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These Six Stupid MarketingMetrics Need to Dieby Larry Kim | March 30, 2015 | 5,950 views

Way too often—several times a week—I'm amazed bywhat some marketers are still measuring.

Maybe they don't know any better.

Maybe some are just married to legacy metrics that wereonce logical but now just need to die.

Inspired by Rachel Sprung's recent post on pointlessmarketing metrics, I've come up with my own list of pet-peeve marketing metrics and reasons they're probably

doing your campaigns more harm than good.

1. Facebook Likes

There once was a time when even rationalmarketers considered buying Facebook fans.The opportunity to get in front of such an

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The opportunity to get in front of such anaudience—they would see your organic contentover and over and over again—was just soattractive.

Those days are long over.

Last spring, the alarm was sounded for brands:Organic Facebook reach for Pages was rapidlytrending toward zero. And that's exactly whathappened: Many brands are now reporting lessthan 1% engagement with their fan base viaorganic content.

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What's the point in measuring people who Liked your page at some point if they aren't even seeingyour content? There could be 100 or 1 million of them... you still need ads or ridiculously powerfulcontent marketing to reach them now on Facebook.

Still, some marketers point to increases in fan count as a social media KPI as though it will make acomeback. And someone must be buying those Page Likes, because an awful lot of people are stillselling them. Just stop... Stick a fork in it, this one's done.

2. Display Ad Impressions

It's important to understand how many people actually saw your ads, right?

Unfortunately, impressions—the metric that display ad marketers relied on for so long—doesn't giveyou a clue about how many people actually viewed your ad.

Way back in November 2013, we learned that about one-third of your ad impressions weren'tactually viewable. That's pretty bad, right? Now it's over 56%!

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Source: Google

That's right, over half of your ad "impressions" aren't even being seen by people.

So stop using impressions as a yardstick for campaign reach. Instead, measure lower-funnelmetrics, such as actual clicks and conversions.

3. Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings are the insatiable, brain-munching zombie of marketing metrics. They just won'tstay dead.

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So many factors have made keyword rankings completely useless—personalization, geo-location,changes in the search algorithm, etc. And those aren't even new!

This shift has been happening over a period of years, yet some marketers still march out rankingsfor specific keywords at reporting time like they actually mean something.

Ditch the security blanket. Keyword rankings are done.

4. Anything to Do With Referred vs. Direct vs. Organic Segmented Traffic

This whole notion of segmenting referred, direct, and organic traffic, and using it as some kind ofperformance indicator, needs to die.

If you're in SEO, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot by using those metrics.

Rand Fishkin wrote and talked about this extensively in 2013, and what he predicted has played out

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pretty much as he said it would. In a keyword referral-less world, where both mobile traffic andorganic search traffic are characterized as direct, attempting to use these metrics to measure orvalidate SEO efforts is just plain stupid.

There are a lot of logical reasons why browsers won't report exactly where traffic came from, but thebottom line is you can't rely on the segmentation of referral data as a KPI. At all.

Groupon showed the extent of this problem in an experiment it ran last summer. The companydeindexed its entire site for six hours—and instead ended up losing 60% of its supposedly "direct"site traffic!

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Image from SearchEngineLand.com

So you still think SEO isn't working? Understand that much of what you attribute to direct navigationis probably SEO and content marketing efforts at work. Don't sabotage your own efforts bydiscrediting them with what is crappy segmentation reporting.

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5. PageRank

Are we even still talking this? Why are we still talking about this?!

The last time Google updated the PageRank toolbar (in 2013), it was by accident. That aloneshould give you a pretty good idea of how high it is on Google's priority list.

Once upon a time, PageRank was probably a pretty good indicator of site quality, but the searchalgorithm has moved so far beyond this archaic metric that it's crazy anyone still takes it seriously.

(I'm thinking of starting a support group for people who can't get over PageRank. You don't want tobe in it, trust me...)

6. View-Through Conversions

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Most networks, agencies, and publishers are pushing view-through conversions (VTCs) big time, butcan this metric be trusted?

Sure, it's a way to quantify the impact of ads that may influence consumer behavior without resultingin an immediate conversion, but how effective is it?

Google kind of screwed up view-through conversions right off the hop when it introduced the stat in2009 by making the conversion window 30 days long. During that time, people could have beeninfluenced by any number of factors, and if they did convert there was no guarantee they wereinfluenced by an ad they might have seen weeks earlier.

You'd have to weight them properly, but who knows what that weight should be? And what are thechances it'll be the same across the board, for all VTCs?

View-through conversions are particularly dubious if you're using remarketing to target your displayads, because (by definition) anyone who converts off of those remarketing display ads alreadyfound your brand by some other means.

It's just not a great metric. It's a feel-good stat to help people think they're at least measuringsomething—without actually understanding what they're measuring or what it means.

Bonus Stupid Metrics: Most of Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is great for some purposes, but really awful for others; getting any kind ofreal numbers for the metrics there falls under the latter category.

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The numbers in Google Webmaster Tools are all based on estimates that are accurate to +/- 500%,according to my own internal analysis.

How do I know? Because you can compare some of the numbers with what is actually in your GoogleAnalytics or Google AdWords. When you do, you'll see that the two sets are totally different.

It works in the same way as the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. The volumes and CPCs are justestimates and are similarly accurate to within +/- 500%.

Why would you put any stock in those numbers?

It's OK to use the data for trending purposes, but don't make the mistake of thinking of the numbersare real and accurate in an absolute sense. They're just estimates.

* * *

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Those are it... my pet-peeve marketing metrics. Do you have one or two of your own? In thecomments below, share the metrics you wish the industry would kick to the curb.

Larry Kim is the founder/CTO of WordStream Inc., provider of the AdWordsGrader and 20 Minute PPC Work Week.

Google+: Larry Kim

Twitter: @larrykim

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Commentsby Rebecca Griebe Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

I love the topic, Larry. Your article is really clever and has finally put the nail in the coffin onpage rank for me. (I didn't want to let that one go!) I'd love to hear what marketing metrics youthink matters most.

by HC Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

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Hi Larry! Agree with Rebecca - what should we be looking at instead?

by Dave C Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Interesting article. I'd like to hear what marketing metrics you think are most important andwhat tools you use to measure them.

by TK Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Totally agree.

So, the obvious question then: what metrics should we be using?

TK

by Bridget Mason Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

This was really interesting and has put to bed some metrics we're still following! Like theothers I would be really interested to know which ones you feel are most important - hopefullythey're still on my list!

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by Christina S Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Agree with Bridget, TK and Dave C - Seems you had a lot on your mind about what not to do -the way money gets exchanged (consulting fees, marketing budgets, ad spend, webdevelopment, etc) is through demonstration of return on investment ($$$) - What's the rightway to measure Larry?

by Vahe, MarketingProfs Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Hi, everyone. I emailed Larry to get his take on what metrics marketers should be using.Turns out he's on vacation this week (that's what his autoresponder says). I'm sure we'll hearfrom him once he's back.

by Caroline Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Interested to hear what metrics would should be using as well. Thanks

by Lyn Aspey Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Hi Larry, Thanks for this post. Your Zombie analogy gave the laugh I needed. Spot onobservations.

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by Joanne Han Mon Mar 30, 2015 via web

Interesting topic. Same questions as others, what matrix do you suggest to use then? Lookingforward to a next article.

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