Digital business KPIs and how to measure them

Wondering how to check in on your digital channels? We've explained how to do it and what to look for.

Once your chosen digital channels are up and running, it’s important to keep track of what is and isn’t working.

Whatever channels are your biggest focus, whether that’s your website, social media, third-party sites or something else – it’s important to focus your efforts on measuring their success. The way to do this depends on the channel, so we’ve broken down some options below for you.

Measuring your website

If you heavily rely on people visiting your website to buy something, we’d suggest looking at your website’s metrics. Metrics are data that tells you useful information, such as:

• Website traffic: how many people visit your site.

• Conversion rate: the number of people who come to your website and end up making a purchase.

• Cost per conversion: your average cost to convert someone who’s landed on your website to the action you want them to take (this could be the cost to get them to your website to make an enquiry, or to fill in a booking form, or to buy a product).

• Traffic sources: the ways that people get to your site, such as through Google, social media or a third-party site (such as a local business directory).

Creating a Google Analytics account is the easiest way to view your website’s metrics. Getting started is simple and you don’t need a Gmail account to use it.

Measuring your social channels

If social channels are your main way to interact with people and your customers are coming from these channels to your website to explore your products or services, you’ll want to look at the metrics on those social channels you use.

These could include:

• Impressions: the number of times your content is shown to people in Facebook/ Instagram feeds.

• Reach: the number of people who see your content, even if they see a particular post multiple times.

• Click-through rate: the percentage of people who see your content and then click on it to get to your website.

Most social channels will have a way for you to view these metrics (usually from your main account page or dashboard), and by looking at these, you could spot areas for improvement, such as posting at a different time of day or sharing more videos rather than images.

Measuring third-party sites

Lots of businesses depend on their listings on third-party websites such as trade sites, directories or platforms like Airbnb. If this is you, you’ll find that these sites have built-in metrics for you to view.

The kinds of things you should be looking for are:

• Page views: how many people are visiting your listing.

• Clicks to website: how many people clicked through to your website from your listing (this won’t apply to Airbnb).

• Search performance: how many times your profile showed up in a search on that site.

Creating digital channels is a great way to promote your business online, but keeping on top of them and looking at their metrics is important for figuring out where you need to improve.

If you think you need some help with this, speak to one of our V-Hub Digital Advisers, you can get in touch here. Our Knowledge Centre is also packed with information and tips to help you on your digital journey.