Brands often fall into the trap of celebrating big numbers. “We hit 1 million impressions this month!” sounds impressive right, but what does it really mean for revenue, brand growth, or customer loyalty? This is where the battle between Volume Metrics and Value Metrics comes into play.
First Let’s Understand Volume vs. Value Metrics
Volume Metrics focus on quantity, how many sales, website visits, social media followers, or app downloads a brand gets. It’s easy to measure, easy to flaunt, and often used to show surface level growth. On the other hand, Value Metrics takes it deeper, measuring the quality of these interactions, conversion rates, customer retention, engagement depth, and revenue impact.
In Nigeria’s competitive business landscape, many brands chase vanity metrics without considering whether those numbers translate into actual business success.
Relatable Example: The Jumia Black Friday Dilemma in 2018/2019
Jumia proudly announced record-breaking web traffic millions of Nigerians visiting the platform to check out discounts. On paper, this was a win. But a closer look showed a different reality: many of these visitors were only window-shopping, comparing prices, or probably testing the app’s features. While Jumia’s traffic surged, its conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who actually made a purchase) was significantly lower than expected. The focus on volume (how many clicks happened) overshadowed the more crucial question “how those clicks happened and what they led to”.
Why Marketers Should Focus on ‘Why, How’ Clicks Happen, Not Just ‘How Many’
Quality Over Quantity: Imagine an Instagram account gaining 10,000 followers overnight. If 80% are bots or inactive users, what value do they bring? A brand with 2,000 loyal, engaged followers who consistently buy and interact is far more valuable.
Conversion is King: A brand spending heavily on ads to drive traffic to its website but not optimizing for conversions is like filling a leaking bucket. Instead of celebrating 500,000 page visits, the focus should be on how many of those visits resulted in sign-ups or purchases.
Understanding User Intent: A fintech app seeing 100,000 downloads doesn’t mean success if users uninstall it after a few days. Did they find the onboarding process too complicated? Were they expecting features that weren’t available? Understanding user behaviour is key.
The Winning Formula: Data-Driven Marketing
Marketing teams in Nigeria really need to shift from just chasing large numbers to analyzing the user journey. Rather than just asking, “How many people clicked on our ad?” the better question is, “What made people click, and did they take meaningful action after clicking?” At the end of the day, I will say real growth comes from engagement that converts, not just numbers that impress. I Believe Brands that understand this shift will build long-term success, while those fixated on vanity metrics will keep running in circles.