The tidal wave of digital media has completely turned the advertising world upside down. No stone is left unturned. Paradigms are dissolved. How do you measure the success of your online and offline advertising campaigns? We have compiled the most important KPIs for you. At the same time, we are aware that there are a multitude of success-determining factors for advertising activities and advertising campaigns, whether in the area of brand, classic advertising, direct advertising, online communication, social media communication or also in public relations. It often makes sense to select a few control variables and then keep an eye on them during the course of the campaign. The experts at Reichl und Partner Werbeagentur work with you to create an individual "radar" of KPI's to show the success of your advertising campaign as transparently as possible. Below is a list of all those metrics that we consider useful.

1. key performance indicators  "Advertising"

1.1. KPIs for classic and direct advertising

• Top of Mind
• Spontaneous awareness
• Supported awareness
• Share of Mind
• Share of Market
• Attention
• Interest
• Desire/Desirability
• Activation
• Recommendation
• Customer loyalty
• Sympathy
• Competence
• Image
• Favor
• Recognition
• Satisfaction
• Brand impact
• Product Impact
• Price Impact

 

2. key performance indicators "Media

2.1. Quantitative KPI's:

• Net Reach: Net Reach ( 1+, 2+, 3+, ...)
• Gross Reach: Gross Reach Points (GRP's)
• OTS, OTH: Average contacts
• Visual contacts OOH
• Conversion Rate
• Affinity, target group affinity
• GRP level per day
• GRP level per week
• GRP level per month
• GRP level per flight
• Share of Voice
• Share of Noise
• CPT: Cost per Thousand  (thousand contact price)
• CPP: Costs per Point (Costs per GRP)
• TAP (thousand circulation price)
• Time Zone Share
• Sendershare
• Additional discounts

 

2.2. Qualitative KPI's:

• Seasonality
• Placement
• First placement
• Last place
• Individual placement
• Advertising environment

 

3. key performance indicators  "eMarketing and Online Media".

3.1. Web presences, e.g. websites, blogs, web portals, online stores:

Quantitative KPI's:

• Visits
• Visitors
• Page views
• Pages/Visit
• Average visit duration
• Bounce rate
• Conversion rate (purchase transactions, inquiries, newsletter subscriptions
• Shopping cart abandonment or exit pages
• Server performance (loading time)
• Server availability (stability)
• Search engine optimization (discoverability or visibility in search engine rankings,
• primarily Google of course)

 

Qualitative KPI's:

• Design (adequate layout, high-quality images, optimized for different screen sizes, corresponding to the corporate design, good readability, sufficient contrasts, no display errors, color scheme,...)
• Creativity
• Content
• Usability (clear navigation, good clarity, intuitive use,...)
• Functionality
• Search engine optimization
• Analytics and reporting capability
• Integration into overall communication
• Optimization with regard to the objective of the web presence
• Legal compliance (imprint obligation, consumer protection and eCommerce guidelines, law, data protection)

 

3.2. Newsletter Marketing:

Quantitative KPI's:

• Opening rate (also over time)
• Click rate (single click, multiple click)
• Unsubscribe rate 
• Social Sharing & Redirects
• Delivery reliability (including reputation of the sender)
• Bounces (return mails or blocked mails)
• Cost/email or cost/contact in DB

 

Qualitative KPI's:

• Design (adequate layout, optimized for different screen sizes, corresponding to the corporate design, good readability, sufficient contrasts, no display errors in various e-mail clients, color scheme,...) Content preparation: relevant, entertaining texts and suitable images
• Content
• Functioning and logical links (landing pages)
• Legal compliance (imprint obligation, double opt-in registration, data protection)

 

3.3. Google AdWords:

Quantitative KPI's:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Conversions
• Click rate
• Conversion rate
• Average cost/click
• Average cost/impression
• Average cost/conversion
• Average ad position
• Behavior of users on the target page (see KPIs of web presences)
• Quality factor (= how well do keyword, ad text, target URL and target page fit together)

 

Qualitative KPI's:

