The questions: “where do the sales come from”; “what is the conversion rate”; “how long does a conversion take” … we usually don’t get an answer.
In 99.9% of cases it would be sufficient to have:
- Accurate Analytics tracking.
- Knowledge of the Analytics tool and constant observation of the data.
Needless to say, most cases are woefully deficient on point 2.
NB I write “analytics”, referring to any data analysis tool, even if we are mostly talking about Google Analytics or Firebase.
The result of this context is the classic, totally fallacious measurement of return on investment .
Recurring (and very understandable) phrases to accompany:
With the other agency I spent a lot and got nothing
We invested n-thousand€ on Google Ads “and it doesn’t work very well” (but in the absence of precise data)
My competitor sells a lot with Social Networks!! (this is also a perception, in the absence of data)
I tried to do some Facebook Ads campaigns and I sold a lot, but then I stopped (same as above)
KPI and ROI in Online Marketing Strategy: 3 Mistakes to Avoid
Better to start from scratch. If you sell products viber database or services online, then you must first put things in order, distinguishing the ROI (Return on Investment) from the KPI (performance indicators) and avoid dangerous mistakes.
[We also recently talked about KPI and E-Commerce.Here: www.bee-social.it/kpi-ecommerce-negozio-online ]
With that in mind, beware of the pitfalls of measuring returns on investment:
- You don’t want to measure ROI too quickly. A key piece of data is to understand the average length of the sales cycle by channel and market.
- After the average conversion time of that specific e-commerce, the results have arrived. Although not exhaustive – since it does not take into account the invested budget – the conversion rate increases and, consequently, the revenue.
Let’s look at two real-world examples.
No rush. An exemplary case: a site that sells online services in freemium mode (= you use the service at least partially for free; if you want to unlock certain options you have to pay) tells us that the marketing activities implemented in the first two months of activity are not having an impact on conversions and therefore wants to stop investing.
Quick observation: the average conversion time of this online service was 60 days . Data easily found in Analytics under Conversions – Multi-Channel Funnels – Time to Conversion . Ergo, it was necessary to insist and be patient.
You shouldn’t have too much faith in KPIs
Result: all it took was waiting and keeping the right-click on the windows directory bar straight to bring home a conversion growth figure (paid premium account, in this case) that was on average higher than 100%, period after period.
Analytics, however, in my humble opinion means tracking and observation , regardless of individual tools like Google Analytics.
In another case, in fact, a company that sells online consultancy manages to re-modulate its sales effort (and therefore optimize its work , its time) simply by observing two basic statistics on potential customers obtained from a sales contact management tool such as Pipedrive:
- Unsigned contracts, lost burkina faso leads customers – Potential customers who did NOT sign a contract kept commercial negotiations open for more than 25 days.
KPIs – acronym for Key Performance Indicators – are a signal that provides information on how certain activities are being carried out , on the market and competition conditions at that given moment, and on what to improve in terms of the activities (tactics) implemented.
Examples of sentences that should set off the alert level: “ we need to reach that level of CPC (cost per click) ”; or “ we have a CTR that is too low ” or “ we absolutely must all have 10/10 quality scores in Google Ads ”.