How to Properly Track & Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns

Optimizing your marketing campaigns is a mean feat. After all, there are so many different channels and strategies that you could use to reach potential customers.

However, one of the most critical steps is tracking and measuring which performs best.

Knowing which campaigns are working (and which aren’t) will enable you to focus on what’s generating results — and discard what isn’t helping you achieve your goals.

In this blog post, we’ll look at how proper tracking and optimizing your marketing campaigns can help your business convert more leads.

Put simply, a marketing campaign is a specific directive to achieve a marketing outcome. This outcome can be in the form of leads, views, sales, engagement, or any other predetermined metric.

Marketing campaigns are not designed to achieve multiple outcomes but instead focus on achieving a singular objective. For example, Google Ads is a campaign where you spend a specific amount of money to achieve a predetermined outcome.

Your goal could be generating leads, increasing website traffic, or boosting sales.

Another essential aspect to consider is that each marketing channel requires a separate campaign.

For example, Google is made up of different spots such as Google Service Ads, Google Ads, Google Map Pack, and Organic Rankings. These spots require different efforts and have specific purposes, even though they are all on Google. The differentiating factor lies in the location where the campaign is created.

Similarly, using social media for marketing entails different campaigns. Social ads can be a campaign (campaign A), while organic social publishing is another (campaign B).

Defining your marketing campaigns requires a clear understanding of the objective, the outcome, and the specific marketing channel.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics companies use to measure the success of a marketing campaign.

KPIs are the critical data points that help you understand whether your campaign is achieving the desired objectives or not. It is essential to note that KPIs are different for every business and marketing campaign, and they should be specific, measurable, and realistic.

Note that, while tracking everything may seem like a good idea, it can be overwhelming and hinder your ability to make informed decisions.

That’s why it’s essential to focus on the most critical KPIs that provide a clear picture of your campaign’s performance. In case there’s an issue with your campaign, focusing on the KPIs will help you determine the root cause and make necessary adjustments.

Which KPIs should you track? Here, we’ll show you five KPIs every business should focus on.

We recommend tracking these KPIs to ensure your campaigns are headed in the right direction.

1. Total Marketing Cost - Your total marketing cost is the amount you spend on your campaigns every period. It’s the overall budget for your online marketing efforts, including your outsourcing spend if you hire an outside marketing agency to do your campaigns.
2. Leads Generated - Another thing you should track is the number of leads generated. This metric helps you determine how much people are engaging with your campaigns once they see them.
3. Number of Appointments Set From Leads Generated - This metric measures the number of appointments that have been set from your generated leads. This helps you understand whether your leads book appointments or not.
4. Number of Closed Deals - Your closed deals metric is the number of sales, customers, or contracts you have each period. This helps you understand how many leads convert into customers.
5. Total Revenue - Finally, you should also track your total revenue. This metric helps you determine the overall success of your campaigns and how well they drive sales for your business.

We chose the KPIs we outlined above because they follow a linear process critical for measuring your marketing campaigns’ success. We understand that there are a ton of KPIs out there, but what sets these apart is their ability to provide clear insights into the performance of your campaigns.

By tracking your total marketing cost, leads generated, appointments set, closed deals, and total revenue, you get a comprehensive view of how well your campaigns are performing.

To illustrate, let’s say you’re spending $1,000 on your campaigns and you notice that the number of leads generated and appointments set are not increasing. This could mean that there is an issue with your campaign, and you can now focus on optimizing it to improve its performance.

You cannot make a decision based on just two data points: leads generated and marketing spend. You need more data to measure your marketing campaign’s performance.

• Try looking at the bigger picture by comparing the number of leads generated, appointments set, closed deals, and total revenue for all your campaigns. This will give you a clear understanding of which channels are giving you more sales.

• To truly optimize your marketing campaigns, it’s crucial to look at the total spend for each campaign and the total return it has generated. 
• When tracking your marketing costs, it’s not enough to simply tally up your total spend. You need to break down your costs by campaign to better understand how much you’re investing in each area of your marketing strategy. This will not only help you allocate your resources more effectively but also allow you to identify areas where you may be overspending.

