New Chart: Most Underused Metrics According to Search Marketers


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This chart offers another new finding about search marketing. Consider it a tribute to the launches of our new SherpaSearch Newsletter and the soon-to-be-released 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide.

As part of a June 2008 survey, we asked marketers an open-ended question about the most underused metrics in search. Then, we put the varied answers into the categories above. Measuring conversion and ROI was a huge theme; more than half of the respondents to this question mentioned it in some form.

Methods for measuring conversion vary quite a bit depending on the circumstances of each marketer’s path to sale. Marketers with short, impulse-buy sales cycles were quite adamant that immediate sales should be tied to keywords when figuring out conversion.

On the other hand, marketers with longer sales cycles and less tangible conversion events pushed for more proxy metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) – such as time spent on the site, offline conversions, branding value, and lifetime value. Regardless of the path to purchase, all marketers are correct that valuing marketing vehicles by ROI is a goal that needs more attention.

Key takeaway:
With prices rising steadily, marketers who evaluate search against tangible KPIs will be the ones who will optimize and balance their spending.

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More Research Data from Sherpa:
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/membertour.html?view=re
earch

MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2009:
http://www.sherpastore.com/Search-Marketing-Benchmark-2
09.html