Best PracticesPerformance Metrics

What Are the Key Metrics to Track in B2B Demand Generation?

The competitive landscape of B2B marketing makes it vital to know which metrics to track in B2B demand generation. Very few B2B sellers have the luxury of a brand that commands attention and trust. Even fewer work in industries where prospects rush to make buying decisions. So go ahead and stack the sales funnel with eyes and ears. It’s a game of inches in going from no to yes, and success often hinges on understanding what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Understanding Demand Generation Metrics

Demand generation metrics allow companies to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing. These metrics can unearth how well your attempts land with your desired demographic. Moreover, they allow for some decision-making that’s more along the lines of data-driven than gut-driven and can refine your overall strategy to something sharper and, hopefully, more effective. Here are some metrics that might be worth keeping an eye on:

Volume of Leads: This tracks the number of new leads generated in a period of time. You should also check how many of your leads come back to you and how many of them convert to sales.
Conversion Rate: Compute this by dividing the number of customers by the total leads. A superior conversion rate signals effective demand generation.
Leads considered more likely to become customers based on their engagement are called Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). MQLs are tracked to identify such leads.
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): These are leads that the sales team considers ripe for immediate engagement by the sales force.

As per HubSpot, businesses that switch to automated lead management witness a rise in revenue of 10% or more within a span of 6 to 9 months. Such numbers emphasize the significance of maintaining a close watch over lead metrics.

What Are the Key Metrics to Track in B2B Demand Generation?

Continuing our investigation into the metrics that matter for B2B demand generation, we next turn our attention to performance indicators that speak to the effectiveness of demand generation programs. Not only do these guide the team in the continual refinement of the program, they also serve as a basis for setting and discussing realistic targets.

Lead Acquisition Cost: Grasping the sum total you expend acquiring each lead informs better resource allocation.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This metric takes all the costs associated with acquiring new customers and combines them into one number, allowing us to see how effective our demand generation strategies are.
Investment Optimization Returns (IOR): The monetary returns from your demand generation activities and the knowledge of their profitability.
Lead Source Performance: Examine the channels that are generating the most leads and conversions, which allows us to concentrate our marketing efforts even more.

If, as an example, webinars produce a conversion rate that outstrips that of email campaigns, then it may be time to move some marketing budget around and invest in amplifying the reach of your webinars.

Importance of Tracking Engagement Metrics

Metrics that gauge engagement are just as essential for comprehending the interaction of leads with your content. These metrics shine light on the behavior and the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ of your audience. Thus, keeping a close watch on all this will make your future marketing a whole lot better. The main metrics that gauge engagement are:

Website Visitor Statistics: Keep an eye on the total number of visits to your website and how many of those are from unique visitors. This is a pretty good overall indicator of how many people are interested in what you’re offering.
Bounce Rate: A high bounce rate might signal that your content is not matching the expectations of your audience.
Time Spent on Page: This metric informs you of the level of engagement between your visitors and your content. If a lot of people spend a lot of time on your pages, it is a good sign that they find what you have to say (or show!) worth their while.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): This measures how many clicks versus impressions your campaigns receive, letting you know how compelling your calls to action are.

A report by the Content Marketing Institute states that 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing, while only 24% say they are effective at it. That leaves a whole lot of room for improvement, and a recent opportunity tracking and optimization guide from the CMI could help those folks get somewhat closer to that 24% threshold.

Leveraging Technology to Track Metrics

Using technology can make tracking B2B demand generation metrics a whole lot simpler. Data analytics can come from many places, but our two favorite sources are marketing automation platforms and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. These two types of tools can provide brilliant insights into the performance of not just your marketing programs, but also your sales. But picking the right tools from the right places is half of the journey. The other half is knowing what to look for. Here, then, are some key feature sets you should demand from your analytics tools.

Analytics in Real Time: You can obtain instant insights about how well your campaign is performing. You can then, if necessary, promptly adjust what you’re doing.
Integrating the tools with the current systems is essential for a smooth workflow. Ensure that they can sync with the existing setups.
Dashboards: These can be tailored to display the specific vital statistics that pertain to each person’s role.

Take the platform HubSpot. It has several embedded analytical components that track key performance indicators very nicely. A study by Forbes in 2017 showed that businesses that used marketing automation in 2016 had a 451% increase in qualified leads as compared to 2015. One can’t argue with the effectiveness of marketing automation itself. It seems to be a no-brainer.

Final Thoughts

Identifying and tracking the right metrics is an essential step in B2B demand generation. But which metrics are the most relevant? Here are three that matter:

Lead Qualification Metrics

The first type of relevant metrics to track is lead qualification metrics, which measure the quality of leads being generated.

Engagement Metrics

Even perfectly qualified leads won’t generate growth if they’re not sufficiently engaged. Engagement metrics measure how well the leads you’ve generated are interacting with your company.

Technology Utilization Metrics

The last type of relevant metrics to track is technology utilization metrics, which measure how well and how extensively your organization is using all the tools in your marketing and sales tech stack.