When calculating success for a website, there are many metrics that can be analyzed, including bounce rate, conversion rate, and referrals. These metrics tell you what’s working, where it’s working, and how it’s working. Along with that, key metrics can determine where something is not working, allowing you to easily spot a fix. For trade associations and professional organizations, metrics take on a slightly different, but equally important role, and one key metric you may not be aware of is the revenue-per-visitor metric.

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What is Revenue Per Visitor?

Simply put, you can determine your revenue per visitor by dividing the revenue generated from your association’s website by its visitors. What this number tells you is the basic amount of revenue that you are making off of each unique visitor to your association’s site. Think about this in terms of the broad picture. While conversion rate metrics offer insight into how many visitors become paying members, the revenue per visitor metric generates a bigger perspective in terms of looking at how many people are visiting the site versus how much your association or organization is getting out of these visits.

To Break Things Down Further

You can also look at revenue per visitor like this: you’re determining how much of an effort your association is putting in as opposed to how much it’s getting out. When you strictly look at conversions, or potential members who become paying members, you can say, “Hey, we added 50 new, paying members this month. That’s great!” However, if you have had 15,000 visitors to your association’s website in the same month, the numbers don’t seem as enthusiastic. This is because your association’s revenue is going to grow because of the 50 new members, but not anywhere close to how it would grow with 15,000 new members.

When You Experience a Large Downward Shift in Revenue Per Visitor

One of the reasons revenue per visitor is important to monitor is that it can be an indicator that there is a problem in your association’s marketing approach. Namely, unqualified visitors may be targeted or more engaged with a specific marketing campaign than qualified visitors, or visitors who will be more likely to become paying members. When this happens, you’ll have a somewhat early indication that there is a problem, allowing your organization to fix it before it takes on a broader impact that will be more long-lasting.

You may also recognize that your association’s website or other web properties are having issues if your revenue per visitor metric drops off suddenly. If you noticed a drastic decline, especially over a short period of time, make sure to check or have your web team check and test all aspects of your association’s website to ensure that no bugs are leading to black holes or broken links. If you’re analyzing this metric on social media properties or web properties outside of your control, check their downtime reports in order to identify potential future problems.