Benchmark marketing means comparing your marketing performance against others in your industry. It helps you see what’s working, what’s not, and how far off you are from the competition. This kind of analysis can highlight gaps, reveal useful patterns, and guide smarter decisions. 

This article breaks down the process step by step, covers key metrics, and lists tools that can help you track and compare results more effectively.

What is Marketing Benchmarking?

Marketing benchmarking is the process of comparing your performance against a specific standard. That standard could be based on competitor data, industry averages, or your own historical results. It’s used to figure out how well your marketing efforts are performing and where they fall short.

This isn’t just about numbers on a dashboard. Benchmarking looks at how well your campaigns are planned, executed, and maintained. It gives you a way to evaluate content, channels, costs, and outcomes with clear reference points. Done regularly, it helps teams stop guessing and start working with context.

Why Benchmarking Is Essential for Marketing Success

Benchmarking puts structure around performance checks. Without it, you’re working off assumptions or chasing gut feelings. Comparing your results to an external standard keeps things grounded and points out which efforts are paying off—and which ones aren’t.

Here’s what it helps with:

• Tracking how you’re actually doing: See how your numbers hold up against the rest of your field.
• Spotting weak areas fast: Underperformance becomes clear when you have something to compare it to.
• Identifying what’s already working: Some things might be delivering better results than you realized.
• Setting goals that make sense: It’s easier to set targets when you know what’s typical.
• Making smarter decisions: With clearer data, it’s easier to choose what to work on next.
• Avoiding wasted time: You can stop chasing ideas that aren’t backed by results.

How to Benchmark Marketing Effectively: 6 Steps

Benchmarking doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be methodical. These six steps walk you through the process in a way that’s easy to follow and realistic to apply.

1. Define Your Marketing Goals and KPIs

Before you measure anything, you need to know what you’re aiming for. Goals give direction; KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) help track progress.

Start by writing down what you want your marketing to achieve—more lead generation through digital marketing, higher sales, lower cost-per-click, better email engagement, etc. Be specific. Then, decide which metrics actually reflect those goals. A few examples:

• Leads generated per month
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Click-through rate (CTR) on ads
• Open and reply rates for emails

Avoid listing vague objectives like “grow brand awareness” without tying it to something trackable. Each KPI should be something you can measure consistently over time.

2. Identify Competitors and Benchmarking Partners

You’ll need comparison points to see how your numbers stack up. Start with your direct competitors—those offering similar products or targeting the same audience.

Look at:

• Companies ranking alongside you in search
• Brands your audience mentions or follows
• Similar businesses in directories or ad platforms

In some cases, you may also use industry benchmarks from market research firms or tools (we’ll list some of those later). Just make sure you’re comparing apples to apples—company size, region, and marketing budget all affect performance.

3. Collect and Analyze Data

Data collection is where benchmarking becomes actionable. You’ll need both your internal numbers and external reference points.

Start with your own data:

• Pull reports from tools you already use (Google Analytics, CRM, ad platforms, email software).
• Export results for a set time period—3 months, 6 months, or longer if needed.
• Sort data by channel or campaign, depending on what you’re analyzing.

Then, gather external data:

• Use industry reports for averages like conversion rates or cost per click.
• Check competitors’ public content—ad libraries, SEO tools, social accounts, etc.
• Use tools that estimate competitor performance (SEMrush, SimilarWeb, etc.).

Once collected, compare the numbers side by side. Where are you ahead? Where are you lagging?

4. Identify Performance Gaps and Opportunities

Now that you have the data, it’s time to read it properly.

Look for gaps where your results are consistently lower than the benchmarks. But don’t stop there—look at why. A low conversion rate might be due to poor targeting, slow site speed, or weak messaging. Go deeper than the numbers.

Also spot areas where you’re above the benchmark. These are worth doubling down on. An ad campaign that’s converting well? See if you can expand it. An email sequence getting high open rates? Study what’s working and apply it elsewhere.

Ask:

• What’s underperforming and why?
• What’s working better than expected?
• Are there any quick fixes or deeper issues?

Write these down. This becomes the to-do list for the next step.

5. Develop and Implement Improvement Strategies

With the gaps and opportunities clear, you can now build out ways to adjust or improve your marketing. This step is where planning meets execution.

Keep it practical:

• Low CTR on ads? Test new headlines, images, or target groups.
• Poor landing page conversion? Try shortening the form or simplifying the copy.
• High email unsubscribe rate? Rework your message cadence or refine your targeting.

Tackle one area at a time. You’re not trying to fix everything in one go. Small changes, tracked over time, will tell you what’s working.

Create short-term experiments: 2–4 weeks of trying a new variant. Then measure again.

