Track What Matters: The Most Impactful Marketing Metrics to Monitor Every Month

Let’s be real—marketing can feel like a black box if you’re not tracking the right numbers.

You’re running ads, posting on social, sending emails… but how do you actually know if it’s working?

As a business owner, you don’t need to drown in data. You just need to track what actually moves the needle—so you can spend more time on what works and less on what doesn’t.

Here are the 5 most important marketing metrics you should be reviewing every single month.

1. Cost Per Lead (CPL)

If you’re investing in ads or lead generation, this number tells you how efficient your marketing is.

Formula: Total ad spend ÷ number of leads generated
Goal: Keep this number as low as possible without sacrificing quality

➡️ If your CPL is $100, and your average sale is $2,000? You’re winning.
➡️ If it’s $100 and you sell $150 services? Time to rework your strategy.

2. Conversion Rate

It’s not enough to drive traffic. You need to convert that traffic into action.

Examples:

• Website visitor → booking form submission
• Ad click → purchase
• Email opened → link clicked

Track conversion rates at each step of the funnel to find where you’re losing people.

➡️ Fix the bottleneck, and your whole system becomes more profitable.

3. Traffic Breakdown by Source

Not all website visitors are created equal. You need to know where your best traffic is coming from.

• Organic (Google searches)
• Paid (Google or Meta ads)
• Direct (they typed in your URL)
• Referral (another site linked to you)
• Social (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)

Why it matters: You might be spending all your time on Instagram when 70% of your buyers come from Google.

4. Engagement Rate on Social Content

Forget about follower counts. What really matters is: Are people paying attention to what you post?

💬 Track likes, comments, shares, saves, and profile clicks.

Formula: (Total Engagements ÷ Total Followers) × 100

➡️ A 3–5% engagement rate is solid. Under 1%? Time to refresh your content strategy.

5. Email Open + Click-Through Rates

Email is still one of the highest ROI channels in digital marketing—but only if people are opening and clicking.

• Open Rate: Are your subject lines interesting?
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Is your message clear and compelling?

➡️ Benchmarks:

• Open rate: 20–30% is good
• CTR: 2–5% is healthy

Bonus: Lifetime Value (LTV) vs. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

This is the big-picture view: Are you spending less to get a customer than you earn from them over time?

If your LTV is $1,200 and CAC is $300, great.
If they’re close to equal? It’s time to raise prices, boost retention, or lower acquisition costs.

Final Takeaway

You don’t need a data team. You just need to look at the right numbers—consistently.

When you know your key metrics, you make smarter decisions, scale faster, and sleep better at night.

📊 Need help tracking what really matters?
SocialJack Media builds custom dashboards and reports so business owners always know how their marketing is performing. Book a strategy session with us today.