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The moment your customer learns about your product or service, they start a journey with your brand—one that hopefully results in them becoming a loyal customer.
Tracking customer journey KPIs (key performance indicators)—such as conversion rates, churn rate, and engagement—helps you to measure and enhance the quality of your customer experiences at every touchpoint.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding customer journey metrics allows you to optimize the customer journey at every stage, leading to higher retention rates.
- Important metrics include traffic, impressions, leads, engagement, conversions, CPC, churn, CLV, and UGC.
- It’s vital to set goals that improve your customer journey along the way. Metrics can help you spot issues and drop-off points for customers.
Why should you measure customer journey metrics?
KPIs are like a compass guiding you through the labyrinth of the customer journey. At each stage, from awareness to advocacy, KPIs serve as your North Star. They provide concrete metrics to measure success and adapt your strategies. These metrics empower you to tailor your approach and optimize each stage for business growth. They bridge your customer’s journey and your business goals, helping you navigate your way to success.Which KPIs should you track?
Before you can select relevant KPIs, you must set clear business objectives, such as revenue growth, or customer satisfaction. Then, map out your customer journey—using a tool like Funnelytics—and identify key actions at each stage. Using your map, you can monitor each step in your customer journey. This will help you to keep track of essential KPIs, pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t, and understand where you need to make adjustments. Then, select KPIs that directly measure success for your chosen objectives. For example, you would measure conversion rates when looking to track sales growth. We’ll list all the relevant KPIs below.
14 Customer journey KPIs to understand and improve customer experience (CX)
Each stage of the customer journey—spanning from awareness to consideration, decision, retention, and advocacy—is unique. To gain useful insights, you need to track different KPIs at each stage. Here are 14 customer journey KPIs to pay attention to, as well as details on how to improve them.Customer journey metrics to track in the awareness stage
The awareness stage is when potential customers are first introduced to your product or service through advertising, word-of-mouth, or other marketing channels. This is what PR Strategist and Copywriter Andrea Hubbert of Hub + Company keeps an eye on at this stage: “At the awareness stage, you want to keep tabs on metrics like website traffic, social media reach, and brand mentions. These tell you how many eyeballs you’re catching and can indicate whether your marketing efforts are grabbing attention.”1. Website traffic and content views
Website traffic and content views are foundational KPIs that measure the number of visitors to your site and their engagement with your digital content. It’s essential that you track these KPIs. After all, an effective online presence is the first step toward converting prospects into paying customers. Measuring these KPIs is easily accomplished with analytics tools like Funnelytics. Say you’re an e-commerce company that’s aiming to boost traffic to your blog. Your strategy may be to deliver informative, high-quality content and promote it across channels—like social media and email newsletters—so you can attract and retain a larger, more engaged audience. It’s a proactive approach that sets the stage for converting visitors into loyal customers. But you’d need to measure and analyze blog traffic sources and tweak your results based on your findings .Get the guide to customer journey tracking
We outline the actionable strategies to track & optimize the customer journey at every stage of the funnel
2. SEO ranking
SEO ranking is a critical KPI that reflects where your website appears in search engine results for specific keywords. A higher ranking means better visibility, increased organic traffic, and greater opportunities for engagement. You can measure your site’s SEO performance using tools like Google Search Console and SEO software such as MozBar. To boost your SEO ranking:- Optimize your website for relevant keywords
- Create high-quality content that’s engaging, informative, and useful to the site visitor
- Improve your site speed; Google’s recommended site speed is less than two seconds
- Implement a backlink strategy to acquire relevant links from authoritative sources
- Work to decrease your bounce rate to between 26% and 40%.
