Why Page Views Aren't Enough Anymore

One of the biggest trends in marketing this year has been examining metrics that go beyond just views and clicks.  Marketers are now measuring the “call to action” stats such as downloads, list subscribers and ticket sales to determine if campaigns are successful.  Likes and followers just aren’t cutting it anymore.  Brands need to focus on building relationships with smaller, more targeted audiences.

Targeting audiences is not a new concept—who has the money anymore for national TV ads that appear on every station?  What’s new is that shareholders are now expecting proof of their return on investment and a few likes and pageviews aren’t doing it anymore.  Especially now that social media platform algorithms are constantly changing, a brand’s followers aren’t necessarily always seeing their content anyway.

What does this mean for marketers?  It means that the key performance indicators need to change.  Instead of measuring page views, marketers need to look at more engagement-based metrics such as shares, comments and actual purchases.  It is much more beneficial for brands to seek out a smaller, loyal group of repeat buyers than to try to capture a huge audience of several different demographics.  Brand engagement strategies are what encourage repeat purchases and those must be measured by a different set of metrics than what marketers are used to.

What are some of your favorite performance-based metrics to include in your marketing plans?