The Ultimate Guide to Omnichannel Metrics

The benefits of creating an omnichannel marketing strategy are clear. Data shows that marketers using three or more channels earn a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign. Customer retention rates are also 90% higher when using an omnichannel vs. a single-channel approach.

The last few years forced many companies to start thinking outside the box and accelerate their omnichannel strategies. According to consumers, businesses that fared best often met customers online and continued to engage offline. For example, many brands began exploring the benefits of direct mail to stand out from competitors online. Since 67% of consumers think direct mail feels more personal than the internet, it holds a crucial spot in any multichannel strategy.

Whether you're currently investing in email, social, search engine ads, direct mail, or all of the above, it's essential that you start tracking the most vital metrics. That insight will help you remain agile and competitive, allowing you to optimize your marketing budget.

What are omnichannel metrics, and why do they matter?

Marketing metrics are measurable ways to track performance, allowing you to understand a campaign's effectiveness. These metrics tell you how effectively your efforts lead consumers to take action and what value those actions generate. While marketing metrics change based on a company's objectives and industry trends, underlying goals remain the same — attract and gain new customers, engage existing consumers, spread brand awareness, etc.

Based on these core goals, metrics like revenue, customer engagement, and conversion rates remain top priorities. However, KPI-conscious metrics, such as acquisition costs and click-through rates, are tracked increasingly. The metrics that matter most to you will depend on the channel and the varying stages of marketing. For example, while you may want to track the number of new subscribers in the awareness stage, customer churn or ROI might become your focus during the post-purchase phase.

When considering different channels, click-through rates might be your number one metric for email marketing campaigns. In contrast, return on investment (ROI) or cost per acquisition (CPA) may be the essential metrics for your direct mail campaigns. Of course, these can (and should) change over time for agile marketing teams.

Discover: Modern Marketer's Guide to Omnichannel Marketing

Examples of omnichannel metrics across marketing channels

When deciding what metrics are most important, you must consider your short- and long-term goals. Do you want to improve personalization and see how that influences lead generation, customer retention, average order value, or something else entirely?

The channels you use and the metrics that come with them depend on your industry. For example, if you're in real estate, you may be hyper-focused on improving response rates. Customer engagement may be crucial for those in the financial industry, whereas retail companies may want to invest in tracking incremental sales and customer retention rates.

Here is a breakdown of potential metrics based on the channels you're currently using within your omnichannel marketing strategy. Please note: These metrics may overlap across several channels.

Direct mail

• Return on investment (ROI) — This metric is one of the most useful to gauge the success or failure of a campaign. Use this ROI calculator to see if you're leaving money on the table.
• Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) — This metric lets you know how much you spend to get new customers. You can compare this metric to other channels for the most cost-effective option. While costs will vary depending on several variables, direct mail can often help you stretch your budget further. With options to optimize your direct mail spend, such as this address verification API, use this metric to adjust your approach.
• Response rates — This rate represents the number of people who respond to a direct mail campaign. There are many ways to track this metric, including QR codes, coupon codes, and trackable URLs.

Social media

• Engagement — This large umbrella category includes everything from likes and comments to clicks and shares. This metric will help determine who interacts with your account and how often.
• Impressions and reach — If you are focusing on awareness, use these metrics as benchmarks for your brand. Impressions are the number of times a post shows up in timelines, and reach is the potential unique viewers a post could have.
• Follower growth — This metric tracks the rate at which your channels are gaining new followers. This metric can help pinpoint content that drives up your following, as well as content that causes people to unfollow. Calculate this rate by taking your current number of total followers, subtracting the number of the previous month's total followers, and then dividing that difference from the previous month.

Email

• Click-through rate (CTR) — This measures the percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links in a specific email. This is a day-to-day email marketing metric. Since it's quite easy to calculate performance for each email, you can see how your CTR changes over time.
• Unsubscribe rate — This is a percentage of the email recipients that remove themselves from your mailing list following a given email. Check this at least monthly to calculate the overall growth rate. This data provides an opportunity to reengage those consumers, which is what ThirdLove was able to do.
• Bounce rate — The bounce rate is the percentage of total emails sent that aren't successfully delivered to recipients' inboxes. This metric isn't directly related to your goals but is essential to catch any issues within your audience.

