Marketing: “Vanity” Metrics You Should Ignore

Which Metrics Don’t Matter - and Why!

The term “vanity metrics” has made its way into the marketing lexicon lately, and for good reason. What many use to measure “results” can quite often be misleading and because of this, it’s worth looking at some of the marketing metrics you could (and probably should!) ignore.

Those you can safely ignore:

  • Likes, Followers and Connections - The one with the most followers wins, right? If only it were that simple. The truth is, more followers translate to a better bottom line only when you are actively engaging with them, and building a relationship which leads to conversions. Merely developing a massive number of likes or followers who don’t make the transition to customers is relatively pointless.
  • Comments - Since we are seeking to increase conversion, our goal with content must be more than just creating posts (video, tweet, share) that generate a large number of comments, but no leads. Give them a reason to comment that leads them down the path to conversion, such as a leading question on the topic.
  • Impressions - Mainly used in your advertising, the sheer number of ad impressions is relatively useless, as it does not indicate any measurable action. Simply having your ad display in front of a couple of million computer screens is no real measure of how it performs. Rather, examine click-thru rates and conversion rates.

A terrific piece about this is available at HubSpot.

Metrics you’ll want to keep an eye on:

  • Shares of your content - Even though this is not a concrete statistic, getting your content shared in whatever form is a step in the right direction. This means that that your content making an impression (the right kind!) and is being passed around.
  • Social mentions, citations - Especially now that Google is integrating social signals (mentions) into the search algorithm, these can be most informative. Not only will it help with search, but in addition authority as your content consistently gets shared.
  • Conversions - The holy grail, as they say. If all of your social media and content isn’t ultimately resulting in conversions, you need to take a good look at it.

Read more about this at Mashable.


Leave a comment!

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Struggling with unpredictable and costly IT? Grab a FREE copy of Managed IT Services: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing and Implementing the Right Solution for Your Business and learn how managed IT services can optimize your IT infrastructure and ensure predictable IT costs.Download it today for FREE
+
ClickCease

Schedule
a 12 Minute Call