Metrics Explained

Modern marketing generates no shortage of data. And from Meta to Google to Hubspot to Salesforce to internal core systems to (insert your data gathering source here), it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by spreadsheets and numbers. And what the heck do all the numbers mean, anyway?

The real challenge isn’t in collecting metrics, it’s understanding which ones matter and how they connect to business outcomes. The most effective marketing aligns metrics to decision-making for key stakeholders. Here are some basic metrics with additional tips to help you explain these metrics to other organizational stakeholders.

Paid Digital Ads Metrics

Reach

Reach is often confused with impressions. Reach measures the number of unique people (individuals) who see your ads. It’s a critical top-of-funnel metric that answers a simple question: How many potential customers are we actually getting in front of? Strong reach is essential for brand awareness, market penetration, and downstream performance.

INSIGHT: Limited reach can cap growth no matter how efficient the campaign is, while excessive reach without engagement may signal poor targeting.

Impressions

Unlike reach, impressions are the number of times your ad is show (so one individual might see your ad twice, which would equal 2 impressions. Low impressions often points to budget constraints or poor ranking.

INSIGHT: Monitoring this metric helps marketers decide whether to increase spend, improve quality, or accept limited visibility strategically.

Cost per Click (CPC)

CPC measures how much you pay each time someone clicks on an ad. It’s a fundamental efficiency metric that reflects both competitive pressure and campaign optimization. A rising CPC may indicate increased competition, weak targeting, or poor ad relevance. A controlled or declining CPC suggests your ads are resonating and your spend is working harder.

There are a number of other KPIs associated with digital ads placement and performance, but these are the basics to help you evaluate your campaign. 

SEO Metrics

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic represents visitors who find your site through unpaid search results. It’s a leading indicator of brand visibility, content effectiveness, and long-term growth. Unlike paid traffic, organic traffic compounds over time, making it one of the most sustainable acquisition channels.

Keyword Rankings

Rankings show where your site appears for targeted search terms. While not a business outcome on their own, rankings signal competitiveness and content e

Email Metrics

Studies show email marketing, particularly with your current customers, is one of the heaviest lifters in terms of marketing communication and marketing return on investment (ROI). It’s important to understand some of the basics in an effort to ensure this channel is delivering appropriately.

Open Rate

Open rate measures how many recipients open your email. It reflects subject line effectiveness, sender trust, and list quality. While privacy changes have made this metric less precise, it still provides directional insight into audience interest.

INSIGHT: Want to know more about why this number is less precise? Ask your team and marketing gurus to explain. Consumer privacy and data privacy have impact across all channels. 

Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR) / Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR measures clicks divided by total emails sent, while CTOR measures clicks divided by opens. CTOR is especially useful because it isolates content performance, and it tells you whether the message inside the email delivered on the promise of the subject line.

INSIGHTS: The Kearley team tends to leverage CTR to help us understand what products, services, and/or messages are of the most interest to our members/consumers at any given time. This helps inform our content strategy. Last year (Q3-Q4) and already this year, our #1 topic has been lowering the cost of credit and debt consolidation. 

Unsubscribe Rate

Unsubscribes indicate whether your messaging is misaligned with audience expectations. A small, steady unsubscribe rate is normal. Spikes signal over-mailing, irrelevant content, or poor targeting—and should prompt immediate review.

INSIGHTS: To help offset the unsubscribes, we suggest multiple ways to opt into email communication. We also suggest new members / new customers are automatically opted in. 

Social Media Metrics

Follower Growth

Follower growth reflects brand awareness and reach over time. While vanity metrics alone don’t pay the bills, a growing, relevant audience expands future member/customer growth opportunities. 

Engagement per Post

Engagement numbers are comprised of consumers likes, comments, shares, and saves on a post. High engagement signals relevance and algorithmic favor, increasing organic reach. It’s one of the strongest indicators of message-market fit on social platforms.

Traffic & Conversions from Social

Ultimately, social must drive action. Tracking traffic and conversions from social channels reveals whether engagement translates into business impact or stops at awareness.

INSIGHTS: Increasingly, consumers are searching for solutions on social channels. It’s important to understand your social metrics may not be solely from current customers/members.

Turning data into information for your key organizational stakeholders. 

To completely oversimplify, typically, your c-suite cares about ROI. Walking into a meeting with the c-suite with a deck explaining engagement and follower growth will not stick the landing. Ideally, there should be mutually agreed upon KPIs and goals, and reports to those outside of marketing should speak to those identified KPIs and goals. My suggestion to any/all marketers is to also find a way to show ROI as much as you can. The challenge is marketers are generally playing a longer game the the other departments tend to understand. Finding ways to prove ROI along the way helps prove the value of the work you are doing to help grow the organization and contribute to the bottom line.

I wrote a blog about this last year. Click here for reporting tips to the c-suite.