Top 10 Metrics Multi-Location Businesses Should Track to Measure Marketing Success

Ah, marketing success. It can mean so many different things across different industries, especially in marketing. For multi-location brands in particular, it can be time consuming to determine the right metrics to track given the variety of different locations. Luckily, we specialize in multi-location businesses, so we know a thing or two about data and metrics, and we can share what we have seen work best for a lot of our clients when measuring marketing success.

Keep in mind, that no matter what you track, it should be closely tied to your overall marketing objectives and strategy. Metrics should not be collected and reviewed just because other businesses are reviewing those metrics. Rather, start by taking the time with your team to understand what your priorities are and what metrics will help you get there.

Using data to refine marketing strategies

Ultimately, marketing teams should be using data to support and refine their marketing strategies. However, over the years, as we have collected data on just about everything, our desire for data has gotten out of hand and our ability to use it has gotten worse. That is why it is vital to start with a comprehensive marketing strategy that addresses the nuances of your multi-location business, and from there select metrics and data points that support those objectives, not the other way around. You may find that as your strategy evolves, your team becomes more adept at switching between certain metrics, but for the time being it’s best to track the same metrics for awhile to get a good idea of how your business does or does not achieve marketing success.

Knowing when to track performance across different regions

Multi-location businesses will also need to choose metrics to track over locations, which can be even more time consuming if you don’t have a centralized dashboard or data platform. When looking at metrics, it will be important to segment locations in a way that takes into account the different factors impacting those regions, whether that be economic, geographical, or internal segmentation. This will allow you to account for particular changes that need to be made in those regions.

When looking at metrics across locations, consider tracking the following marketing metrics by location or region, as well as more broadly:

Revenue – Tracking marketing campaign revenue, or revenue that can be directly tied to marketing efforts, is vital as different regions will generate different revenue. This can be helpful in terms of applying best practices or immediate fixes if certain regions are driving significantly more revenue.
Customer retention and customer acquisition costs – Other useful metrics for regions include the percentage of customers that keep coming back to your locations and how much it costs to acquire new customers. Typically, acquiring new customers is far more costly than keeping the ones you have, but you do not know how much until you start tracking.
Regional competitors – Different locations or regions may have different competitors, and it can be helpful to know how they differ so you can use different methods to address them in different regions. This is especially important for advertising!

Tools for monitoring metrics in real time

Your marketing technology stack is incredibly important for ease of tracking. Marketing tools are abundant and relatively cost effective these days, especially for brands managing multiple locations. Some of the most obvious options include Google Data Studio and Google Analytics, but there are also tools for each specific area of marketing if you would rather track by objective, such as SEO, social media, or website.

Then again, if you work with a partner like MDG, they can build a custom dashboard for your brand that incorporates metrics from each location into one seamless channel. MDG crafted a unique digital platform for a dental organization client that aggregates metrics for each practice, allowing DCA stakeholders to quickly access valuable information for social, media, GMB, local search, keywords, and more. It has saved the client countless hours of manual data entry and allows for faster decision making.

The essential marketing KPIs for multi-location businesses

What are the most common metrics multi-location businesses should use to measure marketing success? Check out the full list below!

- CTR – Click-through rate is the percentage of people that clicked on your link out of everyone that viewed it. This is very important in advertising campaigns as it allows you to see who engaged with your ad. It can also be useful for email and website campaigns. From one campaign to the next, you can test different visuals and messaging to improve the CTR across locations.
- Website views – Exactly what it sounds like, website views calculates the total view of the website and is a good indicator of the audience’s interest in your content or services. Typically, it is divided into unique views and total views. Unique views calculates the amount of individual views and total views tracks all views, which may include multiple views from the same user.

Conversion rate – The conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors or ad viewers that perform a desired action, such as filling out a form, scheduling an appointment, requesting a phone call, or other things. The conversion action will vary depending on the campaign, but conversions are useful for tracking if your campaigns are effective in getting users to complete desired actions.

- Bounce rate – The bounce rate tracks how many users leave your website or ad without completing any actions. If you have a high bounce rate, it may indicate that your SEO keywords are not driving the correct traffic to the site or that your messaging does not resonate with your audience. High bounce rates can lead to a poor customer experience and poor SEO rankings.
- Cost per lead – A vital metric for the brand and individual locations, cost per lead calculates the amount of money spent to attract one lead or a person that has expressed interest in your product or service. Ideally, you want to achieve a balance between cost per lead and quality of lead. If you have a low cost per lead but your leads are not completing conversions, consider raising the cost per lead to attract higher quality leads and deliver a higher ROI.

- ROI – Return on investment is a very important metric for marketing and business teams as it shows the overall effectiveness of a campaign or product. Ideally, you want to deliver a high ROI, but that can take time depending on your audience and methods. The higher the ROI, the more likely it is that you can continue innovating and investing in top-tier marketing campaigns and initiatives.

- SEO rankings – Search engine optimization helps to ensure that your website shows up in searches. You can optimize your website with appropriate keywords that your audience would use to find you and account for things like site speed, content quality, and backlinks that will also impact where you show up in the search rankings. When your search rankings are high, you drive more organic traffic to your website.
- Social engagement – The importance of social media cannot be overstated as most of the world uses social media to find and engage with brands. A strong social media presence is now necessary. Social engagement tracks how and how often your audience engages with your brand on social platforms and is typically tracked in the form of likes, shares, or comments.

Marketing success can be carefully measured by the metrics listed above while taking into the account the regional metrics which can provide further insights into the success of different regions or locations. At the end of the day, no matter which metrics you choose, they should all be part of a comprehensive marketing strategy with achievable goals. The goals is not data for data’s sake; the goal is to collect data to drive better decisions, improve ROI, and achieve marketing success.