The hardest part about launching any new marketing program is tracking results. It always has been. The struggle to determine important benchmarks, what they really mean and how to act on them to return the most value is a problem for all marketers.

The traditional "sales funnel" concept still applies, but the progression from the top to the bottom of the funnel is not always as clear and direct as it used to be. There are many types of interactions consumers can have with your brand that can ultimately lead to a purchase. The idea of "attribution management" is emerging as a way to model how these interactions relate to each other and what elements are most important to triggering a purchase decision.

There are many valuable metrics that should be a part of your online and social media marketing analytics. For many, the "biggie" is Cost Per Lead or Cost Per Sale. For any of these metrics, it is critical to look at how they differ across your various audience segments. These segments can be defined by the familiar demographic categories we're all familiar with, but you should also segment by criteria such as first-time visitors vs. returning visitors, branded vs. non-branded keyword referrals, and so on.

What type of visitor interactions should be tracked as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that determine success or failure? For online programs, particularly in the search realm, things like driving directions, send to phone, send to email, coupon prints and content downloads are excellent indicators of engagement. This is where you should begin defining your lead funnel. And these KPIs need to be measured across your various traffic sources, including websites, microsites and social media widgets, giving you valuable feedback on the value of each channel, and your whole online marketing program.

Take Sunday's Super Bowl as an example. For those companies that spent roughly $2.5 million for a 30-second spot, they are looking at every interaction during and after the game, measuring their CPL performance.

Things they should look for may include:

• Landing Page Visits
• Bounce Rate
• Pages Per Visit
• Text Messaging Sign-Ups
• Forward to a Friend actions
• New social media friends or follows

All of these indicators lead to the ultimate metric: Sales.

Different companies advertise for different reasons. Some advertise with public relations in mind, working to enhance their community involvement and public image. Others advertise to measure the temperature of a certain consumer segment to test the market conditions. Inside each of these activities are various measurement benchmarks that must be tracked in order to see how truly effective your campaign is.

In upcoming messages, we'll explore many of these concepts in more detail, giving you the tools needed to build a web analytics framework to drive your marketing strategy.