In the marketing realm, you can create a metric to track just about anything, and savvy marketers pay close attention to which metrics are the most significant indicators of a successful campaign. Online sales conversions can come in many forms, from various sources, and lead to multiple opportunities. But how can you be sure that you’re tracking the numbers that will provide you with most actionable and useful data for your campaign?

Let’s take a look at six essential metrics to help you track your online conversions.

1.    Sources of Traffic

Having a clear view of where your traffic is coming is the first step to capitalizing on current outreach efforts. While some businesses may have a handful of traffic sources, others may have a wide range from an array of marketing efforts. Sources of online traffic can come directly from keyword searches or offline efforts, referrals from other sites, or your social media accounts. Make sure that you’re tracking each source to measure your conversion rates.

2.    First-Time Visitor Conversions

Measuring the conversion rates for new visitors who proceed with purchases on your site is a great way to get insight into your site’s ease of navigation and customer experience. Pay attention to first-time visitor conversions especially when making changes to your website or products and services.

3.    Bounce Rate

While bounce rates will vary across industries, site structures and type, as well as a slew of other factors, it’s helpful to check out the bounce rate of your competitors’ websites. Make a list of anywhere from five to ten of your top competitors and visit SimilarWeb to view their site stats. Make sure that your site is similar to theirs. For example, if their site is mostly shop/product pages and your site is mostly blog content, that wouldn’t be a comparable site. What is your bounce rate in comparison to theirs? What’s the average bounce rate of all of them?

High bounce rates can be tell-tale signs of issues with site pages, low-quality content, lousy navigation, content that’s not relevant to the searched terms, etc. Also, take note of the exit pages of most of your visitors, which can provide excellent feedback regarding which pages you should re-evaluate.

4.    Page Visits

Where are your visitors going when they reach your site? Do the landing pages have the most visits? How about the product pages? Are they engaging in any forums or comment sections? Understand the behavior of your visitors once they reach the site. If your conversions are poor, tracking visitor behavior can give you the insight you need to pin down what may not be working.

5.    Returning Visitors

Not all buyers will purchase right out of the gate. In fact, most won’t. Taking a look at the conversion rates of your returning visitors can help you ascertain your visitors’ buying processes. Do customers return two or three times before converting? Which products or services have the fastest conversions for returning visitors? Use this information to test new pages, content, and marketing campaigns.

6.    Cost Per Sale

Make sure to measure the cost of each online conversion relative to the lead-generation value. If you’re spending money on marketing campaigns that aren’t providing sufficient conversions, it could be time to re-think your outreach strategies.

By continuously tracking your online conversions and engagement you can discover opportunities to capitalize on high-converting sales devices, while at the same time uncovering potential areas of improvement in visitors’ experiences.