Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

I'm assuming that the ultimate goal is a conversion of some kind, right? Then you'll want to measure the cost to acquire a conversion.

What you'll need is the cost per lead AND the conversion rate. It doesn't do much good to pay for click-throughs to your landing page and then never get what you really want.

You should also segment and track the site visitors who make it through to your site. You'll want to know where they came from, what copy and offer they responded to, and how they segment themselves. That way you can adjust your campaigns to improve conversions and reduce costs.

Leads cost money. Conversions make you money. What you want is fewer leads and more conversions.

P.S. If what's changing is your website, knowing the cost per lead generated through the internet won't tell you much. You need to know what happens to the leads when they hit the website, not how much it cost you to get them there. (Consider using landing paths instead of a traditional website.)

I fully agree with Michael: you need to track conversions and cost per lead - the latter only measures efficiency, not effectiveness. I suggest you also go into more detail on who gets to your website by which route and what they do afterwards.

In my experience, changing your website may change the importance of traffic sources. For each source, I would track total leads, cost per lead, and profit contribution per lead over time.

Cost per lead isn't everything. If you only spend $10 and get one lead $10 for a lead might be a great outcome but the fact you got one lead won't be.

You should first state your objectives, and them measure how you perform against those.

e.g.

Target number of weekly leads
Actual number of weekly leads

Target cost per lead
Actual cost per lead

Target average sale value
Actual average sale value

If you're getting enough customers, then group them by target segments etc.