The key to getting the most out of every marketing dollar rests in collecting and analyzing the right metrics from each campaign. It is these marketing metrics that help marketers decipher which campaigns are performing well, and on a very granular level, which specific components within marketing campaigns are actually moving the needle.
When it comes to collecting e-commerce marketing metrics, they are all not created equal or even convey the same level of information. Here’s why…
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This tracks how many people may click through to your site or who may click on a specific ad or product. Though this can be helpful to quantify traffic to your e-commerce site, for health brands, it does very little to determine if these clicks resulted in sales.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
It’s always helpful to know how many dollars of revenue are generated from each dollar of marketing spend. A high ROAS means that your campaign is generating over and above what you are spending and is highly effective in creating sales. A low ROAS usually indicates that something within your marketing campaign is not converting people to want to buy. However, this is a very surface-level metric and won’t be able to specifically pinpoint which part of the marketing campaign was at fault (or if external factors were at play)
Average Order Value (AOV)
This can be a useful marketing metric if you are looking to increase previous order values. But, in terms of helping to create higher converting e-commerce marketing campaigns, this metric doesn’t provide much value.
What health brand marketers should track to really get the full benefit that e-commerce marketing metrics can provide are the following:
Conversion rates
How many people who either see an ad or visit your website actually make a purchase? It’s important to know what this percentage is and how you can continue to increase it with more targeted ad copy or more compelling offers.
Customer acquisition costs
How much does it really cost to get a new customer? Marketing costs are just one piece of this puzzle. If there is customer service overhead involved with onboarding a new customer, then this cost should also be included. The key is you want to continually lower the customer acquisition cost without sacrificing the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
Customer Lifetime Value
How much do customers spend with your company over time? Many health brands have high customer lifetime values because of the recurring nature of their products or services. That’s why the question should become: how can you increase the lifetime value? Perhaps by offering more targeted marketing (with product suggestions based on buying history), rolling out additional services/products, or leveraging personalized promotions could all be ways to get customers coming back for more.
To get the highest e-commerce marketing bang for your buck, you’ll want to decide now which are the most important metrics to track and get clear on how you can use them to inform your marketing campaigns going forward. The more campaign data you can collect and analyze, the better equipped and informed you’ll be in being able to attract buyers.
