6 mobile metrics you should be using to increase ROI

UK mobile marketing spending is set to double in 2013 – hitting the £1bn mark for the first time – and revenue will rise by 90% compared to 2012. This is a momentous landmark in short history of mobile marketing. However, while brands’ confidence in the channel is growing such huge investment demands effective ROI metrics.

Until now, lack of effective metrics has disadvantaged mobile against other digital channels. Different channels should have different measurements of success and this is paralleled in online vs mobile metrics. Mobile is used in very different ways to online. Therefore, the ROI should be predicated upon different metrics specific to mobile. We’ve explored these in our new Mobile Whitebook 2013 that we’ve produced in conjunction with Econsultancy.

The six steps below cover some things you should be thinking about when it comes to mobile measurement and improvement.

1. Create mobile-specific goals
With so much data generated by each customer touch point, understanding where to look can be a challenge. It’s all too easy to spend hours in front of an analytics tool and achieving very little. Therefore, the first step in effective mobile measurement is to understand what goals you have and why you wish to track them. These goals are the first step in identifying which metrics and KPIs you will be monitoring to track your efforts. Mobile response and CTAs are notably different to online behaviour of dwell times and page views. Make sure you adapt your KPIs accordingly.

2. Have in place a suitable analytics solution and dedicate resources to it
While this may seem obvious, it is not unusual for marketers to have ineffective analytics solutions deployed which will prevent true insight being developed. This is particularly acute for app usage. Make sure you have the right tools in place and, crucially, someone with the time to get insights out of the data.

3. Make sure your analytics are correctly tagged
On campaigns you run, make sure any links you share or use in a campaign (eg in paid search, on social or email marketing) have correct tagging on them to allow you to understand the sources and media that are contributing to your efforts and build them into your big data strategies.

4. Look at landing pages, exit pages and keywords to identify user intent
Seeing what the most frequent first and last pages of a customer visit are and the keywords they use to reach your site will provide an indication of the key tasks that your users are trying to achieve through your site. Make a case for your customers to buy on mobile devices using ‘nudge’ principles. Mobile customers use their smart devices to search for your store locations, compare products/prices or research features, and finally head into store. Econsultancy’s Multichannel Retail Survey found that 32% of consumers in the UK and 41% in the US had used a mobile device to find a retailer’s nearest store and opening times. Find out what pages and keywords are being used on these customer journeys.

5. Reassess your KPIs frequently
As mobile is such a fast-moving field, KPIs that you had last year may not be relevant today. Keep an eye on how useful they are and be prepared to change them, but retain the mainstays as you can track growth on the mobile channel.

6. Use your insight to drive change
One significant problem with web analytics and measurement is that, although companies produce a glut of reports, little action is taken to make best use of the data collected and improve the processes through which the company operates.

Download the free Mobile Whitebook 2013

By DMA guest blogger, Renaye Edwards, European Marketing Director, Velti