B2B website KPIs that even your (boss) can’t argue with

How did your website perform over the past year? You have invested quite a bit of time in the website recently, and your colleagues are curious about the results. Do you actually have a good answer to this? In this article, we discuss 6 KPIs that make the performance of your B2B website crystal clear. After reading, you will be better equipped to justify your efforts and the resulting outcomes. Determining your future website strategy will also become much easier.

You undoubtedly have an excellent understanding of the number of unique visitors and the key pages. But this (quantity) is not a goal in itself; what has it actually delivered qualitatively to the organization? We cover some Online Marketing KPIs to focus on in your reporting and plans for next year. KPIs that even silence the most hard-core sales manager.

We assume you have a comprehensive analytics tool at your disposal, such as the free Google Analytics. Additionally, we assume you have various conversion options or paths, such as a callback button, contact form, or newsletter form.

KPIs for B2B websites that even your boss can’t argue with

Number of leads via non-brand-related keywords – The king of all SEO KPIs: the number of leads coming from people who searched for a term or phrase unrelated to your brand or company name. The higher, the better; these prospects were not originally targeted but found you through your content and SEO strategy.

Number of leads via brand-related keywords – Essentially a basic requirement of a solid SEO design. If prospects search for your brand name + product or something similar, they must end up with you.

(Number of leads from) returning or new visitors – Ideally, you convert a new visitor directly into a concrete lead, but if that doesn’t happen, you want the visitor to return. The extent to which you succeed in this, and how many and when this subsequently converts, provides essential insight into where future effort is needed.

Newsletter subscribers – The number that indicates how many ‘warm’ contacts the organization has. People who have actively indicated they want to stay informed are extremely valuable. A well-maintained (mailing) list is often worth much more to many companies than an article in a trade magazine.

Leads via social media – Followers and connections are of course interesting, but much more relevant is how many leads or contact moments these followers and connections have generated. Make this transparent.

Cost per lead – How much did the website cost last year, and how many leads did it generate? If you provide a clear answer here, even the CFO won’t argue. Want to go a step further? Request the average customer value, measure the conversion from lead to customer, and show the website’s Return On Investment. In practice, the website often wins in terms of ROI compared to, for example, trade shows and advertisements.

Of course, an important part of a website’s value is less easy to quantify. That prospect who is cold-called by your sales colleague is on your site within a minute checking what kind of company they are dealing with. Trade show visitors often first check the exhibitors’ websites before deciding to visit. It is therefore important to separate the website’s value, on the one hand as a business card and on the other as a sales channel. Which KPIs form the basis of your reporting? Which KPIs are most important for your own efforts? Let us know in the comments, on LinkedIn, Twitter, or the contact page.