10 digital marketing KPIs firms should keep tabs on

By Kevin Vermeulen

Assessing the success of their digital marketing strategy is a challenge for many law firms.

While most legal marketers understand that tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is essential to evaluating their strategy and making needed adjustments, many struggle to determine precisely which metrics offer the clearest insight and end up chasing a long list of irrelevant KPIs that only generate confusion.

The fact is, the definition of a “relevant” KPI is going to differ depending on the specific parameters of a firm’s digital strategy. However, some standard metrics are crucial to seeing the big picture, no matter how a firm approaches digital marketing.

Social media reach and engagement

Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook offer a great way to connect with potential clients and other legal professionals. However, tracking “likes,” “shares,” and other metrics will allow legal marketers to better understand:

• How many leads find their site through social media.
• Which content garners the most attention.
• Which social media platforms have the most conversions,
• Which social media platforms are worth their time and resources.

Client acquisition costs

By accounting for everything spent on attracting target clients, from product cost to research and marketing, Client Acquisition Costs (CAC) allows firms to determine:

• How much was spent on organic reach.
• How much was spent on paid reach.
• How many leads were converted by a specific campaign.
• How many leads became paying clients.

Calculating CAC is simply a matter of dividing all business development and marketing costs by the number of new clients gained in a specific period.

Landing page conversion rates

Any landing page should clearly communicate the action visitors need to follow when they arrive on the page, whether that be subscribing to a newsletter, registering for a webinar, or downloading an e-book. Tracking landing page conversion rates will answer the following questions:

• Are our leads doing what we want them to do?
• Is our message clear and concise?

There are tools that will calculate landing page conversions. However, this KPI can also be calculated by dividing the number of users who converted by the total number of those who viewed the page. Then, multiply that by 100 to determine a percentage.

Average time to conversion

This KPI offers insight into how long it takes for leads to convert into actual paying clients by helping to answer the following questions:

• Are we being time-efficient?
• Are we catching and holding our target audience’s attention?
• How effective is our sales process?

Cost per lead

Marketers can determine how much they’re spending to acquire a new lead by calculating cost per lead. This involves dividing total marketing spend by the number of leads acquired in a given period. Tracking this KPI month-over-month and year-over-year will allow firms to better gauge how much they benefit from their digital marketing strategy.

Return on investment

Return on investment, or ROI, is the classic digital marketing KPI and is essential to determining whether or not a campaign’s results justify the spend. Calculating ROI involves subtracting the initial investment cost from the final value and dividing the new number by the investment cost. Multiplying the resulting number by 100 will yield a percentage.

Pages per session/average session duration

These KPIs allow law firms to determine how well their website engages users. Anything more than four pages per session is considered excellent, but lower than two is concerning. A solid average session duration is between 2-4 minutes.

Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures how many users have viewed an ad, email, or web page or have clicked on a link after viewing a firm’s content. Most platforms for email, advertising, or website tracking showcase this KPI.

Keywords

Legal marketers need to understand whether the keywords they’re targeting each month are helping enhance their online presence. The more keywords ranking in the top 10 on search engines, the more a firm’s SEO strategy is paying off.

Qualified leads per month

When it comes to lead generation, quality is always more important than quantity. Using CRM software, firms can categorize every lead they receive in a month and determine how many were quality prospects.

While digital channels allow lawyers and law firms to connect and engage with potential clients in meaningful ways, success requires that they accurately measure the results of their efforts. Consistently tracking relevant KPIs will provide the clear, actionable insights legal marketers need to deploy an effective strategy that’s responsive to both market trends and prospect behaviors.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or if you would like assistance measuring and analyzing your digital analytics.

Kevin J. Vermeulen is a partner in Good2BSocial LLC, a digital marketing agency that focuses on law firms and companies in the legal industry. He can be reached at [email protected]