What Channel Partner KPIs And Metrics Should You Be Measuring?

When you first begin a channel partnership, there are certain metrics you should be tracking. The reason for this is the old adage of what gets measured, gets improved. Below we’re sharing the channel partner metrics your team should be measuring to ensure that your channel partnership is a successful venture. This will not only help you to see where you’re doing well and where you can improve, but also whether or not the partnership entered is a viable one that should be continued for the long haul.

Financial and Marketing Campaign Metrics

The key financial channel partner metrics that should be measured include:

• Return on Investment (ROI): This is sometimes referred to as return on ad spend (ROAS) because it typically is related to the direct return your company will see from spending money on advertising campaigns. For example, if your company purchases Google Ads, how much money did they make on product sales directly related to those advertising purchases?

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): This number is similar to the return on investment but breaks down the total cost of ad spend per customer acquired. So, if your company spends $500 on ads and those ads yield 50 paying customers, your cost per acquisition is $10 per acquisition.

• Cost Per Click (CPC): Like it sounds, this metric is the amount of money your company spends for every click on your ads. For example, if the company has a maximum budget of $1,000 and there are 500 clicks on your ads, your CPC is $2.

Some advertising platforms such as Google charge a flat CPC rate and ask you to set a maximum budget you’re willing to pay. By agreeing to whatever the CPC is from Google, you will never pay more than that amount per click, and once you have exhausted your budget, your ad will no longer be displayed.

• Cost Per Lead (CPL): This number is different from the cost per acquisition in that it focuses on the amount of money spent only to generate a lead, not to generate a paying customer. Having the lead may not necessarily translate into a sale.

• Lifetime Value (LTV): Sometimes called a customer lifetime value (CLV/CLTV), this number refers to the total amount of revenue a business can reasonably anticipate receiving from one customer throughout the “lifetime” of their relationship with a company. By knowing your LTV, you can predict the amount of money your business might earn in a calendar year.

Education/Training

Metrics related to education/training may include:

• Product demos attended/shared: How many product demos did your channel partner provide to help your company’s sales team understand the ins and outs of what they are selling? This may also be measured as how many product demos sales teams provided to customers to demonstrate their understanding of the product being sold.

• Training sessions taken/given: How many training sessions did your channel partner provide? How many sales team members took and passed quizzes related to the training sessions?

• Certifications acquired: If certifications are required for understanding the product and/or selling it, how many team members acquired a certification? In the event your team members aren’t passing certifications, there may be a knowledge gap in how the product works and/or how to sell it that may need to be addressed.

Engagement

The metrics related to engagement can be two-fold. In some cases, engagement metrics can be related to training. However, in others, it’s related to how the audience is engaging with current marketing efforts - both paid and unpaid. In the case of channel partnerships though, engagement metrics are typically focused on things like:

• Partner portal access time and frequency: How many times is the partner portal being accessed, and how long is it being used once logged in? This indicates how vested the partner is in learning about the products being promoted, and whether or not they are knowledgeable enough about these products to successfully sell them to the end-user.

• Percent of content engaged: Are prospects engaging with what’s being promoted? If the partner logs in, and only consumes a small portion of the training and marketing materials, they might not have enough information to promote the products well enough to end in a sale.

Product Satisfaction

The key marketing and performance channel partner metrics that should be measured include:

• End-user satisfaction rate: The goal is for end-users to be happy with their purchases and to be satisfied with the people they engaged during every step of the buyer journey. When the end-user is satisfied, they won’t cancel or churn.

• Partner satisfaction rate: Are both partners happy working together? This is supposed to be a cohesive relationship, so this metric is critical to success.

SiteLock delivers on the above metrics and more. To learn more about our partnership opportunities, visit our channel partners page.