Key takeaways:
Content is the core of your digital marketing campaign and keeps your marketing flywheel spinning. But the only way to know it’s working is by keeping a handle on the metrics.
When you have a killer ad campaign going and want to know how it’s performing, you’re not going to make heads or tails of your data until you understand these key ad metrics: views, impressions, and clicks. Only then will you know how your approach needs to be tweaked.
Let’s walk through what these metrics are, what they mean for data collection, and how they impact your campaigns.
Before we get too deep, it’s important to know what these three digital marketing terms really mean. Here’s the quick and dirty explanation:
That’s it. It’s pretty simple. Next, find out how they’re all linked.
An impression happens when an ad renders on somebody’s digital screen. You can use impressions as a first-line metric to see how often your pay-per-click ads are showing up in response to searches, for example, or how often your ad shows up on a third-party website.
Impressions come in two varieties:
Viewable impressions are more accurate when tracking how many people see your ad, not just how many times the ad is loading or being served. The data is more actionable, enabling you to modify your ad if there’s a problem.
The goal of each impression is to turn it into a click. You want people to interact with your content, and that all starts when they are compelled to click through. That means it’s super important for your ads to have a strong and compelling call to action (CTA) so those impressions have a fighting chance.
The goal is to have people view your content after they click through, whether that means watching a video or reading a landing page. Views are the number of times visitors engage with your content. Most of the time, views refer to video views, though they can also refer to page views.
The most important view metrics include:
You want people to actually engage with your content, no matter what it is. Tracking these viewing metrics helps you figure out if they’re actually doing that.
Pay-per-click campaigns are all about boosting your business’s profit by generating more views, clicks, and conversions at the best price you possibly can. The ultimate metric for your paid advertising campaign success is profit per impression (PPI).
With PPI, you can determine which ads to keep running and which ones to nix. That’s why it’s so valuable for your digital marketing strategy. Calculate PPI by dividing your overall profit by the number of impressions your campaign reeled in. (Get that overall profit metric by subtracting total cost from total sales value.)
Ultimately, views score you leads, and leads score you sales. Or at least, that’s what you’re aiming for. But you can’t get those views without impressions and clicks. Impressions boost brand awareness by getting your product or service in front of more people. That means your ad content needs to be tailored to the people interested in your business – your ideal target customer. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Pro tip: It might be your content. If you aren’t seeing clicks, your ad CTA isn’t sharp or compelling enough. When your views are nil, the end content isn’t worth the viewer’s time. That’s why you must keep an eye on your PPC metrics and ensure that your campaign starts and ends with extraordinary content. Without kickass messaging, all those impressions will go absolutely nowhere.
ContentBacon is your partner in better content. Our experts deliver content that sizzles so you have a better chance of getting those views. We create content that encapsulates your specific audience from beginning to end in the journey. They get something of real value that they care about.
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