40 marketing KPIs: performance indicators to monitor closely

A marketing KPI is an indicator used to analyze 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 analyze the effectiveness of a digital marketing strategy in each of its phases:

• acquisition; for example, attracting traffic to your site ;
• engagement; for example, generating interest via social networks;
• conversion; example: convincing visitors through quality content;
• retention; 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:

See all software Data Analytics

Identify 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 which source of traffic is most profitable for you.

Here are the main marketing KPIs to track in order to know exactly which sources are driving traffic to your website.

1. Direct traffic

This indicator measures the number of URLS addresses your site directly fills in web browsers to access your site's pages.

This includes :

• clicks on URLS classified in a browser's favorites,
• 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 pages on your website are the most popular, the ones that generate the most interest.

2. Referral traffic

This refers to Internet users visiting a site other than yours, who 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 your site's SEO; an unrelated site is penalizing;


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


• your site's popularity: the more links you have, the more popular your site is (if the links are quality ones).

3. Organic traffic generated by your SEO actions

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

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

The main marketing KPI to analyze on a regular basis is the number of visitors you attract by keywords, when Internet users click on links in 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 must, of course, is always to be in the top 10 results to attract the maximum possible number of visitors.

4. Paid traffic from advertising

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

• Adwords keyword purchases (Google),
• same principle with Bing Ads,
• Facebook Ads,
• banner ads on third-party sites,
• etc.

Why is this indicator important?

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

5. Traffic from social networks

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

Why is this indicator important?

It enables you to identify, for example

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

6. Emailing traffic

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

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI makes it possible to :

• Study the relevance of messages sent,
• improve email campaign targeting,
• optimize communication and email marketing.

Evaluate 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 and last name)?


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

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

7. Total number of visits

This is the number of times your website has been visited over a given period.

Why is this indicator important?

• You can compare this indicator every month to see if you're 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 enables you to study changes in your readers' behavior. If they return to your site regularly, it's because your content is interesting and represents a certain value in the eyes of your readers.

9. Number of regular vs. new readers

This differentiates between regular 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 optimized for search engines should generate new entries... while retaining old readers through other actions.

10. Time spent on your site

It's in your interest to analyze the time spent on your site, and more specifically on certain pages.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI is essential for a number of reasons:

• 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 SEO: 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 page views, you need to determine which pages are most viewed, least viewed and never viewed.

Why are these KPIs important?

• You can identify which pages are performing well and which need improvement,
• you can compare high-performing pages to identify strengths (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 your site's tree structure and correct their 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 percentage marketing KPI important?

• if the bounce rate is high, it's likely that your content isn't interesting enough, or that your call-to-actions (CTAs) aren't relevant;
• if the bounce rate is low, your content is qualitative, 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 landing page form will be counted.

This percentage is also known as the conversion rate.

Why is this indicator important?

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

• If your conversion rate is high, you've got a well-oiled machine.


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


• Beware of web pages that generate a lot of leads, but are of poor quality. You'll be wasting time requalifying relevant leads from uninteresting ones. If your leads are of poor quality, your sales force 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 closely monitored.

14. Number of subscribers

Depending on the social network, this may include :

• 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's 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 subscribers 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 uses the term reach to evaluate the potential reach of his or her 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 may 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 visibility potential of a given audience.
• It allows you to estimate the maximum number of users who can be exposed to your message.

16. Number of impressions of a publication

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 surfer 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 it. 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 publication type

Engagement is the number of interactions with your publications:

• shares,
• likes, favorites,
• comments,
• clicks on your links,
• emoticon reactions 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 analyze the results of social networks, particularly in terms of the number of clicks: you can correlate these statistics with those of your site.

18. The number of brand-related influencers

Influencers who subscribe to your accounts are a gold mine! 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 notoriety of your brand, product or service.

Provided the influencer speaks positively about you... and becomes an ambassador.

Recruiting influencers is part of a successful social media strategy.

Measuring the effectiveness of your email campaigns

Let's talk about measuring the performance of your email marketing campaigns. Emailing 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 to be scrupulously analyzed on a regular basis.

19. Deliverability rate

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

Why is this indicator important?

• you need to keep a close eye on this indicator every time you send an e-mail, because your reputation as a sender is constantly at stake;


• Internet service providers have set up filters to prevent unwanted e-mails from reaching your inbox;


• what's more, the RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) has prohibited you from sending unwanted commercial emails (especially in B2C) since May 25, 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. Open rate

This rate reflects the number of your e-mails 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 of no interest to your target audience,
• It's a good idea to segment your contact lists, adapt your messages to your targets and practice A/B testing to optimize your open rate.