6. Monitor Progress and Update Benchmarks Regularly

Benchmarking isn’t a one-and-done job. Trends change. Tools evolve. Your competitors adjust. So should your benchmarks.

Check your KPIs regularly—monthly or quarterly, depending on how fast your campaigns move. Keep tracking the same core metrics so you can spot patterns.

Update your benchmarks at least once or twice a year. If you’ve improved and now meet your original targets, raise the bar. If something shifts in the market (a new algorithm, higher ad costs, seasonal behavior), adjust your comparisons.

Don’t rely only on past performance. Keep asking: “Is this still a meaningful target?”

Common Marketing Metrics to Benchmark

Some marketing metrics matter more than others. These are the ones worth tracking regularly—and comparing against either competitors or industry norms. If you’re not watching these, you’re guessing.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate tells you how many people actually take the action you want—signing up, buying, clicking, downloading, etc.—out of the total who saw your offer.

To calculate:

(Total conversions ÷ Total visitors or recipients) × 100

Track this for things like:

• Landing pages
• Paid ads
• Emails
• Signup forms
• Checkout flows

If your conversion rate is lower than expected, check load times, messaging clarity, and friction points like too many fields or distractions.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC shows how much it costs to gain a new customer. It’s one of the clearest ways to measure if your campaigns are worth what you’re spending.

To calculate:

Total marketing spend ÷ Total new customers

Include ad spend, tools, creative work, and salaries if they’re part of the effort. Then compare your result to what similar companies are seeing. If you’re paying more than average, something’s off—either in your targeting, offer, or funnel.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI measures the return you’re getting from your marketing investment. It’s less about activity and more about actual outcome—are your campaigns making money, or just costing it?

To calculate:

(Revenue from marketing – Marketing costs) ÷ Marketing costs × 100

Be honest about the revenue sources and include all related costs. This figure helps you decide where to keep spending and where to stop.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV estimates how much total revenue a customer brings in over the time they do business with you. It gives context to CAC. If you’re spending $100 to get a customer who brings in $1,000 over time, that’s a strong trade-off.

To estimate:

• Average purchase value × Purchase frequency × Customer lifespan

This is especially useful if you rely on repeat business or subscriptions. It helps you see which channels bring in higher-value customers and which just bring in short-term traffic.

Website Traffic and Engagement Metrics

Traffic tells you how many people visit. Engagement tells you what they do once they’re there.

Metrics to watch:

• Sessions and unique visitors
• Pages per session
• Average time on site
• Bounce rate
• Top landing and exit pages

Low engagement (high bounce rate, short time on page) could mean the page didn’t match expectations, loaded slowly, or just didn’t hold attention. Compare these numbers against competitors or industry averages to get perspective.

Social Media Engagement

It’s not just about followers—it’s about how people respond. Shares, comments, clicks, and saves say more than raw audience size.

Metrics to track:

• Engagement rate per post
• Click-throughs from social
• Share count
• Follower growth rate

Some tools give benchmarks by industry. You can also compare post-by-post performance to spot which formats, topics, or platforms are actually drawing interaction.

Email Marketing Performance

Email still delivers strong results—if people open and act on what you send. The right benchmarks here depend on your list size, industry, and type of campaign (newsletters, promotions, onboarding, etc.).

Track:

• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Bounce rate
• Conversion rate from email

If your open rate is lower than average, it could be a subject line issue. If people are clicking but not converting, look at your landing page. Benchmarks help you narrow the issue.

Tools and Resources for Marketing Benchmarking

Good benchmarking relies on consistent, accurate data and tools that help you gather, interpret, and compare it. Below are tools used by marketers to measure their own performance, study competitors, and uncover useful patterns.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics tracks what people do on your site. It shows how they arrive, where they go, and whether they complete key actions.

Use it to:

• Measure conversion rates, bounce rates, and average session time
• Break down performance by traffic source, device, or landing page
• Set up goals to track actions like form submissions or purchases

Google Search Console

Search Console focuses on organic search. It shows how your site performs in Google’s search results.

Use it to:

• Track search impressions, clicks, and average ranking positions
• Identify top-performing pages and search queries
• Monitor mobile usability and indexing issues

It’s useful for understanding how visible your content is—and spotting areas where competitors may outrank you. You’ll also see which keywords drive the most traffic, and how that changes over time.

SEMrush

SEMrush is a competitive analysis tool. It doesn’t just show your own data—it estimates how your competitors are performing too.

Use it to:

• Discover which keywords your competitors rank for
• Track changes in search rankings and visibility
• Review competitor ad strategies and spending
• Benchmark your site traffic and keyword footprint against others

It’s especially helpful when you’re working without direct access to competitor data. While estimates aren’t perfect, they offer a ballpark view of who’s ahead and by how much.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs overlaps with SEMrush but focuses heavily on backlinks and content analysis. If you’re benchmarking SEO or content reach, this one’s worth exploring.

