How to move beyond vanity metrics and track what really matters

Vanity metrics look impressive but rarely drive action. Open rates, audience size and raw traffic can mask deeper issues. To make smarter decisions, focus on metrics that show intent and outcomes. This article shows you how to do that in Force24 and points you to the key resources.

What are vanity metrics?

Vanity metrics are numbers that rise without showing real interest or progress. Examples include:

• Email open rates
• Total contacts
• Raw website visits

These can hide low engagement, poor deliverability or misaligned content.

Why ditch opens?

With privacy protections like Apple Mail Privacy Protection, many opens aren't human. Even when opens were reliable, they only showed that someone glanced at your email. Clicks are a better signal, but they can still be inflated by automated link scanners, and they only show interest in an email, not in what you do. The strongest signals come from what people do after they click.

For a deeper dive, read It's time to ditch opens and clicks: here's why, plus 10 KPIs.

What should I track instead?

1. Actions that take effort

The best intent signals are things a contact chose to do. A great example is gated content. If a whitepaper, guide or webinar sits behind a form, a form submission shows the contact was willing to take action to learn more about what you do.

Use a Submission Segment for each form, so you can see exactly who submitted it and use that audience in your campaigns and Journeys.

2. High value and goal URLs

Pages that show interest in buying or enquiring are some of the clearest signals you can track. In Force24 you can mark them as:

• High value URLs: pages that show strong interest, such as a pricing page or a product page for something you want to sell.
• Goal URLs: pages that show a contact has completed what you wanted them to do, such as the thank-you page after a form or a purchase confirmation.

Both add to a contact's lead score, and you can see the activity on the Web activity page. If your links carry UTM parameters, add % to the end of the URL as a wildcard so they are still tracked.

3. Lead scoring

Lead scoring turns the signals above into a number you can act on. Force24 adds points automatically when a contact engages, and removes them 30 days later, so a high score means recent interest.

You can set a value for six types of engagement:

• Email opens
• Email and SMS clicks
• Web page visits
• Repeat web page visits
• High value page visits
• Goal URL visits

Keep the focus on web engagement by turning down the lower value actions, such as email opens. You can edit the values in Account Settings. Once your scores are working, you can use them in Segments and Journeys. For example, you can use Apps in Journeys to alert your sales team when a contact crosses a score you've chosen.

4. Click data as a supporting signal

Clicks are still useful for comparing emails against each other, as long as you treat them as a supporting signal. Look at unique clicks rather than total clicks, so one person (or their security software) clicking several times doesn't skew the picture. If you want to improve your unique clicks, learn more in our How to increase your unique click rate article, and to understand the difference, see our What is the difference between clicks and unique clicks? article.

5. Deliverability health

If your emails don't reach the inbox, none of the signals above can happen. Keep an eye on:

• Hard, soft and spam bounces. If you want to understand them, learn more in our What is a hard-soft-spam bounce? and Managing bounces for optimal deliverability articles.
• Spam complaints. If you want to reduce them, learn more in our How to reduce spam complaints article.
• Your Deliverability Report, for a view of how your sending is performing. If you want help reading it, see our How to use the Deliverability Report feature article.
• Your sending pattern. Mailbox providers learn what to expect from you, so sudden spikes and long silences can hurt your reputation. If you want to improve it, learn more in our The importance of a consistent sending pattern (and how to maintain one) article.
• Who you send to. Sending to engaged, well-defined Segments rather than your whole database helps protect your deliverability. If you want to see how, watch the Momentum webinar in our Find and segment contacts easily article.
• Overall best practice. See our Deliverability best practice and How to avoid landing in spam articles.
• Known spam trigger words. See our 200 known spam phrases and email tips article.

Then you can view all your results in one place. If you want to learn how, see our How to report on your campaign article.

How do I tie metrics to purpose?

Every campaign needs a clear goal: awareness, engagement or conversion. Decide what a successful result looks like, then set it up in Force24 as a form, a high value URL or a goal URL so you can measure it. If a number doesn't guide action, it's likely a vanity metric.

Where can I find more resources?

• Email Marketing Playbook
• How to reduce your unsubscribe rate
• Force24 masterclass webinars
• Force24 Momentum webinar series