How To Measure Your
Online Marketing
By Gordon Van Wechel
I once read that "marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed." Most of us have some of our
advertising dollars invested in web based strategies. For some it might just be a website, others are involved in
social media or do an email update to past clients. Paid advertising through Google or Bing is effective for the
roofing industry and frequently used by contractors. Each one of these methods will give you a lot of data-often too much data! Here are some of the most essential metrics to keep track of with your online marketing.
1. The most important metric is your
Conversion Rate. That is, how many people who
visit your website eventually become customers?
For a roofing company someone may not visit
your website the first time and call and become a
customer. Moving them to the next step in your
sales funnel is the real goal here. Having them print
a coupon, subscribe to your newsletter, download
your free report, are all "conversion" actions. Having
a lot of visitors to your site is nice, but doesn’t make
you any money. It is when a visitor takes the next
step that you are closer to a new client.
2. Visitor Engagement is the measurement
of how long someone stays on your website after
they arrive, and how many pages they open. Also
counted are any downloads they order or forms they
fill out. This is not just important data for you. The
search engine algorithms also measure this, and if
your visitor engagement score is low (not very much
time on site) it affects how your site is ranked in
search results.
12 Today’s Roofer / June 2015
3. Social Media. Statistics on the engagement
people have with your social media sites and posts
are a "leading indicator" of how much web traffic
you are getting. How many people come to your
company Facebook page compared to your website?
What are they reading while there? Do you use
other social media platforms, like Foursquare or
Pinterest?
Here are some startling facts from Hubspot: Social
media produces almost double the marketing leads
of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC.
Leads that come through social
media
convert to customers at a 13% higher than average
lead conversion rate.
15 Seconds!
Most website visitors (55%) spend
fewer than 15 seconds on a page!
(Source: Chartbeat)