Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And with data, what is captured and what is reported is determined by those who control the narrative.

Determining the appropriate numbers, and not the “Vanity Metrics” can mark the difference between understanding the effectiveness of an organization’s digital footprint and reporting on numbers of little consequence.

With that, here are 6 Vanity Metrics to Ignore

Traffic: Reporting only on traffic is not helpful for evaluating the success of an organization’s digital presence. The question does that traffic convert into meaningful leads? It doesn’t matter if a lot of traffic comes to your site if there are no conversions.

Page views: Like overall traffic mentioned above, traffic to a particular page is meaningless unless that page triggered a successful call to action. Did the viewers download an eBook? Request more information? Schedule and appointment? Page views alone, with no action, is a vanity metric.

Downloads: While tracking the downloads does indicate some measure of interest, it does not tell you who is downloading the content or how they found it. This information can helps evaluate the overall effectiveness of a campaign, whether additional budget might magnify its success or if the download is ending up in the proper hands.

Time on site: This behavioral metric is not helpful because it does not indicate engagement. Pages remain open and videos unwatched yet they are considered time on page. A more useful metric to monitor is the Call-to-Action that page is hoping for.

Followers: Counting the number of followers is a prime example of a vanity metric. Some companies buy followers to pump up their metrics. Are the followers real people or bots? And more importantly, are they adding value to your brand?

Unique visitors: Unique visitors show the initial traffic of a web page or website but without engagement (repeat visitation, purchasing, commenting, and/or sales engagement) this metric is more likely to demonstrate inaction than qualified leads.

On the other hand…

Action Metrics. Metrics that Matter

Action metrics offer insight into next steps, not pats on the back. They include:

Qualified leads: How many qualified people enter the sales funnel and are they moving from a MQL to a SQL.

Conversions: rate: Analyze top-performing pages. Look to understand what makes the page successful, determine if additional budget will bring significant return and use that insight to re-examine poorer performing pages.

Great data is not isolated data. Particular data points are part of a larger story (Campaign). Looking at the interaction of the entire data stream, including if/who is attracted, are they engaged, and do they become customers, offers the most meaningful, action oriented reporting opportunities.