Automating your marketing efforts can help you drive big business results. In fact, 76% of businesses currently use marketing automation for these reasons:

• 91% of marketers say that automation helps them achieve their business objectives.

• Marketing automation improves collaboration between sales and marketing teams.

• Automated emails achieve 84% higher open rates, 31% higher click-through rates, and over 2,000% more conversions.

While automating your marketing efforts can greatly benefit your business, you must measure how automation impacts your results. You can do this by setting and reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs).

In this article, we’ll discuss what marketing automation is and the KPIs you need to determine success.

What Is Marketing Automation and Why Is It Important?

Marketing automation involves using software or tools to streamline and simplify marketing tasks.

For example, an email marketing automation tool like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign can automate the emails you send to prospects.

Instead of having your marketing team send out thousands of emails individually—which would be a time-consuming task—an automation tool can handle this quickly and efficiently.

Marketing automation can streamline tasks like social media management, paid advertising, email marketing, lead scoring and nurturing, and content marketing.

Automation technology makes these tasks faster and easier to do, which results in several benefits.

The Benefits of Marketing Automation for Your Business

If you haven’t already adopted marketing automation within your business, here are some good reasons you should:

✔️ Save time and resources

Automating your marketing efforts can help you remove the need for someone to complete time-consuming tasks. Your chosen software will handle these for you.

This allows you to execute marketing strategies with fewer team members, saving you time and resources that can be used elsewhere.

For example, if you have a social media manager on board, they can use automation software like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to automate posting to various channels. This frees up your time to focus on developing a solid social media strategy and excellent content.

Automation means you can allocate your staff to more strategic initiatives that require a human touch.

✔️ Effortless digital marketing

Digital marketing can be a massive undertaking for many businesses. It often requires a large team of marketing specialists to carry out your strategy.

Marketing automation can help. For example, if your team sets up an email marketing campaign using an automation tool, the system can automatically send messages based on the specific triggers or customer actions that have been set up.

A trigger is when a certain email is sent based on a prospect’s behavior. For example, a potential customer abandoning their cart could prompt an automated reminder email about their pending purchase.

✔️ Free up your teams

Your sales and marketing teams are the backbone of your business. Without them, it would be difficult to generate high-quality leads and turn prospects into paying customers.

Your teams should focus on activities that significantly influence your business, such as strategizing and converting prospects into sales. Automation frees up your team to do this.

✔️ Cost savings

As mentioned earlier, marketing automation means you need fewer team members to run your marketing campaigns. But this isn’t the only way automation can help your business save money.

Automation also reduces the likelihood of human error, which can be costly for your business to recover from.

For example, if you forget to use your recipients’ names in a massive email campaign (which would mean they receive an email saying, dear {first name}), people may perceive your brand in a negative light. This could be damaging to your reputation. Email automation tools ensure these types of mistakes don’t happen.

Businesses can also reduce their overheads with automation. This is because you can scale your marketing efforts using automation tools without increasing overhead spend.

✔️ Make data-driven decisions

Most marketing automation tools provide rich insights into your campaigns, allowing you to make data-driven decisions.

For example, if you know you’re publishing regular social media posts, but your engagement is low, you can decide to adjust your social media strategy. Automation tools provide essential social media analytics, allowing you to refine your posts for improved results.

Automation can also help you make important business decisions—like when to hire more staff or when your teams need more training—without the need for manual data analysis.

✔️ Deliver a personalized experience

Perhaps one of the most significant trends in marketing in 2024 is personalization.

This is because personalization makes prospects feel special and valued, rather than just another consumer.

Marketing automation allows you to personalize your messages at scale to increase engagement and conversion rates.

Automation tools can help you deliver personalized content, recommendations, and offers—which would be almost impossible to do manually for each prospect.

Through automation, Netflix can give its users personalized recommendations on what content to watch next:

Source: Selzy

14 Automation KPIs to Measure Automation Success

You now know how beneficial marketing automation can be for your business. However, purchasing an automation tool and setting up your campaigns is only the first step.

You also need to measure your marketing automation efforts to determine if the tools you’re using are producing results.

Without KPIs, how will you track your return on investment (ROI) or determine which tools are working (and which aren’t)?

Here are the most important marketing automation KPIs you should be tracking:

➡️ Customer metrics

Your customers are at the heart of what you do—without them, you wouldn’t have a business. This is why you need to measure how your marketing automation campaigns are performing in relation to prospecting, acquiring, and retaining your customers.

