Big book of marketing KPI benchmarks

Create more realistic forecasts, compare marketing performance, and identify optimizations with our KPI benchmarks guide

How will this guide help me and my business?

One of the main benefits of digital marketing is that it enables marketers to measure their activities more closely than ever before. Your marketing can become more data-driven and your analytics more actionable. It’s important to be able to forecast and review your return on investment, and digital media supports this well.

However, understanding which KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to use for different types of digital media and platforms can be a challenge, particularly for less experienced digital marketers. There is also the challenge of benchmarking compared to others in your industry: ‘What does good look like?’ and ‘How do we compare?’ are common questions we hear.

This is where our Marketing KPI benchmarks reference guide will help you. It’s a single indispensable reference, giving you:

A glossary of terms relevant to measuring digital media and platforms
The most relevant KPIs for improving different types of marketing activity
Which KPIs to use for different parts of the customer lifecycle structured through the RACE Planning Framework
The range of KPIs that are typical for different types of media and in different industry sectors such as B2B, travel, financial services, and retail
The most trusted regularly updated sources for getting the latest benchmarking data

Who is this guide for?

This guide is aimed at marketing managers who are looking to put in place a framework for measuring and improving their digital marketing activities. Depending on their experience of digital marketing, this could include:

Marketing directors and CMOs
Marketing managers and campaign managers
Digital marketing managers
E-commerce managers

How is this guide structured?

This guide is structured around measures used to review marketing activities across the Smart Insights RACE Planning Framework – Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage.

Key benchmarks covered for different sectors include:

Lead generation conversion rates for B2B
Retail add-to-basket and conversion rates
Traffic mix, e.g., referrers for organic, paid search and social media
Website engagement (e.g., bounce rates)

In each section, we will explain:

The best KPIs for you to benchmark against
Benchmark figures and links to the best sources for comparison data and tools
Best practice tips on how to use the KPIs to forecast and improve performance

Latest updates

This guide has been updated for 2024, including new benchmark statistics and examples. For more detail, download our online marketing benchmarks statistics guide which is a PowerPoint document aimed at providing statistics for use in presentations making the case for investment in different digital marketing channels to colleagues or clients.

Resource Details

Author: Dr. Dave Chaffey Chaffey
Format: Long-form and example accompanying spreadsheet.
Related recommended resources:

Online Marketing Benchmarks statistics compilation is also an alternative PowerPoint format with more data for using in presentations and with less narrative and discussion of KPI selection and use.

About the authors

Dr. Dave Chaffey

Dave is co-founder of Smart Insights and creator of the Smart Insights RACE Planning Framework. For his full profile, or to connect on LinkedIn or other social networks, see the About Dave Chaffey profile page on Smart Insights. Dave is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing.

Sarah Lindley

Sarah Lindley, Managing Director at The Yorkshire Marketing Agency, is an award-winning Chartered Marketer. Sarah holds over 10 years’ experience in implementing results-driven marketing and communications strategies, plans and campaigns