Model The linear model provides equal credit to all channels involved in a conversion path. If there are five channels in the conversion path, each will get 20% of the credit for the conversion. Thus, you give equal credit to each touch point in the buyer s journey. Time Decay Model The time decay model most heavily credits the touch points that occurred nearest to the time of conversion. This is a great model when measuring promotional campaigns and you want to give more value to clicks closest to a conversion rather than earlier. Position Based Model The position based model provides more credit to the first and last channels in the conversion process while distributing the rest of the credit equally to the channels in-between. Use this model to give the heaviest credit to first and last click conversions.
Attribution Examples Note how the three models below vary and how the goal values are distributed by model. By giving Channel X credit in the buyer journey, the value of the channel increases as compared to the last-click conversion attribution
Content Marketing & Nurture A brief overview of content measurement Source: Newscred
Measuring Content Marketing: A KPI List Enewsletter subscription growth Content consumption via downloads (via event tracking and form conversions) Formats and media type engagement (text, video, audio) Event registrations Social media engagement (likes, retweets, shares) Email opens and clicks; comparing blast with nurture email metrics Pipeline influence; sales-leads, opportunities, revenue These are some of the items worth measuring in order to evaluate content success. Below is a good chart from Eloqua showing many of these KPIs. Eloqua s KPI grid
Content Measurement Grid; Metric Pillars What to Measure Content KPIs REACH Impressions Traffic Subscribers How many readers of pages and content assets? How many blog and newsletter subscribers? ENGAGEMENT Time on page Bounce rate Social sharing CONVERSIONS Lead generation Opportunities Sales lift Are people spending time with your content? Are they sharing and interacting with it? Are you driving quality leads? Are you increasing sales?
Stages of Content For B2B lead generation, customer acquisition takes time. Content needs to be strategically planned throughout the buying cycle. Each buying stage has its own set of metrics: Awareness Consideration Purchase Post-purchase.
MQL Report Cards Using a mix of Google Analytics, Marketing Automation and your CRM, you should be measuring your MQL results consistently, and optimizing based on trends Source: Newscred
Back to Google Analytics: Content Groupings An optional primary dimension within Google Analytics, Content Groupings lets you group content into a logical structure that reflects how you think about your site. In other words, you can aggregate content into themes, and measure conversions by these themes. The analysis can give you clues on what people like to read and engage with on your website. The objective of this approach is to determine what keywords in URLs or page titles contribute to higher site engagement and conversions. Although a popular ecommerce approach, lead generation sites can take advantage of this feature as well. Next page for examples.
Content Grouping Examples Content Groupings are in the Admin section of GA. Here are examples of some content groupings that you may wish to measure (up to 5) URLs contain (or do not contain) blog URLs contain (or do not contain) PDF URLs contain Services (to track service page visitors) Page titles contain About
Nurture Metrics Many marketing automation platforms include robust reporting features that can help measure what occurs after initial inquiries are generated due to marketing campaigns. Some of the key nurturing metrics to be analyzed: Open rates: Measures the relevance of your message, offers and subject-lines as it relates to the quality of your list segments Click-through rates: The percentage of email recipients who click on a link within an email. Content relevancy as promoted in the email is the biggest factor here. Lead-to-conversion time: If lead scoring is implemented properly, and content relevant, prospects should engage within their buying cycle and when appropriate, be sent to sales for follow-up. If lead scores aren t increasing over time, you need to address messaging, offers, as well as proper list segmenting.
Analyzing Nurture Campaigns By carefully analyzing nurture flows, including email metrics, what content worked the best, the number of MQL s generated, and how many of those become sales, insights can be shown, and future campaigns optimized.
Multi-touch Analytics Marketo s (Marketing Automation Platform) includes a firsttouch/multi-touch pipeline report, but not all platforms have this level of reporting. This shows how nurture campaigns affect sales opportunities
More Information on Marketing Measurement For more information on measuring media and various other lead generation topics, visit our website to download ebooks such as: A Strategic Guide to Lead Generation using Pay-Per-Click The Great Online Display Advertising Guide Convert! Optimizing Website and Landing Pages for Lead Generation And More. http://www.nusparkmarketing.com/ebooks-webinars-b2b-content/
About NuSpark Marketing We are a team of marketers who craft and implement online B2B and B2C marketing programs focused on a single goal generating demand for our clients. Our Approach: We start with the end in mind leads and sales opportunities and work from there using the three building blocks of a successful marketing program Create We craft your buyer personas and content strategy. Then, we create compelling content that attracts prospects, converts leads and shortens your buying cycle. Connect We connect your company with your target audience and build relationships via social media, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and online display. Convert We convert your online traffic into leads through website and landing page optimization, marketing automation, and lead nurturing.
Contact Us NuSpark Marketing http://www.nusparkmarketing.com/ (610) 604-0639 Ask for Paul Mosenson, Founder and President Mailto:pmosenson@nusparkmarketing.com