📈 Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are the amount of money it takes to turn a lead into a paying customer. Measuring this KPI can help you understand:

🤔 How much you’re spending on new customers.

🤔 Whether your marketing automation tool is lowering your CAC.

If you’re using automation software, it’s crucial to determine if it’s making acquiring customers easier and more cost-effective.

For example, if it was previously costing you $140 to acquire a new customer through your marketing campaigns and, since adopting automation, it’s now only costing you $50 per customer, you know your software is a worthwhile investment.

📈 Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)

Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are the number of prospects you’ve identified who could become future customers. MQLs are acquired through your marketing efforts, including lead nurturing. They are considered a good fit for your product or services.

By measuring the number of MQLs your automated marketing generates, you can determine if your campaigns are performing well.

This measurement can also inform your future campaigns to ensure you get more MQLs through your marketing efforts.

For example, if you start using social media automation software and you notice more people visiting your website via a link on Facebook, you know your future Facebook campaigns should include links to your website more regularly.

The right marketing automation tool should make identifying and nurturing your marketing qualified leads easier.

📈 Sales qualified leads (SQLs)

Sales qualified leads (SQLs) are prospects who have been vetted by your sales team and are typically ready to be contacted by someone in your sales department.

If your marketing campaigns are bringing in a steady flow of sales-qualified leads, you know that it’s working.

For example, if you’ve brought in the help of a marketing automation tool and you’re starting to see leads come in that become SQLs, then you know that this approach is effective.

📈 Customer lifetime value (CLV)

This KPI measures how much a single customer is worth to your business throughout their relationship with your brand.

For example, a customer who purchases from your online store may return in a couple of months to buy more products. This means there’s both an immediate and future value for that customer.

It can be challenging to determine how much value you’ll get from each customer. However, you can set up automated marketing campaigns that drive repeat business.

If your customer lifetime value is stable or increasing, your marketing automation is paying off.

📈 Customer retention rate (CRR)

Similar to CLV, customer retention rate (CRR) is the percentage of customers who repeatedly support your business.

For example, if a customer signs up for your subscription box service and continues to pay for their subscription for years to come, you have successfully retained this customer.

Marketing automation is an excellent way to satisfy your existing customers so they stay with your company for as long as possible. Doing this also helps prevent them from choosing one of your competitors over you.

Aside from assessing the efficacy of your automation tool, measuring your CRR can also help you determine if you need to make any changes to your customer experience to retain more customers.

➡️ Engagement metrics

This metric helps you determine how interested your prospects are in your business. You can use engagement to measure how well your automated marketing campaigns are performing and whether you’re connecting with your audience effectively.

📈 Open and click-through rates (CTRs)

Your open rates indicate how many of your prospects are opening your emails. Click-through rate (CTR) refers to how many subscribers visit the links you’ve included in your emails.

If you have steady open rates, this means you’re engaging with your audience successfully. You’re sending them relevant email content that they want to see.

Even if prospects aren’t making a purchase yet, engagement is a good marketing automation KPI as it indicates that your audience is interested in your brand. You’ll also stay top of mind, and readers may consider your brand the next time they’re ready to make a purchase.

Additionally, if your marketing emails have low open and click-through rates, you know it’s time to change the content you’re sending your prospects.

📈 Bounce rates

This KPI is the percentage of visitors who arrive at your website only to leave after viewing one page or piece of content.

For example, if someone only views a single product page after seeing an ad directing to your website and then leaves, this contributes to your bounce rate.

When building your website, you need to give visitors a good reason to stay on it and help them find what they’re looking for immediately.

Through marketing automation, you can guide visitors through your website to help them find what they need quickly. You can also improve their experience on your website.

Marketing automation can extend prospects’ visits on your website by suggesting posts, ads, and targeted content aligned with their search intent, effectively keeping them engaged.

📈 Engagement rates

Your website’s engagement rate is the opposite of your bounce rate. Engagement is the percentage of prospects who view multiple pages on your site.

If a user lands on your website and browses through several product categories, and starts adding items to their cart, this is considered engagement.

By using marketing automation tools, you can analyze how potential customers behave on your website. This can help you understand your audience’s interest in what you’re selling and what they find valuable.

If you find a particular page or piece of content that receives a lot of engagement on your website, this can inform your marketing automation strategy. You now know what’s resonating with your audience, and you can spend time developing more of this content.

