Identifying the key points, shortcomings, and areas of improvement of a B2B marketing campaign is essential for overall performance improvement. But tracking those subtle cases becomes difficult for you. Here comes the B2B marketing KPIs, standard of performance measuring criteria, which help to find everything about how they are going and what is next to achieve the goal for your marketing campaign. In this article, we will cover B2B marketing KPIs in every aspect with a complete guide.
What Are B2B Marketing KPIs?
B2B marketing KPI measures how your company is performing regarding certain long-term goals or objectives – âRebecca Riserbatoâ.It means B2B marketing KPIs are the key points that marketing executives use to measure the progress of their business-to-business (B2B) marketing initiatives, such as website campaigns or email marketing.
Maybe it sounds like methodology, but the suspense disclosure is âthey are notâ. Those KPIs help gauge the success of marketing efforts in generating new business by building relationships, trust, and increasing brand value. To monitor, record, and measure the performance of effort marketers rely on KPIs, which is a serious thing to take into account.
Why Tracking B2B Marketing KPIs Matters
Tracking B2B marketing KPIs is mandatory for the strategic development of performance. B2B marketing KPIs tell you what your team is working toward and where everything it does needs to lead. Let’s break down some more key factors that show keeping track of b2b marketing KPI matters.
- Justifying Marketing Spend
- Measuring Campaign Performance
- Optimizing Strategies
- Improving ROI
- Enhancing Decision-Making
By matching the satisfying performance to your KPIs, you can make sure that every marketing activity is decisive and contributes to your overall business goals. KPIs allow you to optimize your approach, inform decisions, and achieve more in your B2B marketing with better relationships with customers, increasing brand value, and improving service.
What Are the Core B2B Marketing KPIs to Track?
Successfully keeping track of core key performance indicators of B2B marketing and the impact on overall business growth. But the question that may arise in your mind is what KPIs you need to track. Well, it depends on the niche, types, and requirements of your business. Let’s talk about KPIs that are mostly needed for business all over the world.
Awareness & Engagement
Awareness and engagement on B2B marketing for KPI tracking play a crucial role in your business revenue. Let’s assume you have a website that represents your business on the internet. But if you don’t realise how many people visit it, click links, and fill out pop-ups, then you are in the dead zone of marketing. Let’s see three metrics that work as KPIs for engagement and awareness.
Website Traffic (Total & Source-wise)
Calculating your website traffic can be helpful for determining the conversion rate. You can use Google Analytics or other tools like it to measure the traffic value. When you see traffic volume and conversion rate, you can realise how much more effort you need to put into your site or on SEO.
| Calculate traffic value = (Estimated Clicks for Keyword x CPC for Keyword) |
Example:
- Keyword: âcall centre service providerâ
- Monthly Search Volume: 10000
- Estimated CTR (for your ranking): 5% (0.05)
- Estimated Clicks: 10000 x 0.05 = 500
- Average CPC (for âcall centre service providerâ): $2
- Traffic Value: 500 x $2 = $1000
Organic Visits & Keyword Rankings
Potential prospects search for keywords according to their pain point, interests, or specific need; they don’t know your brand name in every case. So, according to your business analysis, use common, unique, and solution-based keywords and publish a blog post to drive traffic to your site. And see how they work. Because you are doing content marketing here and its KPIs will depend on generating organic traffic by SEO (search engine optimization), like if you research keywords, publish blogs, but they don’t rank on search engines, you are not meeting the KPIs.
Social Media Engagement Rate
Likes/shares/comments/clicks are significant for your B2B marketing. When you put full effort into posting, sharing videos, tips, and infographics, but you don’t care about likes, comments, or engagements, then maybe you are not on the right track to success. You can use Meta Business Suite for Facebook Insights or other tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, and Meltwater to track the performance for meeting KPIs.
Lead Generation
B2B Lead generation is a core component of B2B marketing. And you can’t just spend an unplanned budget on this. You need to spend strategically on your plan and keep track of it as well.
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
Track your website’s visitors with expertise in analytics. Suppose someone stayed on your website for a couple of minutes. That does not mean the prospect is MQL(marketing qualified leads) because if that person visited your career page, then it’s a non-qualified lead. The most important thing is that if someone visits your pricing page or solution-based blog, then you can approach them, and it can be a qualified lead for marketing.
| Cost per MQL = Cost per lead / Cost of marketing for total new leads |
PPC Metrics: CPC & CTR:
PPC(pay-per-click) methods include CPC and CTR, which stand for cost per click and click-through. Keeping track of how much you are spending on ads per click and their conversion rate. And your link or product ads are shown by Google or any other search engine, but after seeing the ads, how many people click on the link? Measuring this rate is CTR, which is very important to track, also for KPI.
