
Search is fragmenting – credibility and trust create the new visibility
Online search behaviour has changed significantly with the rise of AI. How can African brands adapt to this new marketing landscape?
MARKETING METRICS
By our News Team | 2022
You can’t monitor and analyse every digital marketing metric out there. So, it’s important to identify what’s relevant to you.
There are a huge number of metrics a business can track, but not all are vital to driving organisational growth and success. So, what digital marketing metrics should be on a marketer’s list?
Writing in Entrepreneur magazine, Auria Moore, CEO of CLEVR AI in California and an advisor to several intelligence companies, names some of the key metrics on her list. Among them:
Photo by Burak The Weekender from Pexels
Traffic sources
You need to know where your website visitors are coming from. Did they visit your website after searching for you? Was it after clicking on a referral partner’s link? Was it after seeing a social media post? Knowing how many people visit your website every month is essential, but it’s equally valuable to identify how they’re finding you.
Time on site
When visitors browse your website, it’s meaningful to discover how long they’re browsing. This valuable metric reveals how interested visitors are in your content and if you are attracting exemplary visitors.
If you see that visitors are only browsing on your website for a few seconds, it could be an indicator that they either didn’t end up on the site they were looking for, or quickly realised they’re disinterested in what you’re offering. On the flip side, if you see that visitors are on your website for multiple minutes, it can signal that you have content the market is interested in.
Engagement
When posting on social media, sending promotional emails, or displaying ads, it’s only natural for a marketer to measure engagement rates. For example, are there some of your Instagram posts that have more ‘likes’ than others? Are there specific days that get better post response, open rate, or click rate than others? Knowing audience-engagement preferences and habits will help you communicate with them better.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
There is a cost associated with every customer — acquiring customers for free is a marketing fairytale. Businesses need to measure how much it costs to acquire customers throughout their buying journey.
This metric will help you understand whether or not a campaign was indeed successful, if your investment was well spent, how to maximise the marketing budget, and will affirm whether or not you’re targeting the right buyers.
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Loyalty is hard to come by, but it’s easy to measure. How much customers are likely to spend on your brand during their lifetime is an essential metric when you are evaluating how much to invest in marketing to them. This is an important metric that indicates the total financial value a customer brings.
“When thinking about what to measure, start here: ‘What questions do I need answers to about my brand and customers?’ Then look to data to find the answers,” advises Moore.
You can read the full article here.

Online search behaviour has changed significantly with the rise of AI. How can African brands adapt to this new marketing landscape?

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