📈 Website traffic

This KPI measures how many people are visiting your website. This is important as it indicates how effective your marketing efforts are. If your site traffic is low, enhancing your brand promotion on other channels that lead visitors to your website is essential.

For example, if you include links to your website in marketing emails but your subscribers aren’t following them, you know you need to improve your email content.

If your social media followers don’t visit your website when you post links to it, it’s time to adjust your content strategy.

To increase conversions, you need to get people onto your website. Marketing automation can help you simplify how you do this. If you implement automation and see your site traffic start to increase, you know your investment has been worthwhile.

➡️ Revenue metrics

Marketing automation tools are an investment, so you want to see them generate good revenue for your business.

The different marketing automation metrics discussed below also help you measure the revenue generated by your marketing campaigns. If revenue isn’t being generated, it’s time to revise your marketing strategy.

📈 Return on investment (ROI)

This is possibly one of the most important marketing automation KPIs to track. Return on investment (ROI) is the amount of money you’re receiving in relation to the amount you’ve spent.

For example, for every $1 spent on email marketing, brands typically see an average of between $36 and $40 in revenue. This means that the ROI for email marketing is around 40%.

Tracking your ROI helps you to determine:

🤔 The success of your marketing campaigns.

🤔 Where to stop allocating resources (if something’s not getting results).

🤔 How much money you should budget for future campaigns.

📈 Total revenue generated

This is the total amount of money your business has earned through its operations. It includes all income, including sales.

Measuring this KPI is important as it gives you a bird’s eye view of your company’s performance. It can also help you identify how much money you can spend on marketing automation and campaigns to drive growth.

Analyzing total revenue can reveal which products or services are performing well, guiding your marketing strategy effectively.

📈 Repeat customer revenue (RCR)

Customer loyalty is the dream for most businesses. Having a customer support your brand repeatedly translates into repeat customer revenue (RCR). It’s the amount of revenue you generate from repeat purchases.

The great thing about repeat customers is that you don’t have to spend much on acquiring new leads and nurturing them into converting.

For example, if a customer is so impressed with your brand that they purchase from you every month, you’re receiving RCR without spending much on retaining them. On the other hand, you’d have to spend far more on marketing to acquire a new customer.

Marketing automation can help you identify which customers will likely make repeat purchases. It also allows you to target those customers with the right marketing messages to keep them loyal.

➡️ Conversion metrics

The motivating factor for many businesses that invest in marketing automation is that it will improve their conversions.

Conversions are your end goal. This metric measures how many prospects have turned into paying customers.

📈 Follow-up conversion rate

A primary objective of marketing automation is to convert the leads you’ve generated into customers.

A prospect who discovers your business and signs up for your services after receiving a follow-up sales call would be part of your follow-up conversation rate.

A large part of this involves having your sales team follow up with prospects before they make a purchase.

If your follow-up conversion rate is steady, this is a good indication that the marketing automation platform you’ve invested in is working.

However, if this metric isn’t where you’d like it to be, you may need to tweak your marketing approach to target leads who are more likely to become customers.

📈 Landing page conversion rates

Most marketing campaigns ultimately drive prospects to a landing page. For this reason, monitoring the number of visitors to your landing page is a crucial KPI.

However, this goes a step further. If people visit your landing page and don’t convert, it means something needs to change.

For example, if users find your landing page hard to navigate, they’re likely to leave without converting. You then know you need a better design for your landing page.

If visitors are converting, this is a clear indication that your marketing efforts are paying off.

Marketing automation will help you determine your landing page conversion rates. These tools give you detailed analytics that shows you how your landing pages are performing, including how many conversions you’re getting.

It will also help you identify which landing pages are performing well and which ones need improvement.

How Hyperise Powers Your Automation Efforts

Marketing automation tools are an important business investment. They can help improve important marketing metrics like engagement, revenue, and conversion rates.

Automation also saves you time and money and streamlines your marketing efforts. This investment gives your marketing and sales teams the time they need to do work that will make the biggest impact on your business.

One of the most significant benefits of marketing automation is that it allows you to hyper-personalize your efforts. From email marketing to website personalization and even LinkedIn connection requests, personalization is a powerful marketing tactic.

The Hyperise toolkit easily integrates with hundreds of marketing automation tools to help you create truly personalized experiences for your prospects.

Elevate your marketing automation efforts and leave a lasting impression on your prospects with Hyperise. Visit our website to claim your free trial and boost your marketing automation KPIs overnight.