Setting the Right Marketing KPIs for Your Team (Based on Strategy)
- Kristen Hrabcsak
- Jan 2
- 6 min read
One of the biggest misconceptions we see with business owners and marketing teams is in tracking KPIs without first defining what the strategy is actually supposed to do.
Not every marketing effort is meant to generate leads.Not every channel should be judged by conversions. And not every KPI belongs to the same campaign.
When KPIs aren’t tied to strategy, teams end up stuck in disorganized marketing systems, constantly reacting to numbers that don’t tell a clear story.
This blog breaks down which marketing KPIs matter for which marketing strategies so owners and marketers can track what actually matters.
KPIs Only Work When Strategy Comes First
Before picking KPIs, answer this one question:
Your strategy is just operating in the dark.
KPIs are the light that show whether a strategy is working—or just creating noise.
What is this marketing initiative designed to accomplish?
Common strategies include:
Brand awareness
Demand generation
Lead capture (search, paid, website)
Engagement & relationship building
Conversion optimization
Each one requires different KPIs. Tracking the wrong ones creates confusion.
This is often where teams get stuck and why marketing teams are not seeing campaigns through instead of executing with confidence.
Brand Awareness Strategy: KPIs That Measure Visibility (Not Sales)
Brand awareness campaigns are designed to increase familiarity, not immediate conversions.
Primary KPIs for Brand Awareness
Reach
Impressions
Frequency
Brand search lift (over time)
Video views (qualified, not autoplay)
Supporting KPIs
Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)
Geographic or demographic reach
Share of voice (when available)
What not to over-weight:Leads, conversions, or ROI in the short term.
If you’re running awareness ads and judging them by form fills, you’ll think the campaign failed, even when it’s doing its job.
This mistake shows up frequently when businesses hire a marketing company in Rhode Island without aligning expectations on strategy first.
Search & Intent-Based Marketing: KPIs That Prove Demand Capture
Search marketing (SEO, paid search, service pages) is built to capture existing intent.
If someone is searching, “best restaurant in Providence,” they’re not discovering you, they’re evaluating you.
Primary KPIs for Search
Qualified leads
Conversion rate
Cost per lead
Keyword rankings (for SEO)
Landing page performance
Supporting KPIs
Click-through rate (CTR)
Cost per click (CPC)
Lead quality indicators
What matters most: Search should be judged by leads and efficiency, not reach.
This is where owners should expect accountability and where marketing consulting in Rhode Island often focuses first.
Engagement Strategy: KPIs That Measure Relationship Building
Engagement-focused marketing supports:
Trust
Retention
Community
Long term brand loyalty
It is not about going viral or selling immediately.
Primary Engagement KPIs
Engagement rate (not total likes)
Saves, shares, comments
Email open and click rates
Time on site
Return visitors
Supporting KPIs
Follower quality (not follower count)
Content interactions per post
Subscriber growth rate
Engagement KPIs help teams understand what content resonates, which directly supports streamlining creative workflows and smarter content planning.
Conversion & Website Optimization: KPIs That Improve Performance
Once traffic exists, the strategy shifts to optimization.
This is especially relevant after a website refresh or redesign.
Primary KPIs
Conversion rate
Cost per conversion
Form completion rate
Drop-off points in the funnel
Supporting KPIs
Page load speed
User flow paths
Device performance
This is where businesses often discover inefficiencies and decide to audit your marketing stack and cut hidden costs because poor systems show up fast in conversion data.
How KPIs Create (or Destroy) Marketing Clarity
When KPIs are:
Aligned to strategy
Clearly defined
Reviewed consistently
Teams stop reacting and start improving.
When KPIs are:
Mixed across strategies
Chosen arbitrarily
Used to “check a box”
Marketing becomes chaotic.
This is why the role of the business owner in marketing clarity is so important. Leadership sets the strategy. KPIs simply measure whether it’s working.
The Simple KPI Framework to Use Internally
For each initiative, define:
Strategy goal (awareness, leads, engagement, optimization)
Primary KPI (1–2 max)
Supporting KPIs (context only)
Review cadence (weekly, monthly, quarterly)
That’s how you build a marketing system that makes sense.
Strategy-Based KPI Examples (What to Track and Why)
KPIs only become useful when they’re tied to a specific strategy with a clear purpose. Below are practical examples showing how marketing KPIs should change depending on the goal, not the channel or the tool.
