We’ve all been there. You launch a new campaign or initiative and watch those vanity metrics like traffic and sessions spike through the roof. The thrill of seeing those numbers increase is addicting, and it’s easy to assume more traffic equals success.
But what if I told you those vanity metrics could be misleading? While traffic and sessions provide a high-level snapshot, they fail to tell the full story on their own. Successful marketing today requires a more nuanced approach rooted in customer experience and outcomes.
In this article, I’ll explain common pitfalls with prioritizing vanity metrics, and share tips to take a more strategic approach that drives real business value.
The allure and limitations of vanity metrics
Vanity metrics refer to metrics like traffic, page views, and sessions that focus on quantity rather than quality. Here’s why these metrics tend to seduce us, and the drawbacks of relying on them too heavily:
They’re easy to measure
Tools like Google Analytics make tracking vanity metrics simple. Without lifting a finger, you can pull reports on your website’s traffic, drill down by source and page, segment users, and more. This availability and abundance of data is alluring.
But easier to measure doesn’t mean more meaningful. While vanity metrics provide a high-level overview, they fail to provide context on outcomes. 100,000 hits to your site is meaningless if those visits don’t drive customer actions.
They give the illusion of growth
When you’re launching campaigns across new channels, adding more pages to your site, and building your reach, vanity metrics will naturally increase.
But growth doesn’t equal value. You need to complement these vanity KPIs with metrics tied to outcomes to determine if that growth is quality.
They’re short-term oriented
Day-to-day or week-by-week, swings in traffic and other vanity metrics are exciting to watch. But long-term success requires thinking beyond the short-term ups and downs.
A short-term spike doesn’t guarantee sustainable impact. Continuously check in on the longer-term trend lines, and whether you’re actually moving core metrics.
They’re addictive
Let’s admit it — who doesn’t love watching those initial vanity metrics spike when you kick off a new campaign? It just feels good. But that thrill can promote unhealthy obsessing over minor bumps and dips.
Beware falling into the vanity metric trap. Continuously seek to understand the ‘why’ behind changes, and redirect your focus towards outcomes.
How to complement vanity metrics with outcome-oriented KPIs
Rather than discarding vanity metrics altogether, I believe a more ideal approach is to:
- Track vanity metrics as a high-level health check
- Identify and monitor secondary KPIs tied to outcomes
- Map both together and connect the dots
Here are examples of outcome-oriented KPIs to incorporate based on key stages of the customer journey:
Attract the right visitors
- Bounce rate: % of visits that leave your site after one page
- Average session duration: How long visitors engage on your site
- % new visitors: Critical for continual growth
These measures provide context on the quality of traffic you’re attracting and their level of engagement. Is your content resonating and keeping visitors around?
Guide visitors to key pages and calls-to-action
- Click-through rate on calls-to-action: % of visitors that click on your CTAs
- Conversion rate by landing page: % of visitors that convert on key landing pages
- Funnel drop off rates: % of visitors that drop off at each step
Optimizing the journey to drive visitors to convert requires going deeper than simply total traffic or sessions.
Retain and grow customer relationships
- Churn rate: % of customers that cancel or go inactive
- Net promoter score (NPS): Customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Customer lifetime value: Revenue driven per customer
While new customer acquisition is important, retaining and expanding relationships with existing customers is often even more critical to sustainable growth. But vanity metrics won’t tell you the full story here.
Actually drive business impact
- Revenue growth: Directly tied to financial goals
- ROI: Marketing investment versus revenue driven
- Cost per lead or acquisition: Connecting spend to outcomes
At the end of the day, your marketing needs to impact real business results beyond just traffic and sessions. Connecting spends and activities to revenue and downstream impact is vital.
Tips to avoid over-prioritizing vanity metrics
Here are some best practices I’ve found helpful to keep balanced and avoid falling into the vanity metric trap:
1. Establish both vanity and outcome metrics from the start
- Set up tracking for key vanity metrics like traffic and sessions through Google Analytics
- Determine 2-3 secondary KPIs tied to outcomes to also monitor
- Display your metrics in a dashboard to connect the dots
2. Frame metrics against targets and historical trends
- Establish benchmark target levels for each metric based on past trends and goals
- Use charts and visualization rather than just the absolute numbers
- Make period-over-period comparisons to gauge performance over time
3. Continuously optimize based on outcome metrics
- Identify outcome metrics lagging targets through analysis and experimentation
- Brainstorm initiatives to influence secondary KPIs first and foremost
- Consistently reallocate resources and campaigns toward what drives outcomes
4. Celebrate wins on both types of metrics
- Recognize when vanity metrics like traffic hit a new high, but keep perspective
- Just as much (if not more), spotlight direct business impacts like conversion rate lift
5. Keep asking “why” on metric changes
- With every major swing up or down, dig into the root cause and meaning
- Avoid making knee jerk reactions until you understand the ‘why’
6. Make metrics accessible and collaborative
- Display dashboards and key metrics in common workspaces for broader visibility
- Discuss metrics regularly in team meetings and brainstorms
Key takeaways
Here are my main tips on how to balance vanity versus outcome metrics:
- Track vanity metrics, but don’t stop there – identify 2-3 secondary KPIs tied to outcomes
- Map metrics together in dashboards and continuously optimize towards outcomes
- Establish targets based on past trends and monitor period-over-period performance
- Resist overreacting to short-term swings up and down in any one metric
- Celebrate both vanity and outcome metric wins and keep a balanced perspective
- Continuously ask ‘why’ on changes and dig into the meaning behind metrics
While vanity metrics provide a helpful high-level snapshot, truly data-driven marketing today requires a focus on outcomes. By complementing vanity metrics with secondary KPIs tied to business impact, you gain a complete picture to inform decisions and optimization.