5 Key Metrics Your Church Should Be Watching


5 key metrics

Login to your google analytics dashboard, or your twitter insights and your often met with hundreds of different ways of looking at data and traffic.

 

It can be a daunting task to try to determine what you should be looking at and why. Often we find ourselves focusing on metrics only to realize later that it doesn’t actually relate to what we were trying to accomplish at all. What should you be looking at when it comes to data and metrics?

 

While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, here are 5 important metrics that I consistently look at to help me be a better communicator:

Social Media Engagement

Likes, comments, and share on social media are one of the most important things to focus on when looking at your strategy. From here you can tell if your content is touching base with your audience. If you find that your posts are receiving a ton of likes and comments, and being shared multiple times you’re on the right track. If that’s not the case, try adjusting your content strategy to relate more to your audience.
Likes, comments & shares on social media are important to focus on when looking at strategy. @TravisWalser Click To Tweet

Demographics

Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Analytics, knowing your audience is key when it comes to creating engaging, relatable, and relevant content and advertising. From most demographic tools you can access the age brackets of your audience, their social backgrounds, and interests. Don’t be afraid to engage people’s interests in your communications and planning. If 90% of your audience are small business owners, engage that! By doing this you can add more to people’s lives and meet them where they are in life. Develop strategies based off of your demographic research to help bring clarity and interest to your content.

Landing Pages and Page-views

Where are people entering your website and what are they looking at? Are there particular pages that are receiving more direct traffic than others? If you find that there are a lot of pages on your website receiving a ton of direct organic traffic, consider adding front page links for those pages. This always helps me direct people from the front page to where they need to be much quicker. Make sure your top viewed pages are clearly visible from the front page of your website. Some of the most popular pages on any website should be the about page, the live stream page, the visit page, etc.

Entrance/Exit Pages

Take a look at where visitors are entering and leaving your website. If you notice there is a particular page with a high bounce rate and lots of exits, check it from every angle. Chances are something on the page could be having a negative effect on your traffic. It could be a website malfunction or maybe even a problem with the mobile formatting. Make your pages simple and easily accessible from as many platform as possible. Watching exit page metrics often helps me correct a website issue before it becomes widespread.

Goal Setting

Google Analytics has a great feature called Goals. While it’s meant for businesses to help track sales goals through the website mostly, I often use it for signup forms, click-throughs, and other website functions to help me watch what people are engaging with on the website. Signup forms are great to work with in this manner, and I’ll often setup a goal tracker based off of last years metrics to help me make sure I’m successfully promoting events such as youth camps, concerts, etc.

These five metrics are a great place to get started when looking at how you’re actively engaging people on your website and through social media. I hope you’re able to develop a great strategy around studying these metrics that will help you engage your congregation and visitors!

Make your pages simple and easily accessible from as many platform as possible. @TravisWalser Click To Tweet

About the Author_02

Author Photo - Travis Walser

TRAVIS WALSER
Graphic Designer
Olive Baptist Church | Pensacola, FL
traviswalser.com

Since Travis began a relationship with Christ at the age of 16, he has served as a Worship Leader, Event Coordinator, Ministry Director, and public speaker. After seeking a degree in Computer Engineering for several years, he eventually pursued a major in Studio Art at the University of West Florida where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. Previously, he was a Marketing Director and Administrative Assistant at a nationally recognized liquidation and salvage corporation where he worked for several years before choosing to fully invest himself into church media and communications.

He currently serves as a Graphic Designer at Olive Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the Florida panhandle. Travis has a passion for developing the next generation of creative leaders and maintaining the relevance of the church in today’s visual media. In his free time he also enjoys dabbling in other forms of visual media including video production and effects, as well as web design.


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