Imagine you’re a long-distance runner. You set out to hit a personal record while running a marathon, but when you reach the end, you realize no one recorded your time. That would be a pretty big letdown, right? From sporting events to business growth, we define success and failure by the results produced.

When you invest precious time, energy or revenue into marketing efforts, you would think measuring success or failure would be essential. As important as it is to analyze outcomes, a shocking number of marketers don’t do it successfully. A report from ITSMA and Vision Edge Marketing found 74 percent of marketers don’t have a way to measure the impact of their marketing efforts. Think about that: nearly three-fourths of marketing programs are launched with no way of knowing whether or not the work is truly effective.

Figuring out how to analyze campaigns and which metrics to follow doesn’t have to be as challenging as it seems. By analyzing relevant data, you can decide what’s working and where you can improve going forward. Read on to find out how to overcome the mistake of ignoring results.

Deciding What to Track

You know you’re supposed to be tracking your results, but how do you know which metrics are important? Although they’re flashy and look impressive, avoid the temptation to record only so-called “vanity metrics,” such as followers, likes or views. While those numbers show your brand has visibility, they don’t necessarily show tangible business growth.

Instead, focus your energy on tracking metrics that are relevant for your business. We call these KPIs, or key performance indicators, which show how well your marketing is helping achieve the company’s strategic goals and objectives. You might track click-throughs to your website or time spent on your site, which show interest and specific actions from your customers. We’ll outline a few examples of critical metrics and how you might interpret the data

• Click-through rate: Measure the rate that people click on the ad to learn more about your product or service. A high click-through rate may indicate your creative is appealing to the consumer or your offer is very attractive. A low click-through rate could mean you aren’t grabbing any attention with your ad.
• Average Time Spent on Site: Track the number of minutes visitors typically spend exploring your website. A high average time can show you’re attracting the right visitors and providing them with helpful information. A low average time might mean your content isn’t engaging enough, or your site needs better organization.
• Bounce Rate: Check how many website visitors landed on one of your website pages and left without viewing any other page. A high bounce rate may indicate your site needs a better design or should communicate its value more clearly. A low bounce rate shows multiple aspects of your website attract your audience’s attention.

Comparing and Improving

Tracking your results is not a one-time task you can check off your to-do list. To fully understand whether your efforts are successful or not, you need to check results regularly. Document the metrics you decided on and compare them over time to find trends and give context to the data. Identify areas that need improvement going forward or that should be repeated to capitalize on their success.

Keeping track of analytics over time will also provide perspective when developing new goals in the future. For example, if you’ve tracked that you have an average bounce rate of 30 percent, you’ll know that setting a goal of decreasing your rate to 5 percent by next quarter is unlikely. You might choose a more realistic yet still ambitious goal, like decreasing it to 20 percent. For more on setting realistic goals, check out this article.