21. Click-through rate

Open e-mails containing at least one link. Click-through rate refers to the number of clicks made on the link(s), expressed 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 unlocked the secrets of email marketing success - congratulations!

22. The rate of email placement in a folder

Like a URL bookmarked in a web browser, the recipient of your e-mail 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 e-mail;
• you can thus detect which email campaigns or newsletters have aroused the most interest;
• on the other hand, a lead who has placed one of your e-mails in a folder means that this lead is maturing in the conversion funnel: keep a close eye on this!

23. Transfer rate

This rate indicates how many times your e-mail has been forwarded.

Why is this indicator important?

• if the forwarding rate is high, it's because your e-mail has aroused strong interest, so strong that it's provoking word-of-mouth!
• if it's not, ask yourself why your recipients would want to share your messages.

24. Deletion rate

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

Why is this indicator important?

If your deletion rate is high or rising steadily, chances are 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. Unsubscribe rate

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

Why is this indicator important?

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

In the case of mass unsubscribing, it's 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 summarize the indicators we've just detailed:

Determining the profitability of an advertising campaign

Let's turn now to the KPIs that 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 a paid advertisement, a sponsored link based on a keyword on Google or Facebook for example. Every time someone clicks on the link, you pay.

Why is this indicator important?

Calculating CPC lets you 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 ambitions, you might consider purchasing less competitive keywords, or allocating more budget to your advertising investments.

27. CPM or cost per thousand

In a display campaign, you pay for your ad to be displayed on third-party sites. You spend a budget per thousand displays of your ad.

Why is this indicator important?

Depending on the objective of your ad, calculating the CPM allows you to determine the investment required to reach 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'll 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: you get the cost per lead.

Why is this indicator important?

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

While the ideal objective is always to spend less to obtain more leads, this generality 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. Revenue per conversion

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 by the total number of conversions.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI enables you to evaluate 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 a series of stages, during which he or she is fed information to mature until the act of purchase.

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 must 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. It's a hot lead: it's reached the end of the sales tunnel.

Why is this indicator important?

Here again, precise scoring enables us to detect this type of contact. Depending on the behavioral criteria you've determined upstream (request for 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 marketing-generated opportunities

Marketing actions generate qualified sales opportunities at every stage of the sales funnel.

The aim is to determine all the potential sales opportunities that marketing brings to the sales department, by quantifying them.

Why is this indicator important?

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


• it demonstrates marketing's ability to generate opportunities;


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


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

33. Sales reaction time

This is the time elapsed between a prospect's request and the salesperson's response.

Why is this indicator important?

You have to strike while the iron is hot. A customer with a high level of interest and business potential shouldn't experience any "latency" when requesting a quote !

The risk of keeping this type of contact waiting is that he'll go and see the competition.

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

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

34. 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 to know

Certain indicators help you to take the necessary step back and compare the investments 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 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,
• so you can rebalance your budget on the channels that bring you the most opportunities.

36. Number of leads generated per offer

Quite simply, this is the number of contacts interested in an offer.

Why is this indicator important?

• you can detect which offers are most in demand and which generate the fewest leads,
• you can concentrate your communication efforts on the most attractive, high-performance sales offers.

37. CAC or customer acquisition cost

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

Why is this indicator important?

Customer acquisition marketing strategies are always aimed at maximizing the return on the actions undertaken 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. 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 on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

Why is this indicator important?

This marketing KPI is very important, especially for service businesses that sell on a subscription basis, such as SaaS software.

What's more, a prospect to be won over costs more than a customer who buys again. Get ahead of the game: set up a relationship program 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 a company derives from a customer.

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

It is advisable to segment this measurement 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 customer acquisition cost and 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 marketing KPIs

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

To get a readable and coherent reading of your indicators, you need to have marketing indicators integrated into a personalized dashboard that includes your objectives.

In 2015, a study by Adetem (Association Nationale des professionnels du Marketing) already revealed the importance of data analysis tools:

• Only 60% of marketing managers had marketing metrics 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: they enable you to better manage your marketing actions. 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 customized, graphical dash board, making marketing KPIs easier to read and decisions easier to take.

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

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

ClicData makes your work easier, allowing you to concentrate on analyzing your data. You can even set up 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 extracts data to build a customized dashboard.

You configure your pre-designed 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 visualizations to enhance data reading.

• Cyfe is available in English only.
• Cyfe price: 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.

On the downside, the number of connectors is less impressive than that of its 2 competitors.

There are, however, highly 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 lets you customize your dashboard and create reports, while saving time on data extraction.

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