3. Brand impressions
Brand impressions are the number of times your brand is shown to potential customers through various touchpoints like ads, social media, or content. This KPI points to your brand visibility, and how effective your marketing efforts are. Let’s revisit our example of an e-commerce company that’s hoping to increase its blog traffic. Part of these efforts may include a social media campaign. To assess the impact of this approach, they can analyze KPIs like click-through rate (CTR), engaged view conversions, view-through conversions, and audience saturation. These metrics provide insights beyond mere exposure; they show that your audience has taken a step to engage further with your content. This tells you if they found it to be relevant and engaging. It also indicates if you’ve done a good job of targeting your audience on social media. To improve your brand impressions, focus on:- Consistent and targeted marketing campaigns
- Creating engaging content
- Leveraging social media effectively
Customer journey KPIs to measure in the consideration stage
The consideration stage is when customers research and evaluate their options. They’ll weigh the benefits and drawbacks of various products or services. Here are Hubbert’s tips for mastering this stage: “Moving onto consideration, focus on metrics like lead conversion rates, time spent on your website, or engagement rates on educational content. You want to understand if folks are genuinely interested in what you’re offering or if they’re just window shopping.” Here’s what we’d focus on at this stage.4. Lead generation
Lead generation looks at the number of potential customers who’ve expressed interest in your products or services. Lead generation is a cornerstone of business growth—and helps you expand your customer base and nurture qualified leads. It can be measured through tracking sign-ups, inquiries, or downloads. To boost lead generation:- Optimize your website for conversion
- Set up effective product sales funnels
- Create compelling lead generation content that speaks to your customer’s pain points
- Maintain consistent, helpful, and personalized communication
- E-books
- Webinars
- Questionnaire-based signup forms
5. Engagement rate
Engagement rate quantifies the level of interaction and connection your audience has with your brand. It’s typically seen through likes, comments, shares, and link clicks on social media, or other kinds of content. You can easily measure your engagement rate on your social pages using in-platform analytics tools. You can increase engagement, build genuine relationships with your audience, and foster lasting brand loyalty by:- Creating compelling, shareable content
- Engaging with your audience and responding to comments promptly
- Running interactive campaigns and competitions
Customer journey metrics for the decision stage
This is where prospective customers evaluate their options and make a final choice—often based on pricing, features, and available incentives. Here’s what Hubbert analyzes at this stage: “For the purchase stage, you gotta watch your cart abandonment rates, customer lifetime value (CLV), and immediate post-purchase satisfaction surveys. These metrics can show if you’re giving customers a smooth ride or if there are bumps on the road to checkout.” These are the metrics we suggest focusing on when optimizing your decision stage.6. Conversion rate
Your conversion rate looks at the percentage of potential customers who take a desired action—such as purchasing, signing up, or filling out a contact form. Conversion rate directly reflects how effective your marketing efforts are in guiding your audience toward making a purchase. Measure conversion rates using web and customer journey analytics and conversion tracking tools. To improve this metric:- Optimize your website for user-friendliness
- Create persuasive calls-to-action
- Refine your targeting strategies to ensure a seamless path from interest to action
7. Sales metrics
Comprising a range of customer journey KPIs, sales metrics evaluate various aspects of your sales process—from revenue and conversion rates to average transaction value and cost per customer acquisition. Sales metrics provide a comprehensive view of your sales performance, helping you make informed decisions to drive growth. You can measure them using sales analytics tools and software, like Salesforce and Pipedrive. To improve these metrics:- Refine your sales strategies
- Streamline your sales funnel
- Provide an exceptional CX (73% of customers say CX is the most important thing they consider when deciding whether to purchase from a company)
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8. Cost per conversion (CPC)
It’s important to understand what you’re spending to secure your intended customer actions—like making a purchase or signing up for a service. That’s why you’ll calculate your CPC. CPC provides insight into the efficiency of your marketing campaigns and helps you optimize your budget. To calculate CPC, you’ll divide your total campaign cost by the conversions you achieved. To improve your CPC:- Refine your audience targeting
- Use A/B testing to find the most effective ad creative
- Continuously monitor your campaigns to maximize results while minimizing costs
Customer journey KPIs to track in the retention stage
Measuring customer retention helps you nurture and maintain ongoing relationships with your existing customers to encourage repeat business and customer loyalty. Hubbert focuses on the following when analyzing retention: “In the retention phase, churn rate and repeat purchase ratio are your bread and butter. They’re an x-ray into customer satisfaction and how well you’re maintaining relationships.”9. Customer churn rate
This KPI assesses the percentage of customers who stop their relationship with your business during a specific period. It also refers to the number of customers who don’t renew their subscriptions after their contract period has ended. You measure customer churn rate to gain insights into customer satisfaction and loyalty. To measure your customer churn rate, divide the number of customers you lost during a set period by the total number you had at the beginning of that period. Then, multiply your result by one hundred. To improve this metric, focus on:- Providing exceptional customer service
- Implementing retention strategies
- Seeking customer feedback to identify and address issues
10. Customer lifetime value (CLV)
CLV estimates the total revenue a business can anticipate from a single customer throughout their relationship. It demonstrates each customer’s long-term value, which helps you make informed decisions on marketing and customer retention. To measure CLV, consider the average purchase value, the frequency of purchases, and customer lifespan. You can then use the below formula to calculate CLV: CLV = Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan To improve your CLV:- Prioritize offering excellent customer experiences
- Run loyalty programs
- Engage with your customers on an ongoing basis
11. Repeat purchase rate
It’s no surprise that repeat purchases are a good sign. This metric signifies customer loyalty, ongoing satisfaction, and the potential for increased revenue. You can measure it by dividing the number of customers who make repeat purchases by your total number of customers. 74% of customers say they’re more likely to make repeat purchases after receiving great customer service. So focus on delivering top-notch customer service, offering incentives for return purchases, and personalizing recommendations to keep customers engaged and coming back for more. Some other ways to boost your customer purchase rate include:- Launch and maintain a post-purchase marketing campaign in the form of emails, in-app messages, and texts. Include tips and tutorials for using and maximizing the benefits of purchased products.
