Understanding your viewership and interactions on your website or paid ads is imperative to iterating and improving your performance. However, the major metrics used to compare success can be confusing. The My Social Biz has broken down the most important insights you can glean from your online platforms into a concise blog article below. Let us know your thoughts!

How many people are you getting your message across? This is largely the biggest question from any online marketer.  Reach (aka Impressions) is the metric you want to measure here. This can be understood as the total number of viewers of a post or promotion (can include same repeat views – not unique). But what is a unique viewer? Unique views are the total amount of people who have viewed a post. No matter how many times they see it, it will only register as one. 

Sometimes marketers get millions of views. This makes numbers large and cumbersome to explain or synthesize. That is why CPM is an important metric to consider. Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM) is the average cost to show your ad 1,000 times. That way, you can shrink all the zeros you may see into a smaller figure. 

When you consider your total budget and the ROI you get, understanding cost per click is your best friend.  CPC (Link) is the average cost of each click from your ad over to your website. It is calculated by taking the Amount Spent / the number of Link Clicks you get. It is an easy way to see how much your ad resonates with your target audience. Additionally, click-through rate (CTR) is the percent of people who saw your ad and clicked over to your opt-in page. 

On a higher level, this can best be understood as your overall engagement rate – the percent of interactions per impression of the ad or website and is calculated by # of interactions/ # of impressions. Engagement rate is a key figure used by investors or ad-buyers who want to know more about how your audience perceives your content, and whether or not it is a good use of their money. 

Engagement rate is always indicative of a conversion. A conversion is when a potential customer takes the desired outcome or action on an ad or website. This is usually a purchase, a phone call, a follow, or an email contact. The conversion rate informs the cost per acquisition (aka CPA), a metric that measures the aggregate cost to acquire one paying customer. 

For those who are just interested in organic web performance, metrics like bounce rate, returning visitor, and referrals are key. A bounce rate is the amount of people that leave your site or landing page after one view. They do not progress to any other pages. A normal bounce rate is usually 50-80%. A returning visitor is exactly what it sounds like, it is someone that has visited your site before. This usually means the content is important, new, and refreshed often. A higher number of returning visitors equates to high customer satisfaction and loyalty. Lastly, a referral is a type of visitor that arrives from another link. This can be through social media, blog posts, or word of mouth. This usually implies there is strong marketing at play! 
If you are looking to beef up your performance, or gain more insight on how to improve your readership, My Social Biz is highly equipped with the tools and knowledge to take your business to the next level. Get your free consultation and social media plan by contacting us through our online form or neil@mysocialbiz.net today!