Use it to:

• Audit your backlink profile and compare it with competitors
• Track keyword rankings over time
• Analyze top-performing content across any domain
• Estimate organic traffic and referring domains

It’s strong for spotting SEO gaps and measuring how your content distribution stacks up. The backlink data can also help explain why some competitors rank higher.

SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb estimates site traffic and audience behavior across different channels—organic, paid, social, direct, and referral.

Use it to:

• Benchmark monthly traffic estimates for any public site
• Compare traffic sources and user engagement
• See how long users stay on a site and how many pages they visit
• Identify top referral sources and popular content pages

Hotjar

Hotjar tracks user behavior on your site through heatmaps, scroll tracking, and session recordings.

Use it to:

• See where users click, scroll, and drop off
• Spot friction points in forms or funnels
• Gather direct feedback through on-site surveys

While not a benchmarking tool in the traditional sense, it helps you understand what’s holding your own performance back—and why conversion rates may fall short compared to others.

Mailchimp (or similar email platforms)

Email platforms like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign include built-in reports that are key for benchmarking email campaigns.

Use them to:

• Track open rates, click-throughs, unsubscribes, and bounces
• Compare campaign performance over time
• Segment lists to see which audiences respond better

Most platforms also publish average benchmarks by industry. These give you a baseline to compare your own campaigns and spot weak points in engagement.

HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM and marketing platform with built-in analytics across email, landing pages, social media, and more.

Use it to:

• Track performance across multiple channels in one place
• Create dashboards for KPIs like CAC, CLV, and lead conversion rates
• Compare campaign results over time or by audience segment

If you’re already using it, benchmarking becomes easier, since all your data is already connected. You can spot patterns without switching between tools.

Challenges in Marketing Benchmarking and How to Overcome Them

Benchmarking sounds simple—compare numbers, spot gaps, adjust. But once you start, several issues tend to come up. These challenges aren’t always obvious at first, but they can lead to bad assumptions if left unaddressed.

Here’s what to watch for and how to deal with each one.

1. Inconsistent data sources

Using different tools that track data in different ways can throw off your benchmarks. One platform might include bot traffic; another might not. A CRM might define a “lead” differently from your ad platform.

How to fix it:

Pick one source of truth per metric and stick with it. If you’re measuring conversions, decide whether that number comes from your analytics platform, CRM, or ad reports, and stay consistent.

2. Lack of reliable competitor data

You won’t always get clean, detailed data from competitors. Most of what’s available is estimated, delayed, or incomplete. That makes direct comparisons tricky.

How to fix it:

Use competitive tools (like SEMrush or SimilarWeb) as rough indicators, not exact figures. Supplement them with published industry benchmarks and your own long-term tracking. The goal is to spot direction, not guess exact numbers.

3. Comparing against the wrong benchmarks

Not all companies are valid comparisons. It’s easy to measure yourself against a brand that’s bigger, older, or operates in a completely different way. That can make your own numbers look worse than they really are.

How to fix it:

Choose benchmarks that match your size, market, and customer type. A SaaS startup shouldn’t compare its CAC to an e-commerce brand. Look for peer-level benchmarks where the context is similar.

4. Tracking too many metrics

More data isn’t always better. Tracking 30 different KPIs might sound thorough, but it creates noise and makes it harder to act on what actually matters.

How to fix it:

Pick a small set of key metrics tied to real outcomes—revenue, leads, retention, and cost. Stick with those. You can review secondary data later, but keep your main comparisons sharp and relevant.

5. Not updating benchmarks over time

Benchmarks lose value if you never refresh them. Markets shift. Competitors evolve. What worked six months ago might no longer hold.

How to fix it:

Revisit your benchmarks regularly—quarterly is often enough. If you’ve improved past your old targets, update them. If trends have changed (like rising ad costs), reset your comparisons to reflect the new conditions.

6. Internal resistance to data

Sometimes the challenge isn’t the data—it’s getting people to act on it. Teams may be attached to certain strategies or unwilling to accept that a favorite campaign isn’t performing.

How to fix it:

Start with the numbers. Present clear gaps backed by consistent data. When the conversation stays grounded in real results, it’s easier to move forward without defensiveness or opinion dominating the room.

Conclusion

Benchmark marketing helps you stop guessing. It shows what’s working, what’s not, and how your results compare to others in your space. With the right steps and tools, you can track what matters, identify gaps early, and adjust based on facts, not assumptions. It’s not about chasing perfection. It’s about making informed decisions, one clear metric at a time.