RH team discuss how they measure success
In marketing, success hinges on more than just creativity and compelling storytelling — it’s about results. Key performance metrics (KPIs) offer crucial insights that measure the impact of campaigns, optimize strategies and demonstrate ROI. Whether Russell Herder team members are managing a digital campaign, social media or a new website, understanding the numbers behind our efforts ensures we’re reaching the right audience, with the right message, at the right time.
Some of RH’s talented team leads broke down the KPIs for their departments and shared insights about metrics they’ll use in the new year.
Digital
Digital Director Danielle Smith shared that some clients seek branding and awareness, while others want leads, revenue or clicks-to-call. “More often than not, we call an ad successful if it drives some ROI,” she said. “More and more clients want a digital team to help them understand how their ads are doing and determine the best way to continue the momentum or adjust if needed.”
Senior Digital Strategist Katelyn Belden broke down the numbers: “Our conversion rate on Google ads was 19.6% this year, which is great; the benchmark for that is between 2% and 5% in general.” She added that our hospitality clients saw a 1.58% conversion rate, higher than the industry benchmark of 0.51%, and law industry clients saw a 12.72% conversion rate, higher than the 1.84% benchmark.
Danielle said that, in 2025, they would pursue data-driven insights, customer journeys for effectiveness, return on advertising spending, social media successes and strong conversion rates.
Public Relations
In public relations, RH tracks metrics like media coverage, audience sentiment, share of voice and message reach, all of which measure results in brand reputation for our clients. Director of Public Relations Patrick Thornton noted that RH saw a 9% increase in total media placements this year with a 5% increase in total audience reached. RH clients also won several awards for healthcare-related creative and advertising.
Social Media
Social Media Manager Peyton Haag noted that social media KPIs are unique for each client because they must align with the unique goals, audience and context of each brand. Audience size also influences KPIs, because a smaller, niche audience might value engagement rates over sheer volume, but a global brand might prioritize impressions and brand mentions.
Additionally, industry norms play a significant role; for example, a fashion brand might track visual content engagement, while a tech company may measure click-through rates for in-depth articles. This variability underscores the importance of tailoring KPIs to reflect a brand’s objectives and audience expectations.
Peyton and the social media team base engagement rates on a client’s number of followers. For example, if an account with 1000 followers receives 200 likes, that is a measure of success.
User Experience & Web Design
Director of User Experience and Web Design Packy Savvenas uses a long list of KPIs to measure client website performance. For user engagement metrics, he and his team consider click-through rate (CTR) on key CTAs (calls-to-action), time spent on page for critical content like landing pages and blog posts), scroll depth to measure how far users scroll on key pages and heat map interactions for key areas.
Usability and accessibility are also key for web performance and SEO continues to rise to the top. Packy optimizes each site with UX and SEO alignment to increase organic search traffic and ensure each site has high-ranking core web vitals scores for improved performance, interactivity and visual stability.
Packy says all this and more “Provides a solid foundation to demonstrate progress and impact throughout 2025, aligning UX improvements with measurable results that matter to your organization and stakeholders.”
KPIs’ Evergreen Role
Despite the ever-changing landscape of digital platforms and trends, KPIs across departments remain invaluable to stakeholders because they provide consistent, measurable indicators of success. KPIs bridge the gap between strategy and results, showing what works and where adjustments are needed. As platforms evolve, KPIs also help navigate new opportunities by helping teams adapt benchmarks and maintain focus on what truly drives value.
