As a marketer, you’re no stranger to metrics. You understand their role in evaluating a campaign's success, allocating resources and making informed decisions.
It’s the same for partnership marketing campaigns. Tracking the right marketing metrics helps you identify what’s working, what’s not and where to focus your efforts for the best results. But if you’re new to partnership marketing, you might be wondering which metrics matter most and how to measure them effectively.
We spoke to Will Chin, Demand Generation Manager at PartnerStack to learn more.
In this article we share:
- How the metrics to track depend on the maturity level of your program
- The key metrics to focus on at each stage
- Tools for measuring these marketing metrics effectively
Metrics vary by program maturity level
The first thing to note is that the marketing metrics to focus on depend on your partner program’s growth phase. “Different metrics are important at different points in time. Depending on your program maturity, you optimize for different things,” explains Chin.
While the ultimate goal of any partner program is to drive revenue, your immediate priorities change as your program grows. In other words: “Revenue is always important but it’s not necessarily the North Star metric at every stage,” Chin adds.
Related: Overcoming revenue pitfalls to solve your biggest partnership problems.
When launching a new program
If your partner program is in its early stages, optimizing for revenue might not be the right goal — because you don't have enough information and data. “You need to see some semblance of life or just leads coming through the door so that you can then look at your performance efficiency metrics to optimize over time,” explains Chin. Your emphasis should be on proving the program's viability and generating initial results.
When scaling a mature program
But as a partner program matures, the focus shifts to doubling down on what’s working and increasing revenue. “You have partners consistently driving good lead volume,” Chin says. “Then it’s like, okay, I’m getting a lot of leads, but I’m not getting the revenue that I need.” So here, you need to start looking deeper into conversion rates, deal quality and the efficiency of the sales process to identify obstacles or areas for improvement.
Core marketing metrics to track in the early stages of a partner program
A caveat: these metrics aren’t exclusive to early stage programs — more mature programs should track them too. However, in the early stages, your marketing team should focus on these foundational metrics, as they help you validate and improve your partner program.
Leads generated
This is the number of potential customers acquired through partners and partnership efforts. For an early-stage program, it’s one of the most important metrics to track because it shows whether the channel has potential and is cost efficient. It also provides data to help you improve the program to get better results. “If a partner isn’t driving enough leads, it could be due to an enablement issue for example, lack of training or resources — or the partner may not be a good fit for your business,” explains Chin.
Using a platform like PartnerStack, you can monitor the total number of leads partners have generated from the start. Each partner typically has a unique referral link, making it easy to see which partners bring in the most leads and whether they align with your expectations.
Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
MQLs are leads that meet predefined criteria, indicating they are qualified and are likely to become customers. Tracking MQLs ensures you’re not just generating leads but generating the right ones to pass to the sales team. This metric helps you assess the quality of your partners’ contributions and whether they align with your ideal customer profile (ICP).
Failing to monitor this early on could cause you to waste resources on unqualified leads. “If a partner is driving your ICP — invest more in them,” says Chin. “If not, maybe this partnership isn’t right because they don’t have reach into your audience.”
You can track MQLs in PartnerStack by setting up lead qualification criteria within the platform. From there, you can evaluate how well your partners meet these standards. This will give you insights into which partners deliver the most valuable leads and whether they need more support to drive even more MQLs.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is one of the most important marketing metrics to track. It measures how well your leads turn into sales opportunities or paying customers. It’s a critical metric for early stage programs because it indicates whether your partners are driving quality leads that match your ICP and if your sales cycle is effective.
“If a partner is driving a low number of leads but they are converting at a high volume, you might want to help them drive more leads,” says Chin. Conversely, a low conversion rate could indicate issues with lead quality, sales alignment or nurturing processes that you should address in your partner enablement materials.
PartnerStack integrates with CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce to show the progression of leads through your sales funnel. By analyzing this data, you can identify patterns, optimize your sales process and pinpoint partners whose leads are most likely to convert.
Key primary metrics to track for mature programs
Later on, you need to look at more revenue-focused marketing metrics like:
Pipeline generated
Pipeline generated refers to the total potential value of opportunities or deals sourced through your partnership program actively moving through the sales process. It’s a leading indicator of revenue as generally the more pipeline you have, the more revenue you can expect to generate.
Tracking pipeline allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your partners and identify which ones are consistently bringing high-value opportunities so you can allocate resources and prioritize efforts based on partner performance. “Essentially, you’re investing time and resources into each partner or channel and you want to ensure a return on that investment,” says Chin.
PartnerStack can help you monitor partner-sourced opportunities and track their progression through the sales funnel. Ensure partner-driven leads and deals are properly tagged to easily track their value, stage and likelihood of closing.
Revenue
Revenue is the ultimate metric that measures the actual money generated from deals sourced, referred or influenced by your partners. Unlike pipeline, which represents potential value, revenue indicates the real financial impact of your partnership efforts. This metric becomes important as your program matures because it lets you know whether your investment in partner training, enablement and marketing is paying off and delivering a strong return on investment (ROI).
You can see revenue in PartnerStack in real-time. It shows how leads progress through the sales funnel and their final revenue impact.
Customer acquisition cost
How much did you spend acquiring a customer through your partnership program? This includes all expenses like partner commissions, incentives, marketing support, enablement resources and program management overhead.
It’s useful to know your customer acquisition cost (CAC) to assess the profitability and scalability of your partner program and compare it to your other channels. A lower CAC is great as it means you’re acquiring customers efficiently and have a good profit margin, while a high CAC can indicate inefficiencies or overspending. Tracking CAC helps you answer key questions:
- Are partnerships a more cost-effective channel compared to others?
- Which partners or partner types deliver the best ROI?
- Should you invest more in partnerships or optimize the program for better efficiency?
You can view this metric in your CRM or calculate it by adding up all partner-related costs during a specific period and dividing by customers acquired during that same period.The key marketing metrics for partner campaignsThe marketing metrics we've discussed here apply to any type of partner program, whether you're running an affiliate, referral, co-sell, B2B influencer, technology or alliance partner program. Tracking these metrics helps improve performance and drive better results. However, it's important to note that some programs may require additional specific metrics. For instance, in an affiliate program, you'll likely need to track click volume, affiliate traffic and sign-ups in addition to the general metrics we’ve covered.
On the other hand, a referral program might focus primarily on lead generation rather than traffic or clicks.If you're looking for an easy and efficient way to track your partners and monitor these metrics, get started with PartnerStack today. The platform streamlines partnership management and provides real-time insights so you can make data-driven decisions and optimize your marketing efforts with ease.
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