| CTR = (Number of clicks/ Number of impressions) x 100 CPC = Total cost of clicks / Number of clicks |
Lead Qualification & Sales Handoff
One of the most important KPIs is lead qualification in B2B marketing. Keeping track of which kind of leads you are buying or your lead generation is producing is very important. Because sales-qualified, marketing-qualified, and sales-qualified opportunities (SQO) are impactful for bringing more sales, but cold leads can make you work harder with fewer opportunities. SQO leads have a high chance of conversion because they spend more time on your site and show better engagement than others. SQL is a good fit for sales. So keep track, your b2B marketing is on the right track, and qualified leads that do not waste time and labour.
Once your lead is qualified and you make sure it’s ready to be reached out to, immediately transfer the lead to the sales team for approaching them without wasting time. This process is called sales handoff, and delaying the approach can change the prospect’s mind, or they can buy from others. KPIs of your B2B marketing include sales handoff and lead qualification, and keeping track of both of them is crucial and significant.
Revenue & ROI
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
As a business owner or decision-maker of a company, you need to focus on annual revenue and return on investment because you are responsible for this accountability. Your total marketing expenses, sales expenses, tools buying expenses, data collection expenses, everything should be included in the total expenses to make a sale, and then divide it by the number of new customers you got, because everything you spend is just to acquire a new customer. So keeping track of that is very important. Take a look at the formula below to calculate the CAC to track KPIs of B2B marketing.
| CAC = Total sales and marketing expenses / Number of new customers acquired |
LTV & CAC Ratio
If a customer buys five tools for $100 each year and the customer stays for 5 years, then the customer’s lifetime value will be $2500 using the formula below. So calculate those values for
CAC Ratio & Time-to-Payback CAC: Time to payback for a SaaS business within 12 months is considered good, and high performing payback is generally considered if it’s within 5-7 months. CAC ratio and time to payback are indicators of financial health. It is difficult to calculate for a business., The LTV: CAC healthy ratio is 3:1. The LTV: CAC ratio compares the lifetime value of a customer to the cost of acquiring them.
| CLTV = (Average Purchase Value x Purchase Frequency) x Average Customer Lifespan |
Retention & Growth (for subscription/SaaS)
Measure the percentage of customers who remain subscribed over a certain period or a long period. KPIs for retention and growth rely on customer loyalty, revenue stability, and sustainable expansion.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): For B2B marketing, calculating Monthly Recurring Revenue is important. Just multiply the average revenue per user by the number of paying customers.
| MRR = Number of paying customers x Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) |
Churn Rate & Customer Retention Rate: Churn rate is a percentage of customers leaving within a given period of time, where retention rate is the percentage of customers that stay with your brand during that time. You can easily calculate those rates using the given formulae below to set your KPIs for B2B marketing.
| Churn Rate = (Number of Customers Lost / Number of Customers at the Start of the Period) * x 100 |
| CRR = (End Customers – New Customers) / Start Customers x 100 |
How to Set & Review Your KPI Dashboard
Scattered KPI goals are a burden in themselves. Effectively review your KPI dashboard for B2B marketing. You need to align KPIs with business objectives, choose relevant metrics, establish a reporting cadence, and automate data collection. An organised dashboard of setting KPI goals and meeting becomes easier for you. Let’s see the steps for setting and reviewing your KPI dashboard below.
- Define Objectives and KPIs
- Align with Business Goals
- SMART Goals
- Choose Relevant Metrics
- Lead Generation Website
- Performance
- Sales Performance
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing Etc
- Balance Leading and Lagging Indicators
- Build Your Dashboard
- Choose a Platform
- Data Visualization
- User-Friendly Interface
- Consider Data Sources
- Automate Data Collection
- Review and Refine
- Regular Reporting
- Collaborate with Sales
- Monitor and Adjust
- Iterative Process
Example:
- Goal: Increase lead generation from social media by 25% in the next quarter.
- KPIs: Number of leads generated from LinkedIn, social media engagement rate, and cost per lead from social media.
- Dashboard: A visual dashboard showing lead volume, engagement metrics, and cost per lead for LinkedIn, updated weekly.
- Review: Weekly meetings with the LinkedIn team to review the dashboard, analyse performance, and make adjustments to campaigns as needed.
Template for marketing KPIs
The KPI report template should be selected based on your specific needs for B2B marketing. 46% marketing leaders lack timely data and are unable to make strategic decisions due to unplanned and unmanaged use of a KPI dashboard. So it’s a very important tool, too, and it’s SMART, which stands for
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Each and every template of a B2B marketing KPI dashboard should be smart, so working with it makes the process easier, effective, and time-saving. Let’s take a look at some templates that are used for KPI tracking as a dashboard for b2b marketing.
