With so much information available about your target audience and their interaction with your brand, it can be overwhelming to try and take it all in. How are you supposed to know which data is most valuable and relevant to your marketing goals? It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If you’re casting a wide net to increase brand awareness, you’re going to be looking at different analytics than if you were trying to convert a lead into a lease.

You don’t need to look at every piece of data, but you should focus on the statistics that show whether or not your campaign is working. Your job is to determine which of the four stages of the marketing funnel your current strategy falls under, and then keep these analytics in mind.

Awareness

When you’re trying to increase awareness of your brand or property, you’ll likely be focusing on display ads, Facebook campaigns, and broad search campaigns. You’re trying to get your brand, amenities, floor plans, and more in front of as many people as possible, so look at the click-through rate (CTR), but don’t expect high numbers. At this stage customers are not likely to take action right away, so it’s fine if your CTRs are low. Also, during the awareness stage your percentage of new users will be the highest it will ever be, so don’t be alarmed when you see that statistic drop off at each subsequent stage.

Interest

At this point, your audience is actively looking for services like yours, so you’ll be targeting them specifically with search. Be sure to look at your engagement metrics both before and after they click on your ads. Keep checking on your CTRs as well as your ad’s average position in the search network — we want them no further back than a 2.5 position especially on mobile devices. You should also be checking your onsite metrics like bounce rate, which should be well below 50 percent.

Your target audience is creating a shortlist of companies it’s interested in, so take into account average time on site and page views per session. Your campaign should be generating higher numbers on both of these metrics, which means your target audience is engaging with your content, web design, and amenities. But keep in mind that users on mobile devices will have shorter average time on site and fewer page views per session, so if your target audience is mobile, adjust your expectations  accordingly.

Decision

Now the user is narrowing their prospects to a few options, so you’ll be relying heavily on search, branded channels, and remarketing for search ads, which lets you target ads to people who have already visited your site.  At this point the most important piece of data is lead volume. If the goal of your campaign is to drive leads, you want higher conversion rates for online forms or phone calls.

Action

Now you’re ready to convert a lead into a lease. At this stage you’re targeting potential customers through branded channels and specific search inquiries, and you expect to see tangible results. Bounce rates might be higher and average time on site shorter as users mainly visit the site to find a phone number and call the property. This will likely be the last interaction a user has before taking action.

There’s no need to analyze every data point in order to find out if you are doing a good job. Keep these specific metrics in mind as you work your way through your marketing campaign and you’ll be armed with the data you need to determine if it’s working.

For more great information on measuring the results of your marketing efforts, Contact G5.