The key metrics in B2B performance marketing fall into two groups. For ads: impressions in the target group, clicks, cost per click, conversion rate, cost per contact, cost per demo or SQL, ad spend per customer and ROAS. For landing pages: visits, sessions, bounce rate, time on page, page views, conversion rate, form submissions and new leads.
With performance marketing metrics you can analyse and measure pretty much everything. Since your time is surely short in a busy working day, you should not bother with superfluous metrics but concentrate on the essential ones. We tell you which performance metrics are worth their weight in gold and explain why you need to watch them.
How to reach your marketing goals within budget
Performance metrics help you put your goals into practice by showing, with concrete data, whether your tactics are on track.
In paid marketing in particular, performance data shows clearly how well your individual campaigns perform.
Success can be planned, and so can yours
By monitoring your performance marketing metrics, you can not only quickly put an end to bad campaigns but also optimise all the others. Over time you will win more clicks, visits, contacts and customers, or save costs.
Often even more important for your marketing success than optimising ad spend is deriving trends for planning your overall marketing.
Testing ad campaigns for cost and benefit
Where does your advertising pay off? Where are you losing money? What effects arise for your ranking? The most relevant figures, reflecting cost, benefit, added value and more, become visible in these performance metrics:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Cost per click
- Conversion rate
- Cost per contact
- Cost per demo/SQL
- Ad spend per customer
- ROAS (return on ad spend)
Metrics that show the value of your ads
The basic set-up is central to the success of your ads. Only if you are present on the channels your personas use and have clear campaign targeting will your ads work in the long term.
Impressions and clicks from unqualified leads will bring you nothing in the long run and will not lead to customers.
So always check the conversion rates between the individual steps as well as the end goal, and do not rely only on the absolute numbers in your Google Ads account. How to read the conversion rate correctly is shown in our article What is a conversion rate?
The 8 most important metrics for analysing your ad campaigns
1. Impressions in the right target group: shows how often an ad was displayed in total. This metric is not actually relevant if you reach the wrong target group. It always matters for branding campaigns.
2. Clicks: shows how often your ad was clicked. It is particularly important to watch the conversion rate from impressions to clicks. A rule of thumb: anything below 2% should be optimised or paused.
3. Cost per click (CPC): shows how much you pay on average per click on the ad. Do not shy away from high CPCs too quickly: perhaps only the expensive keywords bring you the truly lucrative customers.
4. Conversion rate: this KPI shows the ratio of clicks to conversions. A conversion here simply means that the contact identified themselves through a form on the landing page and registered interest.
5. Cost per contact: shows how much you pay on average for each contact generated by your ad.
6. Cost per demo/SQL: you will not find this metric in your Google Ads account, but it is quick to calculate. Take the total cost of your campaign or ad and divide it by the number of SQLs won from it.
7. Ad spend per customer: like cost per SQL, you usually have to calculate this KPI yourself. Simply divide the sum of your ad spend by the number of customers won.
8. ROAS: return on advertising spend tells you the revenue per franc or euro of a campaign's advertising budget. It is a fundamental decision aid on the effectiveness of campaigns and ads. The formula is:
(Revenue from advertising / advertising spend) × 100
Performance metrics for analysing your landing pages
If your campaigns' ROAS is not good enough, take a closer look at the performance of your landing pages and website. The poor ROAS may well come from insufficiently relevant information and calls to action.
So always keep an eye on these metrics to improve the conversion of visitors from ads and other sources:
- Visits
- Users/sessions
- Bounce rate
- Time spent on page
- Page views per session
- Conversion rate
- Submissions (first and repeat conversions)
- New leads/customers
High-performance indicators for your landing pages
Keep your lead generation machine running at full speed by analysing performance, drawing conclusions and optimising accordingly.
The 8 most important metrics for analysing your landing page
1. Visits: the number of visits shows how often your website is visited. A high number of returning visitors indicates popularity and strong interest in your content. Always look at the traffic source to draw conclusions about the quality of individual tactics.
2. Users/sessions: shows the number of visitors or sessions within a selected period. Unlike users or visits, a session can include several pages (page visits).
3. Bounce rate: one click and gone again: the bounce rate is the share of your website visitors who leave immediately. A low bounce rate shows that visitors find your content interesting and like to stay.
4. Time spent on page: the time spent on your website shows how intensively users engage with the content.
5. Page views per session: this metric shows the average number of pages viewed in a session. Convincing information, intuitive design and internal links help increase it.
6. Conversion rate: from stranger to lead and customer. The conversion rate shows how many registered visitors are also willing to leave their contact details or email address.
7. Submissions: submissions count the absolute number of forms submitted. It is always interesting to look at the submissions/contacts rate to identify offers that lead to more new leads or strengthen the relationship with existing ones.
8. New leads: a new lead is a person who has shown interest in your company, for example by signing up for the newsletter.
Conclusion: more success through measurable marketing
The more closely you watch your success indicators, the more precisely you can improve your B2B company's marketing success. Performance marketing geared to results is simply a must. Integrate the 16 metrics into your marketing reporting and keep an eye on them to keep optimising your performance. Which metrics marketing and sales steer together is shown in our overview of the top KPIs in B2B marketing and sales, and all our articles on the topic are in the pillar KPIs and reporting.
FAQ
Which metrics matter most in B2B performance marketing?
For ads, above all the conversion rate, cost per contact, cost per demo or sales qualified lead, ad spend per customer won and ROAS. Impressions, clicks and cost per click are early indicators, not goals.
How do I calculate ROAS?
Divide the revenue attributed to a campaign by that campaign's advertising spend and multiply by 100. A ROAS of 400 per cent means four francs of revenue per franc of advertising budget. For profitability you also have to take all other costs into account.
How do I calculate cost per SQL?
Divide the total advertising spend for a period by the number of sales qualified leads that resulted from those campaigns. You will not find this metric directly in the ad account; it needs the connection to your CRM.
Which metrics show whether a landing page works?
The conversion rate from visit to enquiry, the number of form submissions and new leads, the bounce rate and time on page. Compare the values by traffic source, because visitors from ads behave differently from visitors from search.
