There’s no two ways about it: digital marketing requires investment – in time, in resources, and in budget. And making sure that investment pays off is key. So how exactly are you meant to measure your digital marketing success?
Whether it’s ongoing social media marketing to boost brand awareness, paid online ads, or a big multi-channel campaign, to quantifiably measure and evaluate your performance, you need to focus on the right metrics.
In this article, we’ll talk you through how to set measurable goals, choosing the right key performance indicators (KPIs), different tactics for measuring across your digital marketing channels, and how to measure the non-tangible things like campaign awareness and brand familiarity.
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What are digital marketing metrics?
Digital marketing metrics measure the success of your marketing efforts and how well campaigns are tracking towards your KPIs. Metrics are one of the most important parts of marketing, because without them there’d be no way to tell if your strategy is working.
The specific metrics you measure will vary depending on the campaign, your goals and the digital channels you’re using. For example, while website rankings are a great indicator of your organic SEO strategy, it won’t tell you anything about how well your marketing emails are going.
In a nutshell, marketing metrics measure the impact of your campaign, allowing marketers to optimise existing campaigns and plan for the future based on what’s working – and what’s not!
What does ‘vanity metrics’ mean?
You might have heard people talking about vanity metrics in contrast with actionable metrics when it comes to digital marketing.
In theory, vanity metrics are numbers that look good on the surface but don’t actually tell you anything useful about business performance or help you make decisions. They’re often easy to inflate or manipulate, for example buying followers or running clickbait ads. And they rarely translate into real value, like leads, sales or loyal customers.
Some of these so-called vanity metrics can act as good leading indicators – as long as you aren’t gaming them! For example, the number of actual, genuine followers your brand has on social media means the more potential reach, means the more potential for lead generation.
Why do you need KPIs for digital marketing?
Your KPIs are the goals you set for your marketing performance. Goals give your marketing direction, purpose, and a way to measure success. They align your work with the business’s bigger picture – whether that’s growth, revenue, retention or brand awareness.
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How to set marketing goals
Many people struggle to set and achieve their marketing goals. And the main reason for this is because the goals aren’t focused and achievable. We recommend using the SMART framework to set your digital marketing goals:
Specific
Say exactly what you want to achieve.
✅ Example: “Increase email subscribers”
❌ Not: “Do better email marketing”
Measurable
Attach a number so you can track it.
✅ “Grow subscriber list by 25%”
❌ “Grow the list a lot”
Achievable
Be realistic. Ambition is good — delusion is not.
✅ “Grow traffic by 20% in 3 months”
❌ “Get 1 million followers overnight”
Relevant
Make sure the goal connects to business outcomes.
✅ “Improve conversion rate to increase sales”
❌ “Get more likes for fun”
Time-bound
Set a clear deadline.
✅ “Generate 100 leads by Q3”
❌ “Eventually increase leads”
Put it all together, and you’ve got a pretty SMART KPI to track your efforts against!
Here are some examples of what your SMART targets might look like:
• Generate 500 qualified leads from paid ads by the end of Q2
• Increase organic website traffic by 30% over the next 6 months
• Improve email open rate to 25% within 90 days
• Reduce customer acquisition cost by 15% in one quarter
• Grow YouTube subscribers by 1,000 by year-end
16 digital marketing metrics to measure success
Now you’ve got your goal in place, you can measure it using the metrics below. You won’t use every single one of these metrics to form your KPIs for every single campaign. We’ve just covered the key ones for a variety of channels and goals.
1. Return on investment (ROI)
What is it?
ROI is a financial metric used to evaluate how profitable an investment is. It measures the profit or loss of a particular investment relative to its cost. For example, if you invest a marketing budget of £1,000 into a project, and then make £1,200 in a year’s time, the ROI would be 20%.
How to measure it:
(Revenue – Cost) ÷ Cost x 100
Why it matters:
ROI tells you if your marketing is making or losing money.
2. Website traffic
What is it?
This is the volume of users visiting your website. You can measure this as an overall total, or break it down by channel to see exactly where that traffic is coming from (e.g. organic traffic, paid traffic, social media traffic).
How to measure it:
Using tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console, or third party tools like SEMrush.
Why it matters:
This broad, top of the funnel metric shows reach and interest in your website.
3. Conversion rate (CVR)
What is it?
In marketing, conversion rate is the percentage of users that take a desired action after being exposed to your campaign or website. This action might be making a purchase, signing up to a newsletter, or downloading a brochure – whatever the aim of your campaign is.
How to measure it:
(Conversions ÷ Visitors) x 100
Why it matters:
Not only does conversion rate help attribute a real, numerical figure to your marketing efforts, it’s also a great way to identify areas of improvement and optimise your customers’ online experiences to boost conversions.
4. Bounce rate
What is it?
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors of your website that navigate away after viewing only one page. For example, if a page had a bounce rate of 60%, this means that 60% of visitors only visited one page before leaving your website, whereas 40% clicked through to another page.
How to measure it:
Total number of single-page sessions / Total sessions
Why it matters:
Bounce rate indicates how engaging your website is, the quality of your content, user experience, and how well you’ve optimised it for SEO.
5. New & returning visitors
What is it?
The number of new or returning visitors on your website.
How to measure it:
Using tools like Google Analytics.
Why it matters:
If your goal is to increase returning customers or reach out into new markets, measuring your new and returning visitors is key to seeing how successful your campaign has been.
6. Click through rate (CTR)
What is it?
CTR measures the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown. Broadly speaking, it’s the proportion of visitors that follow a link to a site.
How to measure it:
(Clicks ÷ Impressions) x 100
Why it matters:
CTR is important because it reflects how well your ads or content marketing are resonating with your target audience. A low click-through rate on a paid social post may mean that the campaign isn’t effectively grabbing attention or driving clicks.
