Digital Marketing for Ecommerce Brands

As digital marketing evolves and expands, it becomes increasingly important to understand the key performance indicators (KPIs) brands can use to measure their advertising effectiveness. The gauge of success for one method of advertising isn’t necessarily the most accurate way to measure other types of marketing. Each type of ad has its own niche and its own set of metrics to show business impact. The rise of streaming video advertising and the opportunity for brand placement in the metaverse are just two cases of media’s influence extending beyond traditional KPIs. For ecommerce in particular, brands need to evaluate the goals for each marketing tactic to ensure they are monitoring KPIs that best align with target audiences.

Each type of ad has its own niche and its own set of metrics to show business impact.

This especially applies to awareness-focused advertising or what’s sometimes referred to as upper-funnel media. Streaming video, for example, doesn’t track conversion and sales the same way that banner ads do. So return on ad spend (ROAS) or clickthrough rate might not be an appropriate KPI for measuring the success of streaming video ads. Video completion rate and page view rate KPIs can give you feedback on the engagement of your ads and may be a better way to measure ad performance. As an added bonus, tracking each tactic’s unique KPIs allows brands to more easily quantify the benefits of cross-channel marketing.

Amazon, Walmart, and other ecommerce powerhouses are at the forefront of measuring advertising’s effectiveness beyond the traditional KPIs. Amazon’s Attribution program can track on-Amazon consumer behavior of off-Amazon media campaigns, including social media. And both on-Amazon and off-Amazon advertising can track organic search behavior. These signals provide valuable insight into how consumers are engaging with ads and the value campaigns drive beyond retail sales. These major advertising platforms are also making it easier and less expensive to run brand lift studies. Consumer sentiment surveys can help a brand understand the short- and long-term influence that media has. Omnichannel retailers can even measure offline sales trends alongside online media sales to build a more holistic view of the business. Advertising capabilities will continue to evolve, and maximizing their efficacy often starts with choosing the most appropriate KPIs to focus on.