If you work in the manufacturing industry, then you’re likely familiar with manufacturing performance metrics such as throughput, cycle time, or production attainment.
These key performance indicators, commonly referred to as manufacturing KPIs, offer companies the insights they need to stay competitive in an industry that now accounts for 17.5 % of global GDP.
Much like companies rely on manufacturing metrics, marketers track their own set of KPIs to measure the performance of digital marketing campaigns. We’ll introduce you to some of the most common marketing metrics all manufacturing companies need to know.
Understanding KPIs in Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry has experienced significant growth over the past few years alone. But with more opportunity comes more competition. For many companies, that’s where manufacturing inbound marketing comes in.
The right digital marketing strategies can result in wider exposure, increased credibility, and higher-quality lead generation for manufacturers. But launching a campaign and hoping for the best is the marketing equivalent of running a factory without tracking key manufacturing benchmarks.
Marketing KPIs for manufacturers are measurable indicators that compare your campaign’s performance to the goals you hope to achieve. Keeping an eye on your KPIs throughout your campaign can give you insights into how to optimize your success and avoid common manufacturing marketing mistakes.
Key Marketing KPIs for Manufacturers
You’d likely use very different manufacturing benchmarks to analyze manufacturing costs than you would to measure the efficiency of different internal teams. KPI metrics for manufacturing marketing are no different, as some are more suited to tracking the performance of an individual campaign than others.
That’s why you’ll want to make sure you take the time to choose the right key manufacturing metrics that best align with the goals of each campaign. HubSpot’s forever-free CRM is a great choice that offers all the tools you need to set up your campaign and track real-time analytics.
KPI 1: Lead Generation
If you’re using digital marketing as part of your overall B2B lead generation playbook, then there are two different KPIs you’ll want to be familiar with: SQLs and MQLs. The biggest difference between sales-qualified leads vs. marketing-qualified leads is how close each is to being ready to pull the sales trigger.
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
A sales-qualified lead (SQL) is arguably the best lead because they’re primed and ready to become a client or customer. Lead scoring software can be a great way to make sure SQLs get ushered to the front of the line and are booked for a chat with your sales department as soon as possible.
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL)
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is basically a potential SQL begging to happen. They’ve interacted with your company in some way, but still need a bit of nurturing to get to the next stage of the buyer’s journey.
Tracking the number of both types of leads can be an effective way to measure the overall success of your lead-generation efforts. Tracking how many MQLs go on to become SQLs is also a solid way to make sure your sales processes are running smoothly.
KPI 2: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Next up on our list of marketing KPIs for manufacturing, we’ve got customer acquisition cost (CAC). This metric breaks down how much marketing money your company has to spend to turn the average lead into a customer. Your CAC is calculated using the following formula:
Marketing budget of a campaign/ New customers the campaign generated = Customer Acquisition Cost
KPI 3: Return on Investment (ROI)
There are two key metrics for manufacturing companies who want to measure the fruitfulness of their marketing budgets. The first is Return on investment (ROI), which measures how much money you spent on marketing vs. how much sales growth you’ve enjoyed. ROI can be calculated like so:
(Total sales growth - Total marketing costs) / Total marketing costs = ROI
The tricky thing about ROI is that it doesn’t consider other factors that may have also contributed to your blossoming sales growth. If you want to really zero in on your marketing efforts' value, you might track your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) instead.
RAOS is a ratio that breaks down how much revenue your company generated for every dollar it spent on an ad campaign. To determine your ROAS, use the formula:
Amount of revenue your ads generated / Cost of your ads
KPI 4: Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) is a metric that reveals the average amount of money your company can expect to generate from each customer. While marketing automation tools can make determining CLTV a lot easier, here’s a breakdown of the DIY approach:
First, you’ll need to find your average customer value by calculating:
Value of the average customer purchase x Average number of purchases a customer makes = Customer value
Once you have your customer value handy, you can plug it into the following formula:
Customer value x Average customer lifetime with your company = Customer Lifetime Value
CLTV is a great one to track alongside other manufacturing KPIs like CAC. Comparing the two will help ensure you’re not spending more to gain a new customer than you can expect to earn from their purchases.
KPI 5: Website Traffic
This is one of those manufacturing KPIs that’s blissfully easy to track because it’s exactly what it sounds like. Website traffic simply measures the number of viewers your site is bringing in and from which sources.
KPI 6: Social Media Engagement
If you manage to target the right platforms, social media can be a powerful lead-generation tool. Depending on your goals, you’ll discover several different social media manufacturing KPIs worth keeping an eye on.
For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, then you might track things like likes, shares, or positive customer comments. If you’re running a paid social media ad campaign, you might focus more on things like clicks, ROI, or ROAS.
KPI 7: Email Marketing Performance
While email may get a bad rap, it actually offers one of the highest ROIs of any digital marketing channel. This is one area where free tools like HubSpot can really help you track your success.
Not only does the CRM offer plenty of great free lead generation tools, but it even comes with email tracking features that can reveal how many of your messages are getting opened. HubSpot’s email tools can even tell you which leads were captivated enough by your emails to click a link inside.
Implementing KPI Tracking in Your Business
Tracking the right marketing KPIs for manufacturing can make all the difference when it comes to figuring out what works and what doesn’t. As a manufacturing digital marketing agency, we tend to recommend HubSpot as a great place to start is that it offers beginner-friendly dashboards designed to help automate the analytics process. Take it for a spin yourself when you sign up for a forever-free HubSpot CRM account.
