Startup Blog

Why Bounce Rates are Useless for B2B Marketers

Posted by Mike Volpe on 3/11/09 10:23 AM

I am always surprised when B2B marketers worry so much about "bounce rates" (the % of people who leave your website after the first page view).

  • You don't care if someone views 1 page or 10 pages on your site - if they didn't convert into a lead, it was not that valuable to you.  In fact, fewer page views might indicate a visitor who is ready to purchase and just trying to contact you - lots of page views might be someone just in the research phase.
  • You should measure the overall website conversion rate - how many leads you get for each 100 visitors to your website.  This is a core metric to focus on and try to improve.  Look for my next article on how to think about improving your conversion rates.

 

Now... if you have banner ads on your website and monetize through advertising, or if you are an ecommerce website, you should worry about bounce rates, time spent on site and page views per visit - engagement metrics.  Your goals are different from a B2B lead generation marketer.

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Mike Volpe

Written by Mike Volpe

Mike Volpe is a startup advisor and angel investor based in Boston.

Topics: lead generation, stats

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