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When using text message marketing, there are several KPIs you should monitor to determine the success of your SMS campaigns. What you see should guide you in shaping the best overall text message marketing strategy.
Database Growth Rate
This metric is an essential element of your SMS campaign performance assessment. It tells you how well your database is growing. We suggest regularly calculating this rate to make sure your database is growing rather than dropping. If you’re promoting your text club correctly and consistently, your list should grow steadily even if you are not running a giveaway or contest.
When kicking off a text program, we strongly recommend holding a giveaway. Giveaways have shown to be the most effective way to boost growth of your text subscriber list.
Let your customers know upfront the benefits of being a part of your text club. To ensure you have a steady growth rate, promote your text club everywhere— your website, social media, in-store, print collateral, window signage, and at check-out (both online checkout and at your store's checkout counters).
Retaining subscribers is incredibly important as well, so make sure the messages you are sending are relevant and timely. Offer your text subscribers exclusive deals.
Database Growth Rate = (Subscribers at end of time period-subscribers at the beginning)/ (Subscribers at the beginning of the time period) x 100
For example, let's say you start with 200 text subscribers on June 1, and on June 30, you have 350 subscribers. Your database has increased by 75%.
👉Database Growth Rate: ((350-200)/200) x 100 = 75%
To grow your SMS database, be sure you're taking advantage of all of AGE Texting's opt-in methods including:
Keywords to texting number
Website Form
Interactive Kiosk
QR code
Opt-in Link (attach to banner ads or share on social media)
Checkout form
Digital scratch-off campaigns
Upload list of phone numbers but you must have confirmation they provided their consent to receive text messages from you.
Trivia
Refer a friend feature
How to monitor your database—
Make sure you keep track of how many phone numbers you have opted into your list.
If you see the number of contacts decreasing quickly, review your message history and determine if timing, unattractive offers, quality of photo or GIF (if MMS), or message setup might have influenced the loss of subscribers. Also, keep in mind that you want to send text messages to consumers who are genuinely interested in your products and services. So, in some instances, opt-outs are beneficial to fine tune your database to include a more qualified audience.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
When including links in your SMS campaigns, track the number of clicks that take users to your website, a landing page for a new product or service, or a newsletter subscription page. These clicks show which customers want to proceed in their buying journey or are interested in the content that you share with them.
Research shows that texts including a call-to action to redeem a special promotion report an average 19% click-through rate. AGE Texting's platform offers a URL shortener that tracks the clicks for you.
CTR = (Total Clicks / Total Impressions) x 100 For example, if you send1,000 SMSes with a link, and 420 clicks are recorded, your CTR is 42%.
👉CTR: (420/1000) x 100=42%
To boost CTR, attach photos or animations. Show urgency in the text to entice instant engagement using words like "hurry, now, today, final, and limited time offer". Also consider personalizing the message with custom fields. AGE Texting allows you to easily collect custom information using our website form. You can also segment your database using keywords.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on Investment is always the leader of SMS marketing analytics for any business. ROI is the profit you make over your investment in an SMS campaign.
To calculate the ROI of your SMS marketing campaign, know your investment and return.
Investment: The cost to send the campaign
Return: The revenue the campaign produced
ROI: Return-Investment=Net return
ROI Percentage: (Net return/ investment)/investment x 100
For example, let's say you invest $150 on your SMS campaign and your orders as a result of the link used in that SMS campaign total $1,000. Your SMS campaign ROI is $850, which is
👉ROI: $1000-$150=$850
👉ROI Percentage: ($850/$150) x 100=567% ROI Percentage
ROI for SMS campaigns are frequently reported to be more cost efficient than email campaigns or TV advertising.
Boost your ROI and decrease your investment by sending SMS reminders to abandoned cart owners, offering attractive benefits to high-ticket customers, and analyzing your popular campaigns to determine what works best to accomplish your sales goals.
Response Rate
Response rate is a metric that tells you how many of your customers actually responded to your offers. A higher response rate means more interest and more impressions exclusive to a specific offer. However, make note that this value is not the same as the actual number of users opting for the offer.
Response Rate = Number of Users Responded / Numbers of Offers Made x 100
For example, if you send 1,000 SMSes with a link, 300 users respond to it*, and 200 purchased the product using the text discount, your campaign accomplishes a 30% response rate.
*Response rate would be the number of unique impressions on the landing page. 👉Response Rate: 300/1,000= 30%
Boost response rates by being mindful of when you're sending messages. Offer deals that will entice them to respond. Focus on personalized messages; use your customer's first name and first-person pronouns by referring to recipients as "you" and reference the message sent from "We". Also, be sure to evaluate results so you can continue to fine tune your SMS marketing strategy.
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate, also known as net response rate, is the actual number of converted customers out of responses received. Now, keep in mind that responses received don’t always mean a positive outcome. Some responses could be of lesser meaning. Some responses could be negative based on circumstances such as negative feedback or opt outs.
Conversion Rate = (Number of Orders / Number of Responses (or Number of Unique Visitors)) x 100
Using numbers calculated in our Response Rate example above, we know that there were 200 orders out of the 300 unique impressions. 👉Conversion Rate: (200/300) x 100=66.7%
Boost conversion rates by ensuring you're sending offers that are relevant to them and encourage them to take immediate action.
Average Order Value (AOV)
The Average Order Value stands for the average amount of money spent by your users per order.
Average Order Value = (Total Revenue / Number of Orders) x 100 If you send 1,000 SMSes and receive 200 orders worth $10,000, then your AOV for this specific SMS campaign is $50.
👉AOV: $10,000/200= $50
AOV depends on the products sold. For example, 200 smartphones will give you higher AOV than 200 earplugs. A mix of the two would drastically fluctuate your AOV.
An increase in AOV from your last campaign means your store’s growth is positive. To improve your AOV, determine a minimum order value and offer bonus products or free shipping or some sort of alluring deal for the predetermined AOV.
Attrition Rate (Opt-Out Rate)
Keeping your text message content valuable for your subscribers and changing the frequency can help reduce the opt-out rate. Unsubscribes are inevitable as people are no longer interested in your text service in general or find them irrelevant. However, if you're losing a substantial number of subscribers, it's time to evaluate your text messaging strategy.
If your business offers multiple products that might not appeal to the same audience, consider creating subgroups.
How do subgroups work? Let’s say your store offers hunting gear as well as home décor and clothing. You might consider segmenting your text subscribers into three groups. Then when you have a special on home décor, you can send that specific message exclusively to the home décor group.
Opt-out Rate = (Subscribers at end of time period-subscribers at the beginning)/ (Subscribers at the beginning of the time period) in percentage
Let's say you start with 900 text subscribers on June 1 and on June 30, you have 875 which is a 2.8% opt-out rate.
👉Opt-out Rate: ((875-900)/900)=
(25/900) x 100=2.8%*
Why monitor KPIs for your SMS marketing campaigns
Regularly monitoring the metrics outlined above can help direct your SMS marketing strategy so you're sending campaigns that work. Make note of the timing, content, layout, and promotions that perform well and those that do not.
In all marketing campaigns across all media, profits are often beyond control. You can only influence their success by generating inviting deals and gift vouchers and building a customer database that keeps loyal customers returning.
Watch the metrics across all media in your marketing strategy so you can develop campaigns that reach your goals.
Want to improve the KPIs for your SMS marketing campaigns?
Updated 11/27/23