Pay-per-click (PPC)

• Impressions — This measure indicates how many people saw your ad, and impression shares measure potential opportunity. Use this metric if your marketing campaigns include branded search queries.
• Conversions/clicks — When measuring conversions, you discover how many people did what you wanted them to, which will depend on your industry or goal. For example, you may measure how many consumers purchase a product if you're in retail. In contrast, a SaaS company might be more interested in how many viewers signed up for a free demo or consultation.
• Cost-per-click — This metric will help you better understand how much you're paying for traffic. When someone clicks on an ad, this cost-efficiency metric tracks how much you pay, contributing to a campaign's ROI.
• Quality score — This metric helps you evaluate the relevance of your ads and website concerning search results. Quality score influences ad rank, ad position, average cost-per-click, etc.

Website

• Conversion/completion rate — When you achieve a high goal completion rate, your content or website successfully engages consumers to the point of conversion. This metric will help you determine how optimized your site is and where opportunities exist for higher conversion rates.
• Bounce rate — This traffic-related metric measures the number of visitors that leave your website. They land on your site and do nothing before exiting. A high bounce rate can be related to a particular channel or hint at a more widespread issue.
• Time on page — This metric is the average time spent on a single page by all users without considering bounce or exit rates. If users are spending a lot of time on a certain page, they're engaged with the content. On the flip side, if people are only spending 10 seconds on your page, then there are some improvements that need to be made to the content or its format, the layout of the page, or how it matches the visitor's intent.
• Geography/demographics — Get to know your website visitors by understanding their geographic and demographic data. You can focus on geographic location, age, gender, traffic type (mobile vs. desktop), etc. This information can help you understand how to better tailor your messaging or even special offers or promos to test, like to your audiences in specific states or metropolitan areas.

Out-of-home advertising (OOH)

• Impressions — To track how many people view advertising outside your home, you can use data modeling, census data, travel surveys, etc. However, today, you also have the option to track an OOH campaign using location-based mobile data. For example, Geopath measures pedestrian volumes, traffic volumes, and vehicle occupancy.
• Digital trails — Much like direct mail, you can use the power of unique promo/URL codes and trackable links to measure the effectiveness of an outdoor advertising campaign.

SMS

• Open rate — The average open rate for SMS campaigns is high, making it an excellent channel for sending a time-sensitive message. For example, a one-day Black Friday or Boxing Day sale.
• Conversion rate — Open rates for SMS are high, but how many convert? If conversion rates are low, consider your call to action, remain mindful of personalization, and use A/B testing to gain further insight.
• Unsubscribe rate — This metric measures how many people opt-out of your SMS campaigns. This rate can help you determine whether you're making a common mistake concerning timing, frequency, content, relevance, etc. If your opt-rate is higher than 4%, it's time to investigate and potentially pivot. The average opt-out rate for SMS across all campaigns is less than 5%.
• List growth rate — Like email marketing, SMS marketing requires a solid list of subscribers. To grow your list, offer promotional incentives to opt-in, capture site traffic with pop-ups, and optimize the checkout process to gain new subscribers.

Additional tips for omnichannel marketing metrics

• Consider all metrics and how they may influence one another. Don't allow siloed data to sit within one channel. Data from one channel can have a significant impact on another. This approach ensures a more holistic understanding of your customers and omnichannel performance. Learn more: How to Use Your Marketing Data to Influence Your Next Direct Mail Campaign.
• Don't be afraid to pivot. If you're adding channels to your omnichannel marketing strategy, start implementing the metrics that make the most sense for each campaign you create. Familiarize yourself with relevant terms and how they influence your ability to make more informed decisions.
• Break down metrics based on how often you track them. For example, while you may want to check abandoned cart rates daily, you might only check revenue by channel monthly. You might only review something like lifetime value quarterly or even yearly. Automate scheduled reports to get insights when you need them.

Lob delivers the direct mail metrics that matter

Ready to explore the power of direct mail within your omnichannel marketing strategy? This channel provides unique metrics that will help fuel your marketing initiatives so you can craft better campaigns and boost your bottom line.

Contact our team to learn more or request a demo today!

Want to dive deeper into direct mail metrics and statistics? Get your copy of the 2023 State of Direct Mail to learn how marketers across the country leverage the channel and measure results.

Or, if you just want the highlights, watch the Lobcast podcast episode below!