There are metrics that matter and there are those that exist purely for the fluff of it all. These are vanity metrics. They feel important, but they are often superficial–deceptive, even.
Sure, they make your marketing results look awesome, but they don’t have any real value to them. They do not have any weight and they don’t add anything to your bottom line. This is because they can be easily obtained and manipulated.
Let’s take a deeper look at vanity metrics and why you need to stop focusing on them.
Vanity Metrics Versus Actionable Metrics
Vanity metrics won’t give you any information about your business’ health or growth. They can even be dangerous. These kinds of metrics can lead your marketing team to believe that they’re getting results when they are not. Making decisions based on vanity metrics could potentially maneuver your strategy in the wrong direction.
Fortunately, there’s another type of metric that exists. Actionable metrics help you understand the real impact of your website or social media presence on your ability to attract consumers and retain customer loyalty.
These are the metrics that give you ideas on the behaviors of your audiences and customers. They give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t, what resonates and what falls flat. Keeping track of actionable metrics will aid you in collecting and analyzing data. This data can then help you determine the decisions you will make in the short and long run.
However, it’s important to remember that there is a fine line between these two. A vanity metric for one company can be an actionable one for another. Different kinds of metrics will matter to you and your business across each stage of your growth.
An example of this is when a business in its mature stage finds metrics such as retention length and revenue per customer more important than others. Meanwhile, a startup may opt to look at its follower count and social media shares to understand its audience and the success of its content—especially its evergreen content.
If you want to identify if what you’re looking at is a vanity or an actionable metric, ask yourself the questions below:
- Is this metric leading me to take a course of action or helping me create informed decisions?
If the answer is no, then that’s a vanity metric. So your website’s page views are going way up. That’s nice and all, but will it help you make better decisions? Just because the numbers are high, it doesn’t automatically mean success or growth. It would be better to find out where these views are coming from and take action from there.
- Is it possible for me to reproduce the results purposely?
There are times when your content can go viral due to the nature of social media, but is it possible to have the same outcome with your regular posts? If the answer is no, don’t rely on this metric.
- Does this data reflect the truth?
Vanity data is easily manipulated. Nobody wants to see data about fake followers and comments and likes from bots or a surge of sales during the back-to-school period. They may be vanity metrics but don’t be too quick to disregard them. Figure out the reason behind any inconsistency first.
What to Avoid and What to Consider
Here are some examples of vanity metrics to be wary of:
- Website Traffic
Every website owner wants to get more traffic into their website, but does it really matter? Not always. More visits to your website is usually a good thing, but it’s pretty hard to understand what made the spike happen and how to replicate it in the future.
The amount of visitors your website garners doesn’t matter as much as if they were to convert into customers. At the end of the day, website visitors can just be there to visit and look around. They won’t necessarily make your business any money.
For your website, it might be best to focus on your bounce rate and length of visit.
- Social Media Audience Size & Impressions
The thing about social media is that it’s easy to purchase followers. Hence why the size of your audience doesn’t mean much when it comes to these platforms. Bigger may be better, but it’s all about quality because not everyone who follows you is a prospective customer.
It’s the same thing with impressions on your socials. While it’s great that a lot of eyes are on your content, it doesn’t mean anything if they don’t take any significant action.
For social media, concentrate on engagement, content shares, and customer conversions generated by your platforms.
- Number of Newsletter Subscribers
The number of your newsletter subscribers also isn’t an accurate indicator of company growth. Newsletters take time to lead to sales as this platform is often used to educate and nurture your audience with content that they care about.
Instead of focusing on the size of your mailing list, why not measure the number of new leads you generate per month as a result of the newsletters you send out? You can also consider Open Rate and Click Through Rate (CTR).
The metrics you measure should help you and your business grow as metrics that lack context does not have real value. When you put your focus on metrics that matter instead of those that are there for the sake of it, you can enjoy a marketing strategy that’s more powerful and hardworking.