Think of this as a reference you can use internally when deciding what success actually looks like for each type of marketing effort.
1. Brand Awareness Strategy
Goal: Increase visibility and familiarity with your brand
Mindset: “Are the right people seeing us consistently?”
Example Scenario
A business works with a marketing company in Rhode Island to expand awareness beyond word-of-mouth and become recognizable in the local market.
Primary KPIs
Reach (unique people exposed)
Impressions
Frequency (how often people see the brand)
Video views (qualified views, not 2-second scrolls)
Supporting KPIs
CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
Brand search growth over time
Geographic reach (local vs non-local)
What Success Looks Like
Steady increase in reach month over month
Brand name searches trending upward
Ads becoming cheaper as familiarity improves
Not the KPI: leads or conversions in the short term
Why: awareness is about recognition, not action…yet
2. Search & High-Intent Strategy (SEO + Paid Search)
Goal: Capture existing demand
Mindset: “When people are looking, do they find us and take action?”
Example Scenario
A service business investing in website design in RI wants to turn search traffic into inquiries.
Primary KPIs
Qualified leads
Conversion rate
Cost per lead
Supporting KPIs
Keyword rankings
CTR (click-through rate)
Landing page performance
What Success Looks Like
Traffic stays steady or grows
Conversion rate improves over time
Cost per lead decreases as pages are optimized
Not the KPI: reach
Why: search is about intent, not exposure
3. Engagement Strategy (Social, Email, Content)
Goal: Build trust, retention, and relationship
Mindset: “Is our content resonating with the people who already know us?”
Example Scenario
A brand publishes consistent content to support long sales cycles and keep its audience warm between buying moments.
Primary KPIs
Engagement rate (not total likes)
Saves, shares, comments
Email click-through rate
Supporting KPIs
Time on page
Return visitors
Subscriber growth rate
What Success Looks Like
Smaller audience, stronger interaction
Content being saved or shared (signal of value)
Email clicks increasing even if list growth is slow
This is where streamlining creative workflows matters and teams can see what content performs and stop guessing.
Not the KPI: follower count alone
Why: audience quality beats audience size
4. Lead Generation Campaigns (Paid, Offers, Funnels)
Goal: Generate inquiries or sign-ups
Mindset: “Is this campaign producing the right volume at the right cost?”
Example Scenario
A business launches a paid campaign tied to a clear offer or service.
Primary KPIs
Leads generated
Cost per lead
Lead quality (sales feedback)
Supporting KPIs
Conversion rate
Landing page bounce rate
Form completion rate
What Success Looks Like
Predictable lead volume
Consistent cost per lead
Sales team confirms lead quality
This is often where companies realize they need to audit your marketing stack and cut hidden costs because there are too many tools and not enough clarity.
5. Website Optimization Strategy
Goal: Improve performance of existing traffic Mindset: “Are we converting what we already have?”
Example Scenario
A company redesigns or optimizes its website as part of a broader growth plan.
Primary KPIs
Conversion rate
Cost per conversion
Drop-off points in the funnel
Supporting KPIs
Page load speed
Device performance
User paths
What Success Looks Like
Same traffic, more leads
Fewer abandoned forms
Clear top performing pages
This is where disorganized marketing systems become obvious because broken workflows show up directly in the data.
6. Internal Marketing System Strategy
Goal: Reduce chaos and improve execution
Mindset: “Is marketing easier to run than it was last quarter?”
Example Scenario
A growing team brings in marketing consulting in Rhode Island to improve structure and reporting.
Primary KPIs
Time from idea to launch
Projects completed on time
Campaign consistency
Supporting KPIs
Revisions per asset
Approval cycles
Tool usage efficiency
What Success Looks Like
Faster launches
Less rework
Clear ownership and fewer fire drills
This highlights the role of the business owner in marketing clarity. Systems only work when leadership defines priorities.
How to Use These Examples Internally
For every marketing initiative, document:
Strategy type
Primary KPI (1–2 max)
What success means
What is not being judged
That’s how you build a marketing system that allows teams to focus, owners to trust the data, and decisions to be made with confidence.
Final Thought: Marketing KPIs Based on Strategy
KPIs shouldn’t overwhelm you. They should answer one question clearly:
Is this strategy doing what it’s supposed to do?
When KPIs are tied to strategy, marketing becomes focused, predictable, and measurable without killing creativity or momentum. And that’s when marketing finally starts working like a system.