Tracking all relevant data points on a per-campaign level will give you a clear picture of which campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement.

More than just KPIs, there are also some metrics that you want to touch on when optimizing your campaigns.

While they’re not considered vital metrics, this data inside your campaigns can still provide valuable insights when measuring results and testing your campaigns.

It’s always a good practice to set quarterly goals and measure how well you achieve them.

Setting goals will give your team something to strive for, and it can help you determine where you need to make improvements if your results don’t match up with your objectives.

ROI measures the profitability of your campaigns. A higher ROI indicates that the money you put into your campaign gives you a higher profit and vice versa.

To calculate your ROI, simply divide the total revenue generated by the amount you spent on marketing campaigns and multiply it by 100 to get your percentage.

Your cost per lead shows the amount you are spending to generate a single lead.

It’s essential to track this metric because it will allow you to understand the cost-effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments accordingly.

Once you get your leads, you need to track how much it costs to turn them into appointments. This will help you understand the true ROI of your campaigns and identify areas that require more effort.

Simply divide the total amount spent on your campaigns by the number of appointments set. You can also use your cost per lead and the percentage of leads that turn into appointments to calculate this metric.

You can also measure the cost of each closed deal. This is an important metric because it shows whether your marketing efforts are actually driving sales or just getting you leads that don’t convert.

To calculate this metric, divide the total amount spent on your campaigns by the number of deals closed in a given timeframe.

Your closing rate is a bit different from your cost per close. This metric measures the percentage of leads that turn into closed deals and is calculated by dividing the number of sales closed by the total number of leads generated.

Use this metric to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns and determine which ones generate deals the best.

Your marketing percent of revenue measures the percentage of your total sales that comes from your campaigns. This is a great metric to track because it allows you to understand how much of your business is coming from your marketing efforts and make adjustments where needed.

To calculate this metric, divide the total amount spent on campaigns by the total revenue generated. Some marketers and business owners analyze this with ROI to get a better understanding of their campaigns.

It’s easy to get lost in the sea of data and information you need to process every day. Google’s platform, for example, provides many insights you can access, but navigating between the different tabs can be a bit tedious.

That’s why it’s important to use systems and tools that will make your job easier. Here are some systems you must acquire when optimizing your campaigns.

• Customer Relationship Management: The last three metrics can be tracked using a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) system. This software allows you to store all your contacts, manage appointments, and track deals closed. It also can help you find new sales opportunities and keep track of conversations with potential customers. An excellent platform would be DripJobs, which is an all-in-one CRM system that provides a comprehensive overview of your leads, opportunities, and deals.
• Alternative: Appointment System: If you don’t want to invest in an all-in-one system, then there are also some simpler tools you can use. For example, an appointment system such as Google Calendar or Apple’s iCal will allow you to easily view and manage your appointments with potential customers. You can also set reminders and receive notifications about upcoming meetings.
• Alternative: Finance System: For your finances, you can use a tool like Quickbooks to easily manage your budget and expenses. This will ensure that you have an accurate view of the costs associated with each campaign and that you’re not overspending on specific campaigns.
• Alternative: Spreadsheets: Of course, the old trusty spreadsheet is still a great way to track data and organize information. You can use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to keep track of your campaigns and create custom formulas for specific metrics like cost per lead or close rate. No matter what systems you choose, it’s crucial to stay organized and on top of your marketing campaigns.

Ultimately, organization and efficient management of your marketing campaigns is what will set you up for success. By closely monitoring the numbers related to your business, you can make informed decisions that propel more sales. 

Search Click Grow is an industry leader in digital marketing strategies and analytics — utilizing our expertise allows you to track data accurately while optimizing campaigns with maximum benefit.

Join our Local Growth Academy group to download our Contractor Scorecard and get access to other free resources and tools to boost your marketing tracking capabilities today!