As SMB investment in digital increases, so does the need for better performance metrics

They don’t have time. They’re usually fulfilling more than one role at their company. They know marketing is important and they’re bombarded, everyday, with solicitations from multiple vendors.

The average small-to-medium-sized business is contacted three-to-five times per week by a salesperson pitching some sort of marketing product or service. These salespeople have good reason to be hounding SMBs — all indications point to the fact that SMBs are finally opening their wallets to pay for online marketing.

BIA/Kelsey predicts that 2015 will be a banner year for local media expenditure on the part of small to medium businesses, with investment exceeding $50 billion. Much of this figure will be put toward online marketing in some form, including display ads, pay-per-click, online directories, social media, and local SEO.

With this investment comes more complexity in marketing metrics. From social media marketing to email marketing to search marketing, the sheer volume of new acronyms to learn is impressive. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, for example, has no fewer than 8 typical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track the effectiveness of campaigns.

**Read the full article at streetfightmag.com. **