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If you’ve been following this series, you’ve probably noticed some common themes throughout the posts and some similarities in metrics across objectives. For starters, the basics don’t waver between functions. Therefore the principals of dashboard design, the need to link KPIs to objectives and the benefits of providing each individual the most relevant information (and only the most relevant information) will be present across all marketing departments.
This post will, like the others in this series, share some of the most informative tactical metrics, strategic indicators and visualizations to use on your Digital Analytics Dashboard. However, it will avoid metrics related to areas we have already covered including email, content, social or ecommerce (which are often included in digital analytics dashboards) and will focus instead on reach, acquisition, lead generation, loyalty and conversion metrics.
We will also go beyond traditional web analytics metrics and include mobile measures. While there are many similarities between web and mobile (mobile web & mobile app) metrics, you’ll also see some differences in both naming and logic.
So let’s jump right in and look at some top metrics for web and mobile analytics. The following list of operational metrics, while extensive, could be a good starting place for your Digital Analyst as they pick and choose metrics for their tactical dashboard. Additionally, metrics selected will be greatly impacted by the objective of the website or mobile app. Whether your site or app aims to increase brand awareness, communicate with or educate your target audience, improve brand interactions, increase loyalty or act as a sales portal, your metrics should always act as an indicator of your performance compared to your goals.
Performance Metrics – How is our website or app performing?
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Reach Metrics – How effectively are we reaching our intended audience?
| Web | Mobile Web & Apps |
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Engagement Metrics – Is our audience engaging at the level we need to reach our revenue goals?
| Web | Mobile |
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Audience Metrics – Who is visiting our site or app and are they our target segment? And how does our audience differ between devices?
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Conversion Metrics
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The operational metrics above offer a great starting point for looking at your web and mobile performance, but it’s unlikely they will captivate your executives who most often search for information on costs, revenue and satisfaction. So what KPIs may they request on their Digital Analytics dashboard?
Mobile App Performance
Key stakeholders will definitely want to know how well your app is performing. How you measure this will depend on the key objectives of your app. For example, if it is an ecommerce app then App Revenue would likely be a strong indicator. If it is an educational app, then session time may be a more appropriate measure. Most likely, you will wish to create a unique compound metric including weighted information on downloads, ratings, crashes and exceptions, uninstalls, in-app goal completions and revenue generated.
It is also exceptionally useful to benchmark your mobile app performance compared to industry averages.
Cost per Acquisition & Conversion Rate
If your team is running campaigns, or generally investing in inbound marketing, your executives will likely request information on the Cost per Acquisition and Conversion Rate of both web-based, mobile web-based and app leads. Comparing the Cost per Acquisition and Conversion Rate by device, audience segment or even channel will enable you to streamline campaign investment and increase acquisitions.
User Value
Your executives may wish to understand the value of users across different devices and channels. Average Revenue per User (ARPU) may be a useful metric to show User Value. Average Lifetime User Value can help you quantify not only the value of a user over a session, but over their lifetime as a customer. Additionally, combining ARPU with Conversion rates can help you to forecast future revenue through your device channels.
ROI
Return on Investment is one of the trickiest KPIs to define, and it may also be extremely difficult to measure. Not only is it difficult to define a truly reflective cost of investment that includes the opportunity cost of human and technological resources, but it is also tough to quantify the benefit your efforts have created. While net profits or the impact on revenue may be captured, the effect on brand and loyalty may be harder to gage.
Your executives will, however, appreciate a ROI indicator on their dashboard that shows the return from each device type. Even if you are not able to accurately capture every aspect of ROI, using a consistent formula over time will still help to paint a story of performance.
User Loyalty
A computed metric including information on frequency of use and recency of use can be of great value to your stakeholders. Combined with information on the ARPU of loyal users, it can provide greater benefits in enabling your team to predict future performance and revenue – and encourage them to invest in creating and maintaining a loyal user base.
Visualizing data can help us to effectively explore how our indicators are performing across segments or time. Below are some of our picks for top visualizations to include on your Digital Analytics Dashboard:
This is a great chart for helping you to quickly decipher the profitability of users across devices. In the example above we can see that the Cost per Acquisition of eReader app Users is relatively high while their Average Revenue is quite low. This may discourage you from investing substantially in trying to attract this relatively expensive user segment. Mobile App Users on the other hand show relatively high Revenue per User and a relatively low Cost per Acquisition. Your best bet may be directing your campaign budget to try to acquire these users.
The chart above shows traffic quality per source for your app users. Generally speaking, we would hope to invest the greatest effort and resources into increasing traffic through the channel that has the lowest bounce rate, the highest time on site and highest average goal completions. This is due to the fact that Bounce Rate can act as a signal for dissatisfaction (although it’s always worth analyzing this further as this metric can be deceptive and it’s significance can differ depending on your objectives), while Time on Site can reflect user Engagement (which can lead to loyalty and revenue) and Average Goal Completions may correlate to revenue.
Device Performance over Time can not only give you an indication of likely user satisfaction and ratings, but also to help you forecast revenue as poor performance can impact directly on conversions.
Understanding the way users behave across regions can help us to better invest resources to promote conversions. The chart above shows a negative correlation between App downloads and website sessions across two different size markets. While the group on the upper right has a generally higher number of both app downloads & website sessions compared to the group on the lower left, we can clearly see that generally countries either tend towards higher app downloads or higher website sessions but not both. This may be due to mobile penetration or Internet accessibility on mobile devices. If we invest sensibly we can better acquire leads by making sure we are targeting our best segments, where they are, in each country.
What are we missing? How are you measuring your web and mobile performance, comparing these and benchmarking them against industry averages?
VP of Business Development for Sweetspot. Responsible for strategic brand development, marketing and business development. BA/BComm graduate from the University of Melbourne. My passion lies in finding creative solutions and encouraging collaboration.
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