While there are many data points that brands can track, there are four key per­for­mance mar­ket­ing met­rics that are essen­tial in deter­min­ing how cam­paigns are per­form­ing, how dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing spend can be opti­mized, and the over­all suc­cess or fail­ure of a brand’s dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing efforts.

As Inter­net and mobile phone usage increas­es, so does the pres­sure on brands to suc­cess­ful­ly adver­tise to poten­tial cus­tomers through dig­i­tal chan­nels.

Accord­ing to For­rester Research, U.S. online dis­play ad spend­ing will increase 90 per­cent from $19.8 bil­lion in 2014 to $37.6 bil­lion in 2019. One of the largest chal­lenges brands face as spend­ing increas­es is prop­er­ly track­ing and mea­sur­ing the results of that spend­ing.

Here are four key per­for­mance mar­ket­ing met­rics brands should track.

1. Earnings Per Click (EPC)

One of the most impor­tant met­rics brands can track is earn­ings per click, or EPC. This fig­ure is deter­mined by divid­ing com­mis­sions, or poten­tial com­mis­sion, by the amount of traf­fic, or num­ber of clicks, dri­ven to a site.

EPC is so impor­tant because it pro­vides a quick and easy way to deter­mine the earn­ing poten­tial of refer­ring traf­fic to a site, or set of offers. By com­par­ing EPCs for dif­fer­ent brand sites or offers, affil­i­ates can eas­i­ly see the prof­itabil­i­ty of dri­ving traf­fic to those sites or offers.

Ben­e­fit: As long as affil­i­ates know their cost per click, or the cost they incur when dri­ving a click to a brand’s site, they can com­pare that num­ber to the EPC they are earn­ing and instant­ly see prof­it or loss.

2. Conversions

Anoth­er key met­ric in deter­min­ing the val­ue of per­for­mance mar­ket­ing efforts is the con­ver­sion rate, which is the per­cent­age of total traf­fic that is con­vert­ing. Ban­ner ads can be dis­played and traf­fic can be dri­ven to sites all day long. How­ev­er, if that traf­fic is not mak­ing the desired action, brands won’t be mak­ing sales and, there­fore, affil­i­ates won’t be earn­ing com­mis­sions.

In addi­tion to track­ing the con­ver­sion rate, it is also impor­tant to track which chan­nels are dri­ving con­ver­sions. By the time a poten­tial con­sumer con­verts, they have like­ly come in con­tact with mul­ti­ple dig­i­tal adver­tis­ing chan­nels – search, dis­play, email, social, mobile, etc.

Know­ing the com­bi­na­tion of chan­nels that have led to con­ver­sions is crit­i­cal for brands when deter­min­ing which chan­nels to con­tin­ue fund­ing and which to elim­i­nate. Yet, when it comes time to deter­mine the ROI of spend­ing on those chan­nels, brands too often rely on cred­it­ing just the last chan­nel to touch the con­sumer. In real­i­ty, that cred­it should be spread across mul­ti­ple chan­nels.

Ben­e­fit: By track­ing and com­par­ing con­ver­sion rates across chan­nels, brands can see which are con­vert­ing at the high­est rates, allow­ing them to adjust the meth­ods they use to dri­ve traf­fic to those chan­nels accord­ing­ly.

3. Clicks & Impressions

Track­ing and ana­lyz­ing clicks and impres­sions are an impor­tant bench­mark in mea­sur­ing the suc­cess of per­for­mance mar­ket­ing as well. The vol­ume of impres­sions indi­cates the num­ber of times that an ad has appeared on screen in front of poten­tial cus­tomers. The click-through rate lets brands know the num­ber of times that poten­tial cus­tomers have clicked on those impres­sions.

Ben­e­fit: Impres­sions can show the effec­tive­ness of a brand aware­ness cam­paign while click-through rates can show how effec­tive­ly ad cre­ative and mes­sag­ing is get­ting view­ers to take the next step toward the desired out­come.

4. Engagement

Track­ing deep­er than just the final sale or con­ver­sion can give brands insight into how con­sumers inter­act with ads and dig­i­tal assets. Rather than just track­ing actu­al con­ver­sions, brands can great­ly ben­e­fit from track­ing log-ins, app down­loads, pageviews. and shop­ping cart aban­don­ment. This will give a more accu­rate depic­tion of cus­tomer behav­ior.

Ben­e­fit: Track­ing engage­ment shows which dig­i­tal assets are per­form­ing and lead­ing to con­ver­sions.

Bringing It All Together

Each of these four met­rics are crit­i­cal for mea­sur­ing the per­for­mance of the actions brands are tak­ing to dri­ve traf­fic and reach con­ver­sions. These four met­rics must each be weighed against the cost that is incurred in obtain­ing con­ver­sions to deter­mine prof­itabil­i­ty. There­fore, hav­ing a clear under­stand­ing of the exact cost involved in reach­ing con­ver­sions is the only way to prop­er­ly deter­mine the return on invest­ment of a brand’s per­for­mance mar­ket­ing efforts.

Dis­play ad spend­ing will near­ly dou­ble in the next five years. There­fore, brands are not only going to have to increase the amount they are spend­ing, but jus­ti­fy that spend by report­ing back on the ROI of their dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing efforts. This report­ing is only pos­si­ble through track­ing key met­rics, pro­vid­ing a roadmap for opti­miz­ing dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing spend.

Are you track­ing these four key met­rics? Any oth­ers you’d add to the list?