• Quality of the ad texts or ad subjects
• Targeting factors (target group coverage)
• Design target page (landing page)
• Legal compliance (compliance with the regulations on the part of the legislator and on the part of Google)

 

3.4. Search Engine Optimization:

Quantitative KPI's:

• Ranking position per keyword (position on the search results pages = SERPs)

 

Qualitative KPI's:

• Design of all content (texts, images, videos, files)
• Structuring of the contents
• Header description and meta description
• Internal links
• Domain (age, topic relevance)
• Server performance
• Mobile optimization
• User behavior/access figures
• Code quality
• Correct error handling (redirects, error pages,...
• Factors for off-page optimization (highly simplified):
• Number and quality of incoming links
• Social Signals
• Rankings & Ratings
• Recommendation

 

3.5. General KPI's:

• Clicks: This is a raw number measurement. It is the total number of times an ad(s) was clicked. Taken out of context and separated from other elements (cost, budget, bid price, number of ads, number of impressions, etc.), it doesn't tell much. But it is useful for tracking trends over time.

 

• Click Through Rate: (CTR) CTR is a measure of ad effectiveness.  The formula is:  total clicks ÷ ad impressions. A low CTR indicates that ads are not being clicked. An ad's CTR is a strong indicator of its relevance to the user and overall success. Ads that suffer from low CTR should be evaluated for these elements, as well as compared to competitor ads. Consistently low performance CTR ads should be modified and, if needed, replaced or eliminated.                                                                    

 

• Conversion Rate: A conversion is a customer action that has value to a business. This customer action is defined by the company. It could be an online purchase, an application download, filling out a form, downloading a whitepaper  - whatever the company deems important. In Google Adwords, you can use conversion tracking code to see which ad clicks led to these actions. Ads with higher conversion rates are the ones to keep; they are getting people to act.

 

• Cost Per Acquisition: (CPA): Cost per acquisition measures the amount it costs for each conversion gained through your ads. It is a bottom-line kind of measurement that tells you what each new (or potential) customer is costing you to acquire.

 

• Cost Per Click: (CPC): This is a measure of the price paid for each click of an ad. CPC is determined by Google or Bing. It is made up of several factors, including the amount of bidder competition, how much the highest bidders are paying and how many clicks the keyword is expected to get.

 

• Impressions: This is a measurement of how many times your ads were presented and, theoretically, seen by viewers. This is a purely quantitative measurement. Qualitatively, it is an indication that your ad is probably well worded, well priced and relevant.

 

• Quality Score: The search networks assign a quality score to your keywords. This is calculated using a variety of factors. It is an indication of how relevant your keyword is to your ad group and to a user's search query. The higher a keyword's Quality Score, the lower its cost-per-clicks (CPCs) and the better its ad position.

 

• Total Spend: This is the cumulative total of the amount spent on your ads. It is your bottom-line, in-total cost.

 

3.6. Sales KPI's:

• Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual sales
• Average order size (sometimes called average market basket)
• Average margin
• Conversion rate
• Shopping cart abandonment rate
• New customer orders versus returning customer sales
• Cost of goods sold
• Total available market relative to a retailer's share of market
• Product affinity (which products are purchased together)
• Product relationship (which products are viewed consecutively)
• Inventory levels
• Competitive pricing

 

3.7. Marketing KPI's: 

• Site traffic
• Unique visitors versus returning visitors
• Time on site
• Page views per visit
• Traffic source
• Day part monitoring (when site visitors come)
• Newsletter subscribers
• Texting subscribers
• Chat sessions initiated
• Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest followers or fans
• Pay-per-click traffic volume
• Blog traffic
• Number and quality of product reviews
• Brand or display advertising click-through rates
• Affiliate performance rates

 

3.8. Customer Service KPI's:

• Customer service email count
• Customer service phone call count
• Customer service chat count
• Average resolution time
• Concern classification

 

 

4. key performance indicators  "Social media and communities

4.1. KPI's for Facebook page

Fans:

• Net fan growth in defined period
• Fan departure in defined period

 

Range:

• Total reach in defined period
• Relevant reach in defined period of the page and individual posts

 

