Track Customer Behavior with Digital Metrics

  • How can measuring meaningful interactions help me?

  • How can I start coming up with customer behavior goals?

  • What are some behavior metrics for my rented and owned channels?


One of the great things about the digital world is all the data that’s available. It makes it easy to track whether your marketing is working or not.


Figuring out what to track is a bit more tricky. You can measure how many customers you get (acquisition) and what you want them to do in the end (outcome), but don’t forget the stage in between those two.


That is, how are customers behaving when they land on your website and social media channels?


You want to make sure your digital marketing inspires meaningful interactions that show people are truly engaged. But what do those interactions look like?


The first thing to do is to figure out which customer behaviors add value to your business.


A good way to start is to think about how you want people to act when they land on your website, apps, and social media channels.


Ask yourself: What pages should people visit? Should they come back multiple times? What videos or content should people look at and share? Once you solidify which behaviors are important, you can start tracking them.


Tools like Google Analytics, WebTrends, or Adobe Analytics can help you track behavior metrics on owned channels (ones you control like your website) and rented channels (ones you only post to and customize like social media).


LISTEN UP

We’re going to look at the different metrics for both channels and see what they tell you about your digital marketing.


We’ll start with owned ones, like your websites (including your mobile one).


For your desktop website, you should track bounce rate and visitor loyalty.


Bounce rate is how high you can dribble a ball. Ha, no, it’s the % of people who land on your website and leave right away. You can also focus it to mean the % of people who only look at one page (like your landing page).


For example, Accident Anne might mistakenly click your ad and be taken to your site, only to hit the back button immediately. Or Window Shopper Wendy might only check out your homepage but never go deeper into your site.


A low bounce rate is a good thing because it lets you know people are sticking around. But it’s also awesome because it means your website is fulfilling the expectations people had when they clicked on your ad or search result.


Visitor loyalty tells you how often a person comes back to your site. To measure this, set a goal for how often you want people to come back over a certain amount of time.


Let’s say you do some research and find out people are more likely to become long-term, loyal customers if they visit your site 5 times in 1 month. So that’s the goal you should track: how many people return 5 times in 30 days.


For your mobile site, you should track both bounce rate and how much time people spend on your site.


Mobile-friendliness can also affect how much time people spend on your site. If their experience is difficult and confusing, they won’t waste a lot of time figuring it out. Tracking time spent will let you know if your mobile site needs some work.Bounce rate is a hugely important metric for mobile sites. Most mobile devices and web browsers make it really easy for people to hit the back button and leave a site fast. Like a fraction-of-a-second fast.


Having a high or bad bounce rate usually tells you that your site isn’t all that mobile-friendly. Being unable to navigate a mobile site easily and slow load times are big reasons why people bounce quickly.


Mobile-friendliness can also affect how much time people spend on your site. If their experience is difficult and confusing, they won’t waste a lot of time figuring it out. Tracking time spent will let you know if your mobile site needs some work.


To get a full picture of your digital marketing, you should also track behavior on rented channels.


This includes YouTube and “stream-based” social media (when posts are moved quickly through a feed, like a status update or Tweet).


Here’s what to measure on YouTube:


VIEWS

Check how many people have looked at your videos/ads.


COMPLETES

The # of people who watched your entire video/ad shows how well you kept their attention.


Here’s what to measure on stream-based social media:


AMPLIFICATION

Track shares and retweets that spread your content beyond your immediate audience.


APPLAUSE

Track likes on posts to see if your content idea is resonating with people.


DO THIS NOW

Let’s find a good place for you to start tracking behavior metrics. To help, tap into any nagging suspicions you already have about your marketing channels.


If you’re participating in the course, go to the next section to access your self assessment. 



KEY TAKEAWAYS

  1. Tracking customer behaviors is as important as tracking acquisitions and outcomes.

  2. For owned channels, you should track bounce rate, visitor loyalty, and time spent.

  3. For rented channels, you should track views, completes, and amplification, and applause.