7. Cost per acquisition (CPA)
What is it?
Cost per acquisition (sometimes known as cost per action) measures how much it costs to get a user to complete a desired action, such as make a purchase or complete a lead generation form.
How to measure it:
Total Spend ÷ Number of Acquisitions
Why it matters:
Knowing your CPA means you know exactly how much your marketing campaign is costing per conversion. Pair this with customer lifetime value, and you’ll be able to work out if the campaign is getting your business a return on investment.
8. Cost per click (CPC)
What is it?
This performance metric shows how much an advertiser pays for each click on their ad.
How to measure it:
Using paid ad tools like Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager
Why it matters:
It allows you to measure how much you’re spending on paid traffic so you can work out the return on advertising spend (ROAS).
9. Customer lifetime value
What is it?
This is the revenue a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime.
How to measure it:
Average Purchase x Purchase Frequency x Retention Period
Why it matters:
Knowing how much return you can expect from a customer allows you to determine what you can spend to acquire them and still be in profit. It also helps identify your most profitable target audience segments.
10. Return on advertising spend (ROAS)
What is it?
Based on the same principle as ROI, ROAS refers to the amount of revenue earned for every pound or dollar spent on advertising.
How to measure it:
Revenue from Ads ÷ Cost of Ads
Why it matters:
ROAS provides a laser-focused view of your ad performance.
11. Retention rate
What is it?
Retention rate is the percentage of customers or users who use a product or service over time – typically measured over a month, quarter or year.
How to measure it:
((CE-CN)/CS)) x 100
CE = number of customers at end of period
CN = number of new customers acquired during period
CS = number of customers at start of period
Why it matters:
Measuring retention rate can help you understand customer loyalty, as well as measure how effective your customer acquisition or retention strategies are.
12. Impressions
What is it?
Used to measure the impact of marketing content on a number of channels, including social media and paid advertising, impressions are how many times your content or ad is shown.
How to measure it:
Platform-specific analytics dashboards, or third party tools like Brandwatch.
Why it matters:
Every impression your content makes is an opportunity to connect with your audience. The higher number of impressions, the more visible your brand is.
13. Content engagement
What is it?
We’ve used this umbrella term to cover the metrics that show interactions with your content, such as likes, shares, saves and comments.
How to measure it:
Platform-specific analytics dashboards, or third party tools like Brandwatch.
Why it matters:
All of these indicate that your content is engaging, relevant and useful to your audience.
14. Average time on page
What is it?
This metric shows how long your users stay on a specific page, allowing you to gain insight into user engagement and content quality.
How to measure it:
Tools like Google Analytics
Why it matters:
This is particularly important for pages that share lots of informational content, like your blog pages. It indicates that a user is engaged, and signals to search engines your content is high quality, valuable and meets user needs.
15. Search engine rankings
What is it?
Search engine rankings are the position your website, or specific webpages, occupy on a search engine results page (SERP) for a specific query. This is based on 100s of ‘ranking factors’ that make up the ever-changing algorithms of search engines like Google.
How to measure it:
Tools like Google Search Console, SEMRush and Ahrefs.
Why it matters:
When you search for something online, you only tend to click on the top few results that appear. The higher your website ranks for your target search queries, the more likely potential customers are to visit your website vs your competitors’.
16. Unsubscribes
What is it?
This is the number of people who opt out of your email list.
How to measure it:
Email platforms like Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp and Klaviyo.
Why it matters:
If a lot of people unsubscribe from receiving your emails following a particular campaign, this can indicate weak content, poor targeting or that you’re sending emails too frequently.
How to measure the ‘hard to measure’ digital marketing channels
Measuring some digital marketing channels is easy – clicks, conversions, cost-per-click, done. But others are tricky, especially when they don’t generate immediate clicks or trackable actions.
Which channels are the hardest to measure, and why?
Organic social media
• Why it’s hard: Your posts can get lots of likes, shares, and views, but it can be hard to tie this directly to revenue or leads.
• Problem: Low signal-to-sale visibility.
Influencer marketing
• Why it’s hard: Traffic often comes indirectly, and users may not use affiliate links or promo codes.
• Problem: You don’t own the data.
Display advertising (especially awareness-focused)
• Why it’s hard: Impressions don’t equal action. People might see your ad and Google you later.
• Problem: View-through attribution is murky.
PR & earned media
• Why it’s hard: Can spike awareness and reputation, but rarely includes measurable calls to action.
• Problem: Hard to attribute downstream effects.
Top-of-funnel video content (e.g., YouTube)
• Why it’s hard: May drive brand lift but not immediate clicks.
• Problem: Long delay between exposure and conversion.
How to track the untrackable: a framework
Hard to measure doesn’t mean impossible to measure. And there are still fantastic benefits that all these types of marketing can have on your brand! You can invest in organic social media, PR, marketing campaigns and sponsorships, and see your sales increase – but being able to attribute one campaign to your success is trickier.
But while it’s not possible to measure what each individual visitor is doing, it is possible to measure the lift you get when you hit that perfect combination of brand awareness and lead conversion.
Start delivering high-performance digital marketing campaigns - with a little help from Bubble!
Measuring marketing performance isn’t just about tracking the obvious clicks and conversions. It’s about understanding what truly moves the needle – even when it’s not easy to track. The key is to take a holistic view: combine data from every stage of the funnel, set smart goals, and use consistent benchmarks to track impact over time.
Ready to start seeing results from your marketing campaigns? At Bubble Design, we’re a full-service design and marketing agency with an in-house team that’s friendly, fast, and driven by data. Reach out today to kickstart your digital growth!
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Get marketing results you can measure!
Speak to our digital marketing experts to kickstart your next campaign.
