Marketing Metrics

Click-through rate measures the percentage of people who click on a link, ad, or call-to-action after seeing it. It is one of the most fundamental engagement metrics in digital marketing, connecting impressions to action and serving as an early indicator of campaign relevance and audience targeting quality.

Cost per click measures the average price you pay each time a user clicks on your ad. It is the foundational pricing metric for pay-per-click advertising and a critical input to [Customer Acquisition Cost](/glossary/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost), connecting ad spend directly to traffic volume.

Cost per acquisition measures the total cost to acquire a single converting user, whether that conversion is a purchase, sign-up, or lead. CPA is the bottom-line efficiency metric for paid marketing, connecting ad spend to actual business outcomes rather than intermediate metrics like clicks or impressions.

Cost per lead measures the average amount spent to generate a single lead. It is the primary efficiency metric for demand generation teams, connecting marketing spend to pipeline volume and serving as an early indicator of whether campaigns are attracting potential customers at a sustainable cost.

Cost per mille (CPM) measures the cost of one thousand ad impressions. It is the standard pricing and benchmarking metric for display, video, and brand awareness campaigns where the primary objective is reach rather than clicks or conversions.

Return on ad spend measures the revenue generated for every pound spent on advertising. It is the primary profitability metric for paid media, telling you whether your ad campaigns are generating more revenue than they cost and by how much.

Bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page without taking any further action. It is a key engagement metric that signals whether your content and user experience meet visitor expectations set by the referring source.

A marketing qualified lead is a prospect who has demonstrated enough engagement or fit to be considered ready for sales outreach. MQL is the handoff point between marketing and sales, making it one of the most important and most contested metrics in B2B organisations.

A sales qualified lead is a prospect that has been vetted by the sales team and confirmed as a genuine sales opportunity worth pursuing. SQL represents the point where a lead transitions from marketing-generated interest to sales-accepted pipeline.

Marketing ROI measures the return generated by marketing investments relative to their cost. It is the definitive metric for evaluating whether marketing spend is creating or destroying value, connecting every pound invested to the revenue or profit it produces.

Email open rate measures the percentage of delivered emails that are opened by recipients. It is one of the most widely tracked email marketing metrics, though recent privacy changes have made it less reliable as a standalone indicator of engagement.

Organic traffic refers to website visitors who arrive through unpaid search engine results. It is the most cost-efficient acquisition channel for most businesses, compounding over time as content matures and domain authority grows.

Conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors, users, or leads who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a trial, or submitting a form. It is the fundamental metric for evaluating the effectiveness of any acquisition funnel, landing page, or marketing campaign.

Ad revenue is the total income a business generates from displaying advertisements to its audience. It is the primary monetisation model for media publishers, ad-supported apps, and platforms that offer free products funded by advertising.

Brand recall measures the percentage of a target audience who can name your brand unprompted when asked about a product category. It is the strongest form of brand awareness and a leading indicator of market share and purchase intent.

Branded search traffic is the volume of website visitors who arrive through search queries that include your brand name or branded terms. It serves as a real-time, quantitative proxy for brand awareness and demand generation effectiveness.

Pages viewed per session measures the average number of pages a visitor views during a single visit to your website. It is a core engagement metric that reflects content quality, site navigation effectiveness, and the depth of visitor interest.

Percentage of new users measures the proportion of total website visitors who are visiting for the first time. It reveals the balance between audience acquisition and audience retention, and signals how effectively a business is expanding its reach.

Press clippings measure the number and quality of media mentions a brand receives across newspapers, magazines, online publications, broadcasts, and podcasts. They are a core earned media metric used to evaluate the effectiveness of public relations efforts.

Social media mentions measure the volume and sentiment of public references to your brand, products, or related terms across social platforms. They serve as a real-time indicator of brand visibility, reputation, and audience engagement in the social conversation.

The viral coefficient, also known as the K-factor, measures the average number of new users that each existing user generates through referrals, invitations, or sharing. A viral coefficient above 1.0 means each user brings in more than one new user, creating exponential growth.

Website traffic growth measures the rate of increase in total website visitors over a defined period. It is the top-level indicator of whether a business is successfully expanding its digital audience and a prerequisite for scaling online revenue.

Unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of email recipients who opt out of future communications after receiving a message. It is a direct signal of audience dissatisfaction and, when tracked alongside other email metrics, reveals whether your content, frequency, or targeting is misaligned with subscriber expectations.

Form conversion rate measures the percentage of users who view a form and successfully submit it. It is a critical micro-conversion metric that directly impacts lead generation, sign-ups, and revenue, making it one of the highest-leverage optimisation targets in digital marketing.

Email click-through rate measures the percentage of email recipients who click on at least one link within an email. Unlike general CTR, which spans ads and search results, email CTR specifically captures how well your email content and calls-to-action drive recipients from the inbox to your website or landing page.

Impression share measures the percentage of eligible impressions your ads actually received. It tells you how much of the available opportunity you are capturing and, critically, how much you are missing due to budget constraints or ad rank limitations.

Quality score is a diagnostic metric in Google Ads that rates the quality and relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages on a scale of 1 to 10. It directly influences your ad rank and cost per click, making it one of the most important factors in paid search efficiency.

Email deliverability rate measures the percentage of sent emails that successfully reach the recipient's inbox rather than being blocked, bounced, or routed to spam. It is the foundation metric for every email marketing programme because no other email metric matters if the message never arrives.

Campaign conversion rate measures the percentage of campaign recipients or visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, submitting a form, or signing up for a trial. It is the definitive measure of whether a marketing campaign is achieving its objective, connecting audience reach to business outcomes.

List growth rate measures the pace at which an email subscriber list expands over a given period, accounting for new subscribers, unsubscribes, and bounces. It is the health indicator for the top of your email marketing funnel, revealing whether your audience-building efforts are outpacing natural list attrition.

Exit rate measures the percentage of pageviews on a given page that were the last in a session. Unlike bounce rate, which only counts single-page sessions, exit rate applies to all sessions regardless of how many pages the visitor viewed before leaving. It reveals which pages are most commonly the final stop in a user journey.

Pages per session measures the average number of pages a visitor views during a single session on your website. It is a core engagement metric that indicates how effectively your site architecture, content, and internal linking encourage visitors to explore beyond their landing page.

New user rate measures the percentage of website visitors who are visiting for the first time within a given period. It indicates how effectively your acquisition channels are reaching new audiences versus re-engaging existing ones, and it shapes how you balance growth investment against retention efforts.

Goal completion rate measures the percentage of sessions in which a visitor achieves a predefined objective, such as completing a purchase, submitting a form, downloading a resource, or reaching a specific page. It is the metric that directly connects website activity to business outcomes by quantifying how often visitors do what you want them to do.