We spend a lot of time and money making sure that our websites are looking and working perfectly, producing great content and driving traffic towards them. So how do we know that all that hard work is paying off? How can you measure the return on investment (ROI) of your online marketing?

Anyone in business knows that it’s important to be able to quantify to some extent the results of your time and money, and especially with the use of social media this can be more difficult.

The best thing you can do at first is to get Google Analytics. This will give you important information about the traffic on your site.

1. Visitors

You can use Google Analytics to check the number of visits and return visits that you have had in any given date range. As long as the movement is going up, you’re doing well. You should also look for spikes in visitors during marketing campaigns.

A good figure for returning visitors is about 15%. This means that your website is engaging enough to keep people coming back. One of the best ways to drive this figure up is by continually producing interesting and engaging content.

2. Sources

Look at the sources function in your Google Analytics. This will tell you how people have found your website. It may be through search engines, social media links, directly or through another channel. With this function you can see what is most and least effective.

If your referral traffic is 20-30%, this is a good sign that you are putting out good and useful content, and that people are linking to you. Whilst putting out great content is good for building referral traffic, so is commenting on other blogs and including a link to your site. If your comments are knowledgeable and useful, you’re likely to see your referral traffic increase.

3. Popular Pages

Google Analytics allows you to see which pages are the most popular. Whilst your older blog posts may fade into the distant past, there may be some which stand out as being useful for years to come. Have a look at what you wrote about and how you put it out there to see its value for you, and, ultimately work out why it was so successful.

4. Landing Page Conversion Rate

Sometimes it’s easy to tell the number of people who’re taking the desired action that you’re after. If you’re looking for sales, subscribers or followers, it’s not difficult to work out. Sometimes, however it’s not so easy. Google Analytics can tell you accurately these details. Obviously in this case, the higher the percentage, the better.

If your conversion rate’s high, you’re getting your content right and it’s reaching the right people. If however, it’s low, but your traffic is high, you should have a look at the content that you’re releasing for it to not be misleading.

5. Bounce Rate

This is the number of people who leave your site having only viewed one page. If it’s high, it’s most likely that the content that you’re putting out is misleading. It’s also worth looking at the navigation about your site. Is it easy and straightforward? A high bounce rate can badly affect your search engine rankings, so it’s worth concentrating on getting this one right.

6. PPC Monitoring

If you’re using pay per click (PPC) advertising, make sure that you’re monitoring your spending against your sales. Check that it’s worthwhile doing and spending that money. AdWords can give you detailed information about your PPC campaigns so make sure that you use it.

Although it may seem complicated, measuring your ROI isn’t hard. Remember that with social media, a lot of its effect is immeasurable at the beginning, but maybe within a few months is paying back. The most important thing is that the trend is always going up – with obvious spikes around the times of a specific campaign or marketing push.

Many thanks,

Jenny

Jenny Verman
Digital Marketing Manager
The Internet Marketing Academy

http://internetmarketingacademy.com

(Image courtesy of dollarphotoclub)