Looking for a job promotion? Here are 5 marketing KPIs to convince your boss

Do you think that your marketing work earned you a promotion in 2014? CEOs want their marketing teams to be more accountable and prove their value with data. In that spirit, here are 5 digital marketing KPIs to help you make a case for that big promotion.

5. Keyword performance

Overview

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential tool in the online marketer's toolkit. But if you think it's all about keyword ranking, you're wrong. SEO is more than just getting good rankings on search engines (although it's still important); SEO is about driving quality traffic to your website that results in an increased number of onsite conversions. Learn more about SEO traffic.

What to highlight

• Show your boss how your SEO efforts have the number of leads generated by your website.
• Bonus points: Dominate search rankings for targeted keywords. Learn how to build an SEO performance dashboard for your business.

4. Social traffic and conversions

Overview

Social media is a pillar of any online marketing strategy, and exposure on the right platform can help you garner thousands of unique impressions and views. Social sentiments, social interactions, and social followers are all important leading indicators that give an idea of how well you perform in key social spaces. But if you're really trying to impress your boss, you need to show how your social efforts are resulting in more business.

What to highlight

• Clearly show the connection between visits from social platforms and new leads.
• Bonus points: Demonstrate how social efforts have increased sales. Learn how to leverage your marketing efforts using a social media dashboard.

3. Purchase funnel

Overview

The customer acquisition process is absolutely central to your business. You need to attract new customers, nurture existing leads, and turn loyal customers into brand advocates. The purchase funnel is one KPI that visualizes this process and provides conversion rates from one stage to the next. Make sure you don't just use the funnel as a single slide in your presentation – use it to tell the exciting story of your marketing performance in 2013.

What to highlight

• Improving conversion rates throughout the year, with strong conversion rates from the top of the funnel to the bottom.
• Bonus points: Show the dollar value associated with each stage of the funnel.

2. Return on Marketing Investment (ROI)

Overview

Return on Marketing Investment is more than just a KPI: it's a marketing philosophy that vows to spend budgets responsibly. For each major campaign your marketing department ran in 2013, make sure that you have a tangible ROI figure associated with it. The challenge with ROI is that many campaign measurement tools focus primarily on the last interaction. Unfortunately, your boss won't sympathize with this problem; he wants a no-nonsense answer to the question, "What is the ROI on your marketing efforts in 2013?"

What to highlight

• Positive ROI for all your campaigns.
• Bonus points: Numbers that increase over the year to show you're continuously improving.

1. Incremental sales

Overview

Nothing says "success" quite like a marketing campaign that results in meeting sales targets and increasing sales revenue. Ideally, this KPI will be coupled with your ROI KPIs. The reason I put this KPI separately is that it offers a more compelling argument for the value of your marketing efforts. What incremental sales come down to is giving your boss a simple number that says, "Hey, marketing brought in this much new revenue last year."

What to highlight

• This is kind of simple: show that you've brought in the dough (and lots of it)
• Bonus points: High ROI, high incremental sales, and low cost per lead.

Don't have the KPIs to back you up?

Then consider this a "to-do list" for 2014 and work on improving your numbers.