Media Insights

Marketer’s Guide to Holiday 2021 | Edition 5: Key Indicators to Watch

The 2021 holiday season will require marketers to deliver in new ways to meet customer expectations. With consumer behavior continually changing, COVID-19 concerns lingering, and supply chain challenges presenting uncertainty, marketers should be diligently tracking key performance indicators and be ready to adjust marketing investments real-time based on findings. 

Many marketers fixate on the media performance metrics they are responsible for, often missing indicators across the rest of their business or industry that are critical to remaining competitive. We have gathered a checklist of key metrics to monitor this holiday. Comparing these metrics to last year or similar sales periods this year, and including nuances for your specific business (e.g. store closures), is important to telling the full performance story.

What Should I Track and Why?

MEDIA PERFORMANCE

Why watch? Tracking media performance in the context of the broader business allows you to optimize key levers to hit your goals.

  • Revenue
  • Traffic, click-thru rate (CTR)
  • Conversion rate (CVR)
  • Return on ad spend (ROAS)
  • Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR)*
  • Cost per click (CPC), cost per impression (CPM)

SITE PERFORMANCE

Why watch? Keeping a pulse on key site metrics will help you quickly diagnose user behavior and issues with the site.

  • Site visits
  • Conversion rate (CVR)
  • Cart abandonment rates

CONSUMER TRENDS

Why watch? Customers are at the core of your business – watch what they are doing and respond accordingly.

  • New customer rates
  • Buying behavior (category, device, etc.)
  • Consumer sentiment, consumer confidence, social conversation
  • Shopping method (online, in-store, BOPIS)

MACRO TRENDS

Why watch? Understanding broader industry trends helps explain and predict marketing performance.

  • Unemployment rate, stock market, credit card default rates
  • COVID-19 closures, state mandates, case rates
  • Supply chain delays, low inventory across certain categories

PROMOTIONAL CALENDAR

Why watch? Key events drive marketing performance.

  • Promotions
  • Key events
  • Philanthropy, PR

OPERATIONS

Why watch? Product mix, availability, and pricing also influence marketing performance.

  • Product launches
  • Inventory levels and shifts (full price, markdown, clearance), product data feeds
  • Shipping cutoff dates
  • Fulfillment capabilities

*EMR incorporates online and offline revenue, future customer value, incrementality, and profitability into a single metric of success. EMR is not just a return metric but also a mindset that pushes business leaders to transform how they approach marketing.

What’s Next?

Use this checklist and work across functional areas to design the set of metrics that is right for your business to track this holiday season. Develop an action plan detailing what you will do based on the results of each metric to enable agile decision-making when pressure is high.

Interested in reading more from Ovative on how to prepare for the holiday season? Read our latest edition on Holiday Strategies to Engage Your Customers and download our Marketer’s Guide to Holiday 2021.


Ovative Group is a digital-first media and measurement firm. We bring together the best of media, measurement, and consulting to enable an enterprise approach to marketing that increases our clients’ profitable revenue, strengthens their customer base, and creates sustainable competitive advantage. Connect with us to learn more. 


Lillian Smith

Senior Analyst, Paid Social

About the Author

Lillian is a Senior Analyst on the Paid Social team at Ovative.

Dale Nitschke

Dale Nitschke

CEO & Founder

About the Author

Dale is the Founder and CEO of Ovative. After years of operating a large omni-channel business and leading a customer data initiative, Dale knew there was an opportunity to create a marketing firm that helped clients become more customer centric and drove better performance outcomes. A gap existed between business consultancies and advertising agencies that modern marketing approaches demand. He also believed that a strong, healthy culture could attract and develop smart, talented team members. In 2009, he formed Ovative to bring media, measurement, and consulting together under one roof to enable an enterprise approach that drives more revenue and grows clients’ customer base.

Prior to founding Ovative in 2009, Dale spent 23 years at Target Corporation where he served as President of Target.com and grew the ecommerce business from start-up stage to a $1 billion+ business and established the foundation of Target’s Guest database capabilities. Previously he served as SVP Merchandising at the Department Store Division of Dayton Hudson. Dale has advised retailers and brands globally on business, growth, marketing, and measurement transformation strategies.

Outside of Ovative, Dale is a leader on topics including business strategy, change management, and team leadership. He serves on the board of Allergy Amulet and on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison.  He enjoys spending time with his family, up north in northern Wisconsin, playing golf, and cheering on Wisconsin sport teams.

Seth Brand

Senior Manager, Consulting

About the Author

Seth is a Senior Manager on the Consulting team at Ovative.

Amanda McCann

Senior Manager, Consulting

About the Author

Amanda is a Senior Manager on the Consulting team at Ovative, specializing in Retail Media Networks.

Jenny Reinke

Senior Analyst, Measurement Solutions

About the Author

Jenny is a Senior Analyst on the Measurement Solutions team at Ovative.

Annie Zipfel

Executive Vice President, Media

About the Author

Annie is the Executive Vice President of Media at Ovative. She oversees delivery and growth across paid and owned media (digital, traditional, and retail media) and creative services.

Annie has more than 30 years of experience in media, brand management, insights/analytics, marketing, and product. She has also developed large, high-performing teams and built new measurement capabilities. Annie led the marketing team at Andersen Windows & Doors, leading the digital, social, content, customer insights, and creative functions. Prior to that, Annie served in multiple marketing leadership roles at Starbucks, REI, Target, and General Mills, with a keen focus on brand, media, insights, analytics, and measurement.

Annie is an industry leader in brand management, customer insights, e-commerce, social media, and analytics. She enjoys hiking, traveling, cooking, fishing, and spending time with her sweet dog and two sons.

Bonnie Gross

Executive Vice President, Talent Services

About the Author

Bonnie is the Executive Vice President of Talent Services at Ovative. She is responsible for attracting and retaining top talent and creating a culture in which our team thrives personally and professionally. Under Bonnie’s leadership, Ovative has defined an industry leading leadership and development program and transformed our approach to talent recruitment with a focus on diversity, equality and inclusion. Prior to her current role, Bonnie led Ovative’s Client and Business Development team overseeing client satisfaction and new growth opportunities.

Before joining Ovative in 2014, Bonnie spent 13 years at Target Corporate as the VP of digital and Digital Marketing where she led the launch of Cartwheel, an industry-leading social shopping application. Bonnie was the VP of Marketing for Fingerhut for 15 years prior to joining Target.

Leander Cohen

Analyst, Consulting

About the Author

Leander Cohen is an Analyst on the Consulting team at Ovative.

Will Silva

Analyst, Measurement Solutions

About the Author

Will is an Analyst on the Measurement Solutions team at Ovative.

Sarah Chang

Sarah Chang

Analyst, Consulting

About the Author

Sarah Chang is an Analyst on the Consulting team at Ovative.

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