Mapping Digital Marketing KPIs To Business Outcomes via @sejournal, @coreydmorris
In an ever-increasing world of messy attribution – thanks to privacy law changes, differing platform conversion tracking methods, new sources emerging like AI, and even just continuing to deal with Google Analytics 4 – digital marketing and search key performance indicators (KPIs) can be tough to stand behind or have a lot of confidence in.
We have a lot of great third-party dashboard tools, reporting integrations, and software to help us.
Plus, there are custom routes for data visualization and APIs. Even if you’re a wizard with analytics and pulling it all together, there are still risks and challenges with marketing KPIs.
Whether you’re part of an in-house digital marketing team, an agency, or simply wearing a lot of hats – including digital marketing and analytics – leaving KPIs open to interpretation or not having a complete story to tell is a big risk.
Believing that digital marketing – specifically search marketing – is an investment that should yield returns, I’ve seen firsthand how things can go sideways when we can’t connect the dots between dollars spent and dollars earned.
I’m going to unpack several aspects of marketing versus business goals to help shed some light on how to get the best of both and get things in alignment.
Why Good Marketing Metrics Can Still Get You Fired
It wasn’t until I started writing my book a couple of years ago that I unpacked and started telling my personal story (one that goes back nearly two decades) about how I learned the hard way just how important this topic is.
In my first role as an agency SEO, one of my first clients was a local attorney. I put into practice a great SEO strategy, and after four months, we saw great rankings, increased traffic, and even conversions through web form submissions.
I was stoked going into my monthly reporting meeting with the client. Back then, my reports were generated by software and were pages long. I printed it on glossy paper, stapled it neatly, and got ready for the meeting.
When the client sat down, I walked him through page after page of green numbers and upward-trending graphs.
When I got to the end, there was silence. Then, the client shared that he knew I was working hard and had no problem with these metrics.
However, he hadn’t landed a single new client or case from all of this SEO work. Worse, his front-office staff spent a lot of time on the phone screening bad leads.
My stomach dropped.
That day, I learned the hard way: SEO KPIs don’t equal business goals or return on investment (ROI).
The good news is that I recovered from that, and it wasn’t the end of the client relationship.
However, I hope that gives you some context as to why, at least for lead generation, we can’t just stop at conversions or make dangerous assumptions that they are positively impacting the business.
I don’t want anyone blindsided by things that could have been prevented. That includes making assumptions that key stakeholders – or even those two or three levels removed – can connect the dots between marketing expenses or investments and actual returns.
Yes, some things in marketing are harder than others to quantify, such as branding and design projects. However, there should be a key metric somewhere that you can measure.
The KPI-ROI Disconnect
Starting “at the end” is a recommended approach for getting as deep into business metrics and mapping things out as possible.
Whether you do this during a broader strategy and planning process or you/your team have to do it ad hoc, it is worth doing.
Understanding the complete picture of how your organization (or client) makes money is key. Even in non-profits, this applies.
If you can get to the ultimate business metric that defines performance and success for your organization, then you have the opportunity to work backward from that to connect it to marketing based on the metrics along the way.
For some organizations, this is easy. For others, it’s a challenge, hitting roadblocks with getting the data, getting through silos, or getting a complete picture.
Examples of some of the business metrics that might be tracked include revenue, margin, lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, and some level of ROI (if not connected with margin metrics).
Those are not the most common metrics when it comes to digital marketing. Search and digital marketing metrics often translate to conversions, visits, clicks, click-through rates, return on ad spend (ROAS), and similar.
When you can map things out and see beyond the deepest digital marketing KPI to how it impacts the business metrics, you can get to a defensible and accountable position for the ROI of marketing versus leaving gaps or leaving it up to a “feel” test or someone else’s interpretation of success.
Bridging The Gap
Marketing and business teams need to align to ensure shared success.
At this point, if any of these points or scenarios resonate with you, you might wonder, “How did we even get here?”
That’s a question I’ve encountered personally and one I’ve helped coach through during my career. When there’s a gap or disconnect somewhere, it can often be traced back to one of these reasons:
- We didn’t start with a defined strategy and planning process.
- We didn’t loop stakeholders in the strategy/plan.
- We didn’t get new or changing stakeholders up to speed on digital marketing/search marketing strategies and plans.
- We inherited the ecosystem or plan.
- We didn’t challenge changes in expectations along the way.
- We encountered changes in tech (reporting, attribution, customer relationship management (CRM)) and didn’t adapt.
- We have too much on our plate already and not enough time.
- We don’t know how to navigate politics or the workings of the C-suite and other functions.
I could go on and build an even longer list, but it is too painful. My honest hope is that we can all continue to work to build bridges between functions.
Sometimes, it isn’t fun to step outside the search and digital marketing bubble, but at times, it is in our best interest – for us, our teams, and our organizations.
Gaps often exist due to ignorance, arrogance, people protecting their territory, or other factors. Unfortunately, closing them can be harder than doing the deep level of subject-matter expertise work that you are paid to do.
Finding common ground, aligning metrics at different levels, and getting consensus on what you’re doing – what it can impact and why it is important – are critical to avoid both the surprise “firings” or tough conversations that happen the longer things are not addressed.
Address The Gap Before It Hurts The Business
No matter the size or structure of a business or organization, gaps between digital marketing KPIs and business outcomes seem inevitable.
In some cases, things map out easily with just a little extra effort going beyond the digital marketing department or function – whether internal or as an external partner.
Regardless, getting fired or losing a contract over a KPI-business gap is extreme – the real risk and outcome we don’t want.
At the same time, we don’t want to spend our days dealing more with politics than SEO, paid search, or other digital marketing.
Recognizing gaps, addressing them, working as a team to link things up, and staying on the same page leads to respect, predictability, and a mindset shift – one where digital marketing is seen as an investment instead of an expense.
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