- KPI reporting template
- SEO KPI reporting template
- Social media KPI template
- Web analytics KPI template
- Email Marketing KPI Reporting template
- Advertising report template
You go for a custom template as well for your specific needs, pain points, or interests to make things fit with your system. But make sure you use one to better your workflow and generate better results than before.
Conclusion
B2B marketing is a relevant field, but it’s data-driven, so keeping track of every performance and effort will give you a result of win or lose at the end of the journey over a certain time. KPIs can be a criterion that helps to measure your efforts in achieving the goal. If your leads are not that effective and are facing marketing issues, you can take the best lead generation service from CallingAgency, which will help you make more successful B2B marketing and bring more revenue.
FAQ
Which KPIs Matter Most in B2B Marketing?
Several KPIs in B2b marketing matter the most, including lead generation, customer acquisition, customer retention, etc.
How Do I Calculate LTV: CAC?
To calculate the LTV: CAC, divide the customer lifetime by customer acquisition cost (LTV/CAC)
Whatâs the Difference Between MQL and SQL?
Leads that meet the criteria of putting effort into marketing and showing interest in a product or service are MQL, and leads that are intended to make a purchase and are deliverable to the sales team for outreach are sales qualified leads.
How Often Should B2B Marketing KPIs Be Reviewed
A monthly or quarterly review is good for an average company, but you need to do it regularly, not frequently, based on your specific condition and the interests of your business.
What Tools Help Track B2B Marketing KPIs?
Several tools can effectively track B2B marketing KPIs, including CRM(Customer Relationship Management) like HubSpot and Salesforce, with built-in reporting. For more in-depth insight, you can use Google Analytics and Tableau, etc., and for social media management, you can use tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Brandwatch, etc.
How Can You Improve B2B Marketing KPIs?
You can improve your B2B marketing KPIs by optimising lead generation, leveraging data, aligning goals, and enhancing collaboration.
What Are the Top KPIs for B2B Marketers?
Lead generation, CLTV, CAC, revenue, CTC, CPC, customer retention, return on ads spend (ROAS), etc, are the top KPIs for B2B marketers.
How Do B2B Kpis Differ From B2c KPIs?
B2B KPIs focus on building long-term relationships with customers, lead nurturing, complex sales processes, et, while B2C KPIs focus on short-term or quick sales to individuals.
What Metrics Should B2B Marketers Track?
Customer lifetime value (CLTV), customer acquisition, revenue metric, marketing value, etc, are the most important metrics to track in B2B marketing.
Which B2B Marketing KPIs Affect ROI the Most?
Conversion, pipeline velocity, lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, etc, affect ROI the most.
How Do You Track Success in B2B Marketing?
You can track success in B2B marketing by aligning your business goal and focusing on KPIs
What is a Good Conversion Rate for B2B Leads?
2% to 5% is a good conversion rate in B2B leads
How Do MQL and SQL Metrics Impact B2B Campaigns?
MQL and SQL methods are used to identify customers who have shown real interest in a specific product or service, which makes the sales process easier and smoother.
What Tools Help Measure B2B Marketing Performance?
HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Analytics, etc, are the most used tools to measure B2B marketing performance.
What is the Role of KPIs in B2B Lead Generation?
There are several roles of KPIs in b2B lead generation, such as:
- Aligning Marketing and Sales Teams
- Driving Revenue Growth
- Assessing Lead Quality
- Measuring Campaign Efficiency
- Optimising the Sales Funnel
What KPIs Should Be in a B2B Marketing Dashboard?
CAC, CLTV, ROAS, website traffic, conversion rate, etc, are the most important KPIs that should be included in a B2B marketing dashboard.
How Can Marketing Automation Improve B2B KPIs?
Marketing automation improves B2B KPIs by making the process easy, making better predictions through data analysis, and improving lead generation and nurturing.
What is Considered a High-performing B2B Marketing Funnel?
A high-performing B2B marketing funnel provides better sales results, improved conversion rate, and smoothens the sales process, consisting of TOFU(Awareness stage), MOFU(consideration stage), and BOFU(decision stage).
How Do You Benchmark B2B Marketing Metrics?
Comparing your company’s performance with industry standards and competitors, you can benchmark B2B marketing.
Whatâs the Difference Between Lead Quality and Lead Quantity in KPIs?
Lead quality refers to the possibility of converting into a customer, and lead quantity means the number of qualified leads you have to reach out to and make sales.
Which KPIs Are Best for Account-based Marketing?
Engagement, conversion, and revenue impact on target accounts are the best for ABM (Account-based marketing).