- Offer a loyalty program, discounts, or free items for repeat customers.
- Use retargeting campaigns to reach out to dormant customers and maintain the relationship.
- Use surveys to improve customer satisfaction.
Customer journey metrics for the advocacy stage
The advocacy stage centers on nurturing satisfied customers until they become brand advocates who want to promote your products or services to others. And what’s Hubbert’s top tip for analyzing this stage? “Look at Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and customer referral rates. If people are singing your praises, you’ll see it here.” Here’s how we approach this stage.12. Referral rate or net promoter score (NPS)
Your referral rate measures the percentage of new customers you’ve gained through referrals from existing satisfied customers. It showcases the power of word-of-mouth marketing and customer advocacy in driving growth. Your NPS measures your customer loyalty by asking one question: “How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” If they rate you a 9 or 10, they’re considered promoters. If they rate you from 0 to 6, they’re considered detractors. To calculate your NPS score, add up the total responses you’ve received. Then, calculate (as a percentage) how many are detractors and how many are promoters. Finally, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. To boost this metric:- Focus on providing top-notch experiences
- Implement referral programs
- Nurture your customer relationships to inspire customers to become enthusiastic brand advocates
13. Social media shares
Social media shares refers to the number of times your content is shared on social platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X. Your brand’s social media shares are essential as they reflect the virality and reach of your brand and content. It’s relatively easy and straightforward to measure shares using each social media platform’s built-in analytics dashboard. To improve this metric:- Create engaging, shareable content
- Encourage sharing by adding prominent social buttons on your website
- Interact with your audience by responding to comments and fostering conversations
- Implement a social media competition that offers a discount or prize for liking and sharing posts
14. User-generated content (UGC)
UGC looks at the volume of content created and shared by your customers or audience that features your brand or products. Dylan Duke, founder and CEO of Glewee, puts the importance of UGC simply: “People trust people, not marketers, and consumers turn to UGC as they would their friends, family, or a professional network.” Measuring UGC involves tracking mentions, hashtags, and content shared by users across various platforms—including social media posts, Google reviews, and customer testimonials. To improve this metric:- Encourage and incentivize your audience to create and share content related to your brand
- Showcase user-generated content on your website and social media
- Engage with your customers by acknowledging and sharing their contributions
How to set goals to improve your customer journey
Your KPI data—along with business goals—will serve as your compass to informed decision making and goal setting. “It’s a blend of art and science. Start with historical data if you’ve got it. Knowing where you’ve been can offer insights into where you’re headed. Then, align these metrics with your business objectives,” Hubbert says. For example, you can address a high bounce rate in the awareness stage by improving your landing page content or ad targeting. Similarly, if your sales metrics underperform, you can focus on refining your product offering. Your customer journey data provides actionable insights too. For example, if your engagement rates in the consideration stage surpass those in the decision stage, you can aim to implement personalized recommendations to better engage your customers and guide them toward a decision. One common mistake is setting unrealistic goals. To avoid this, follow Hubbert’s top tips: “Don’t shoot for the moon right out of the gate. Aim for incremental changes based on your current performance levels. Also, make sure you’re consistently monitoring these metrics and adjusting your goals as you go along. That means having regular check-ins, maybe quarterly, to gauge where you are against your KPI targets.” And don’t forget that KPIs are interconnected. “It’s crucial to involve different departments—marketing, sales, customer service—because the customer journey touches on all these areas,” says Hubbert. “It’s a team sport!” Changes in one stage can impact others, so consider the broader customer journey when setting your goals.Choose the right customer journey analytics tool
A positive CX is the cornerstone of a thriving business. Customer journey KPIs offer invaluable insights and guide data-driven decisions for enhancing CX. Funnelytics simplifies this process, allowing you to effortlessly collect, measure, and interpret crucial metrics. It provides real-time visualizations on a single canvas, making it easy to pinpoint areas for improvement. Plus, Funnelytics streamlines the analytics workflow and eliminates the need for manual, time-consuming tools. Elevate your customer journey analytics with Funnelytics.Start your free trial of Funnelytics Performance
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Mikael Dia
Founder & CEO @ Funnelytics Inc.
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Mikael Dia
5 September 2024
Mikael Dia
5 September 2024
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