Interaction:

• Interaction in defined period of the page, sub-pages, individual posts (shares, likes, comments, views photo albums)

 

 

4.2. KPI's for Social Media Ads (Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, Instagram Ads)

• Cost per Fan (CPF)
• Cost per Click (CPC)
• Cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM)
• Click Trough Rate (CPR)

 

4.3. KPI's forFacebook App

Participant

• Participants Number Total
• Relevant participants Number

 

Data quality

 

Impact on Facebook Page:

• Fan growth through app on the page
• Interaction through app on the page

 

 

4.4. KPI's for YouTube:

• Subscribers:
  • Growth in defined period
  • Video views:
    • Views development total and per video
    • User rating of the videos
    • Interaction

 

4.5. KPI's for Pinterest, Instagram

• Followers:
  • Growth in defined period

 

4.6. Interactions

• Number of likes
• Number of shares

 

4.7. Campaign-related success reporting for ad campaigns

• CPC
• CPF
• Impressions
• Range

 

4.8. Analysis KPIs

• Facebook page development
• Quintly (fee required)
• Facebook Insights
• Facebook Ad Manager
• Facebook Power Editor
  • Meltwater Buzz & News
  • Webmedian Social Media Monitoring
  • Searchmetrics SEO tool for measuring social signals

 

4.9. Monitoring: Tools for measuring KPIs

• Facebook Insights
• Facebook Ad Manager
• Facebook Power Editor
• Qunitly Facebook Page Monitoring (fee required)
• Google Adsense for YouTube Ads
• Meltwater Buzz & News (fee required)
• Webmedian Social Media Monitoring
• Google Analytics for Facebook Apps
• Searchmetrics (fee required)
• Iconosquare for Instagram

 

4.10. Reporting tools to measure the KPI's

Weekly, monthly or campaign-specific success reporting:

• Editorial: number of likes, number of shares, interaction, which type of post works how well
• Development of the page: number of fans, reach, impressions, internal ranking of the integrated apps
• Facebook Ads: CPC & CPF, Impressions, Reach
• Social Media Rankings

 

4.11. Social interaction metrics / KPIs

• Alerts (register and response rates / by channel / CTR / post click activity)
• Bookmarks (onsite, offsite)
• Comments
• Downloads
• Email subscriptions
• Fans (become a fan of something / someone)
• Favourites (add an item to favourites)
• Feedback (via the site) 
• Followers (follow something / someone)
• Forward to a friend
• Groups (create / join / total number of groups / group activity)
• Install widget (on a blog page, Facebook, etc)
• Invite / Refer (a friend)
• Key page activity (post-activity)
• Love / Like this (a simpler form of rating something)
• Messaging (onsite)
• Personalisation (pages, display, theme)
• Posts
• Profiles (e.g. update avatar, bio, links, email, customization, etc)
• Print page
• Ratings
• Registered users (new / total / active / dormant / churn)
• Report spam / abuse
• Reviews
• Settings
• Social media sharing / participation (activity on key social media sites, e.g. Facebook,
• Twitter, Digg, etc)
• Tagging (user-generated metadata)
• Testimonials
• Time spent on key pages
• Time spent on site (by source / by entry page)
• Total contributors (and % active contributors)
• Uploads (add an item, e.g. articles, links, images, videos)
• Views (videos, ads, rich images)
• Widgets (number of new widgets users / embedded widgets)
• Wishlists (save an item to wishlist)

 

 

5. key performance indicators  Public Relations

5.1. Coverage

• Press releases by type
• Press releases by focus/business unit
• Competitive press releases by type
• Client vs. competitive coverage
• Awards
• Analyst mentions
• Total coverage by activity
• Media stratification
• Coverage by story theme
• Blog mentions

 

5.2. Impact

• Traffic vs. clippings
• Placements vs. whether on website
• Coverage to stock price
• Percent of articles repurposed

 

5.3. Quality

• Key message appearances
• Product reviews (positive/neutral/negative)
• Where mentioned in article

 

5.4. Content

• Thought leadership
• PR budget vs. activities (for flexible budgets)