Are You Measuring the Right Thing?

Would you consider a marketing tactic a success if it didn’t ultimately put money in your bank account?

Consider this. You place an ad in the newspaper. One thousand people read the ad. And you consider it a success even though no one bought your product or service. Sounds silly, doesn’t it?

Well that’s exactly what many companies — who measure search marketing with number of clicks or top search engine ranking — are doing. And it’s a good way to dump a lot of money with little return quickly.

We get what we measure.

Measuring click volume or positioning doesn’t tie into business goals. Sure they may ultimately create a sale to impact the bottom line, but how often does it happen and what is the percent of the conversion. It’s the return on investment that’s important. Not just the activity taking place.

Now if you were to measure the number of people who took an action like signing up for your email list or making a purchase, that would make sense. Take a look at what you are measuring and make sure it’s the right thing.