Vanity metrics often give a deceptive picture of performance. These metrics, such as the number of visitors to our website, how many followers our company account has on LinkedIn and how many times our last post was liked, focus primarily on superficialities and do not provide any meaningful information about the actual impact on business success. For this we need to look at other data – namely the Actionable Metrics. Did the many clicks lead to more customer contact? To calls or even purchases? Only by tracking and collecting this data can we get clear indications of which content is working on the communication channels.
What are Vanity Metrics?
Vanity metrics are, by definition, metrics that have a high degree of superficiality and irrelevance. They are primarily there to stroke the ego and provide short-term gratification. But why should you say goodbye to these vanity metrics? One main reason is that they don’t provide you with actionable insights. While they may show impressive numbers like high page views or a high number of social media followers, they don’t give you deep insights into your customers, your business or your goals. Vanity metrics only provide superficial information that does not help you adjust your (content) marketing strategies or improve your products. Vanity metrics are a waste of time. If you focus on these insignificant metrics, you are unnecessarily investing a lot of time and resources that you could instead invest in actionable data and measurable goals. Instead, you should focus on metrics that actually add value to your business.
Which KPIs are vanity metrics?
Vanity Metrics are nothing more than KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that can seem impressive at first glance, but provide limited insights into the actual success or progress of your business. Some concrete examples from the marketing world are:
- Social media followers: the number of followers on social media can be impressive, but it says little about how engaged and active those followers really are or whether they are actually converting to customers.
- Total website traffic: While high website traffic is pleasing, it’s more important to know how much of it actually leads to conversions or qualified leads.
- App downloads: While the number of downloads of an app shows that people have downloaded it, it says nothing about the actual usage or value of the app.
- Page views: lots of traffic on certain pages can look good, but it says little about whether the content on those pages is actually relevant or useful.
Number of email subscribers: A large email list may be impressive, but it says nothing about the quality of the subscribers or the relevance of the emails they receive.
How can real metrics be distinguished from vanity metrics?
Basically, you can distinguish real metrics from vanity metrics by checking whether they focus on the fundamental questions you want to ask about your business. These questions should focus on the core objectives of your business and how your business can improve its performance. Once these questions are answered, you can identify the right metrics to measure your progress. You should pay attention to the following aspects:
- Relevance: Meaningful metrics are closely linked to the goals and strategic direction of the company. They help measure success and progress in achieving those goals. Vanity metrics, on the other hand, are often superficial metrics that provide little to no insight into the actual value or impact of a marketing action.
- Actionability: Meaningful metrics provide concrete insights and recommendations for action. They provide insight into the success of marketing activities and enable targeted changes to be made to achieve better results. Vanity metrics, on the other hand, are often purely descriptive and offer little guidance for specific next steps.
- Long-term impact: Meaningful metrics take into account the long-term perspective and the value that marketing actions should create for the organisation. They show the link between investments and results, enabling informed decision-making. Vanity metrics, on the other hand, often focus on short-term gains or superficial popularity without any reference to long-term effectiveness.
- Comparability: Meaningful metrics can be compared with each other to enable trends over time or benchmarking with other industries and competitors. They provide an objective basis for performance comparison and allow companies to focus on relevant dimensions. Vanity metrics, on the other hand, are often subjective and difficult to compare because they are based on non-standardised or superficial data.
What alternatives are there to vanity metrics?
An alternative to vanity metrics are so-called actionable metrics. These metrics focus less on superficial numbers like followers, likes or views, but actually provide actionable data. Actionable metrics provide insights into the actual performance and value of a marketing campaign and help define clear goals and actions for moving forward. These metrics are directly linked to your business objectives and provide actionable insights.
Business metrics are another approach. These metrics focus on the success of the business as a whole, measuring such things as revenue, customer retention or profitability. Business metrics are more directly linked to business goals and provide a better understanding of how the company is performing overall.
Engagement metrics can also serve as an alternative to vanity metrics. These metrics show how well you are succeeding in reaching and engaging the target audience. It’s about how much interaction and activity there is on the different channels, how often users respond to the content and how long they engage with it.
Once the focus shifts away from superficial vanity metrics to alternative metrics, you can focus on real success. The point is that the data is actually meaningful and contributes to achieving the goals set.
When does it still make sense to look at and interpret vanity metrics?
Vanity metrics are not only negative, but can be useful in certain situations, especially if they are considered in a larger context and interpreted correctly. However, it is important that they are always considered in relation to other meaningful metrics. They alone often do not represent the true value or success of a marketing activity or company. However, vanity metrics can be useful in brand awareness and benchmarking.
Brand Awareness
If the main goal is to increase awareness of a brand or product, vanity metrics such as follower numbers on social media platforms or the number of page views on a website can be considered as indicators of increased visibility and reach. Although these metrics alone are not enough, they can still help to track the impact of marketing measures in terms of brand awareness.
Benchmarking
Vanity metrics can be useful as a benchmark in industries or niches where high follower numbers or other popular metrics are considered as a measure. In such cases, vanity metrics can help to assess one’s own company or brand in comparison to competitors or other players in the industry.
How can a balanced approach be found to consider both vanity metrics and actionable metrics?
- Define clear goals: First, you should determine your strategic goals and the KPIs that reflect those goals. In doing so, you should focus on measurable and meaningful metrics that allow for a real assessment of performance.
- Create awareness of vanity metrics: You should be aware of the temptation of vanity metrics and understand the potential risks associated with using them. Train your team to distinguish between meaningful metrics and vanity metrics and recognise the importance of sound data analysis.
- Combine qualitative and quantitative metrics: Include both quantitative metrics and qualitative insights from customer feedback, user surveys or focus groups in their analysis. This provides a more comprehensive view of the performance and value of your marketing activities.
- Continuously review and adapt: Regularly review your metrics to ensure they are in line with current goals and requirements. It is important to be flexible in adapting and identifying new metrics where necessary to provide better insight into the success of marketing activities.
- Communication and reporting: When communicating marketing results and reporting, be transparent and present both the relevant KPIs and the context behind the numbers. This helps to inform stakeholders and create an understanding of which metrics actually have an impact on business success.
