A Marketers in Demand company

Top 3 Demand Generation Metrics to Track

Jacob Brain

Author

We’re back. And we brought demand generation with us again.

We’d like to dive a little deeper into how demand gen breaks from lead gen and how you can use it, and what demand generation metrics you need to be looking at.

Of course, the understanding here is that both perspectives are viable strategies for marketing.

A big differentiator, however, is how to track success. If you track demand gen success the same way you do lead gen, you’re bound to fail.

A Bird’s Eye View

When it comes to demand generation and lead generation, there is an important shift in mindset that needs to be made.

Just as there would be a shift from an individual persona focus to a buying team focus when going from inbound marketing to ABM.

Demand gen takes a long-term view of results, focusing on growing and nurturing interest to create a customer that is ready to buy.

On the other hand, lead gen focuses more on bottom-of-the-funnel activities and tries to capture MQLs that can then be picked up by sales and converted into customers.

Demand gen sets its goals deeper into the funnel, at the proposal stage, for example.

The idea is that leads don’t matter if they aren’t quality: you would prefer ten leads, of which five close, then 100 “leads,” of which two close. That’s the case demand gen makes to your marketing efforts.

It’s important to keep in mind that because these strategies view results differently, they will measure them differently.

We’ve highlighted several key lead gen metrics to track in past posts here and here.

So, now we’d like to give you a few demand gen KPIs to keep an eye on.

Shifting to demand strategies means you’re KPIs need to shift as well. Otherwise, your data will be invalid and completely unhelpful to you as you optimize and correct mistakes.

When pursuing demand gen should care about the following three metrics.

Note: These aren’t the only metrics to care about, but a few to start focusing on.

What’s the reason for tracking these specific numbers?

By tracking these demand generation metrics, you’ll be able to paint a clearer picture of your efforts and their impact on your bottom line.

1.  Cost per acquisition

In demand generation marketing, cost per acquisition (CPA) is important because it helps to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in terms of how much it costs to generate a new customer. Since demand gen is focused lower in the funnel, this is critical.

Specifically, CPA measures the direct costs associated with acquiring a new customer, such as advertising and promotional expenses.

By tracking this metric, businesses can determine whether their demand generation efforts are generating a positive return on investment. If CPA is too high, it may be necessary to reevaluate the demand generation strategy in order to reduce costs and improve ROI tracking.

CPA also provides insights into which demand generation activities are most effective in terms of generating new customers. As such, it is an essential metric for businesses that rely on demand generation marketing to grow their customer base.

Remember that demand gen doesn’t have a last-touch approach to tracking channel efficacy as a general rule. It has a multi-touch attribution model, so nailing it down can be difficult without an expert touch.

2. Pipeline Velocity

Pipeline velocity is a demand generation metric that measures the rate at which qualified leads move through the sales pipeline.

The actual calculation of this metric is highly debated, but Databox (and us) often use this formula.

To figure out pipeline velocity, multiply the number of qualified opportunities in your pipeline by the average deal size for your sales team. Then divide that number by the average time it takes for a sale to close.

Let’s take a look at DataBox’s example.

Assume that a sales rep has ten qualified leads, a win rate of 20%, and an average deal size of $1000. The current sales cycle is 45 days long. According to the formula, their pipeline velocity for this sales person is $45 per day and $1350 per month.

There you have it.

Velocity can also refer to how many of those leads become customers. The faster the velocity, the quicker leads are converted into customers.

While it’s important to have a high volume of leads coming in, it’s equally important to have a high velocity so that those leads are converted into customers in a timely manner.

A high velocity indicates that the demand generation process is efficient and that marketing and sales are working together well.

If the velocity is low, it could be an indication that there are bottlenecks in the pipeline or that leads are being neglected.

Either way, it’s something that should be addressed so that leads can be converted into customers more efficiently.

3. Pipeline Built at a Specific Stage

We know this isn’t exactly a strict metric, but it is a KPI that you should invest in nailing down and keeping up with.

Why?

Demand gen drives deeper into the sales pipeline to measure efficacy for only leads that can truly become customers. To do this, marketers often land on a certain pipeline stage to drive leads towards.

While the exact pipeline stage will vary depending on the company and sales process, it’s typically a pipeline stage that will close at a 20-30% close rate. At that stage, the junk leads would have been removed. That’s the blank you’ll fill in.

Analyze your pipeline, find the stage that has a 20-30% close rate, and measure against that. For many businesses in the B2B sector, it’s the proposal stage. Then move to make decisions off that stage and measurement.

This measurement highlights demand gen’s quality over quantity approach.

Ready to start measuring for success?

Demand gen is all about creating interest for your business and turning that interest into customers. It’s made up of two parts: demand creation and demand capture.

Measuring these three demand generation metrics will help you to track your progress, determine what’s working (and what isn’t), and make tweaks along the way to improve your results.

If you need help getting started with measuring marketing metrics, don’t hesitate to reach out.

At New North, our team of experts can guide you through the process and get you on the path to generating more leads and sales for your business.

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