Businesses and particularly marketers are swimming in data, from website analytics and SEO performance to paid media campaigns and customer experience surveys – there is often an abundance of data that can be utilised to define strategy and improve performance. Often, the challenge lies not in the lack of data, but in making sense of it all. Too often, we track metrics in silos, looking at SEO performance separately from paid media, email marketing in isolation from website behaviour, and so on. This fragmented view obscures the bigger picture and limits our ability to truly understand and optimise the customer journey. 

The solution? Integrated dashboards that bring together diverse data sources, allowing marketers to see the interconnectedness of their efforts and unlock powerful insights. But before we dive into the "how", let's explore the "what". What are the key metrics that marketers should be tracking and, more importantly, why?

The 3 key factors of digital performance measurement

1. Key marketing metrics: Measuring the impact of your strategy 

Beyond the obvious metrics like website traffic and conversion rates, savvy marketers need to delve deeper:

• Traffic Sources & Attribution: Understanding where your users are coming from (organic search, paid ads, social media, email campaigns) is crucial for optimizing your marketing spend and tailoring your messaging. Attribution models will help you understand the customer journey and assign credit to different touchpoints or activities, giving you a clearer picture of what's truly driving conversions.
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) & Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): These metrics are essential for evaluating the efficiency of your paid advertising campaigns. By analysing CPA and ROAS, you can identify which channels and campaigns are delivering the best results and optimize your budget allocation accordingly.
• Engagement metrics: Click-through rates (CTR), social shares, email open rates, and time spent on page all provide valuable insights into how your audience is interacting with your content. These metrics can help you refine your messaging, improve your content strategy, and increase overall engagement. 

Why it matters: By analysing these metrics, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience, their behaviour, and what motivates them. This knowledge empowers you to optimise your activity, refine your messaging, and improve your targeting for better results.

2. Website & SEO metrics: Understanding digital performance

 Your website metrics are critical and of course will depend on how well you’ve set up your SEO, tagging and analytics. Depending on your business model, some metrics will be more important than others, here’s a few key ones to be measuring: 

• Organic vs. paid: This metric reveals the balance between your free and paid visibility. A healthy website should attract a significant portion of organic traffic, indicating strong SEO performance and valuable content.
• Bounce rate & session duration: These metrics provide insights into the effectiveness of your content and how engaging it is for your audience. A high bounce rate and short session duration may signal that your content isn't relevant or user-friendly.
• Core web vitals: These are Google's user experience-focused metrics that measure page speed and stability. Strong Core web vitals are crucial for both user satisfaction and search engine rankings.
• Keyword rankings & domain authority: These metrics track your SEO performance and how well your website is ranking for relevant keywords. Consistent monitoring and improvement of these metrics can lead to increased organic visibility and website traffic. 

Why it matters: Website performance is intrinsically linked to both user experience and search engine rankings. A well-optimised website that provides a positive user experience will attract more visitors, keep them engaged, and ultimately drive conversions.  

3. UX & CX Metrics: Measuring experience & retention 

In today's competitive landscape, providing a seamless and enjoyable user experience is paramount. 

• User journey flows & drop-off points: Analysing how users navigate your website and identifying where they abandon key processes (e.g., checkout, form submissions) can reveal pain points and areas for improvement in your user experience.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): This metric predicts the long-term revenue potential of your customers. By understanding CLV, you can make informed decisions about customer acquisition costs and prioritise strategies that foster long-term relationships.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) & Customer satisfaction (CSAT): These metrics gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction with your brand. Regularly tracking NPS and CSAT can help you identify areas where you can improve customer experience and build stronger relationships.
• Customer effort score (CES): This metric measures the ease of interaction with your digital platforms. A low CES indicates a frictionless experience, while a high CES highlights areas where you need to simplify processes and reduce customer effort. 

Why it matters: A seamless and enjoyable user experience leads to higher engagement, increased conversions, and improved customer retention. By focusing on UX and CX metrics, you can create a loyal customer base and drive sustainable business growth.   

The power of dashboards: Bringing it all together

With data pouring in from Google Analytics, CRM tools, ad platforms, customer surveys, and more, you will benefit from a centralised solution to make sense of it all. This is where dashboards come in. 

How dashboards enhance decision-making: 

• Real-time tracking of multiple performance metrics: Dashboards provide a comprehensive overview of your key metrics, allowing you to monitor performance in real-time and identify trends as they emerge.
• Cross-channel visibility: See how your SEO, paid ads, email marketing, and social media efforts are working together (or not) to drive results.
• Custom insights: Tailor your dashboards to track the metrics that matter most to your business and align your marketing, sales, and product teams around common goals.
• Predictive analytics: Some dashboards leverage machine learning to identify trends and opportunities, helping you anticipate future performance and make proactive decisions. 

By unifying your data and providing actionable insights, dashboards empower marketers to make smarter, data-driven decisions that drive real business results. 

Final thoughts

Marketing success is not just about driving traffic or increasing conversions; it's about understanding the entire digital experience and optimising every touchpoint along the customer journey. By combining marketing, website, and UX/CX data, you’ll gain a holistic view of their performance, identify areas for improvement, and be better able to make informed decisions that drive growth and enhance customer relationships.  

As experts in the field, setting up dashboards for our clients is a key part of what we do. Websites are never a set and forget solution, the best results come from continuous improvement cycles – analysing, learning, and testing to achieve better results time after time.