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Measuring the impact of your personalisation strategy

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Personalisation is the new battleground for customer loyalty, with businesses combining data, technology, and real-time insights to create tailored interactions. But how do we measure the true impact of an enterprise personalisation strategy?

The stakes are high, with customers sceptical of whether personalisation is a good deal for them. In fact, 54% of people believe what they get from retailers isn’t worth the personal data they provide to loyalty schemes.

With the right approach, personalisation can go from buzzword to a real driver of lasting customer relationships that can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

Tie metrics to key business outcomes

Personalisation should always support the business, such as driving conversions, boosting revenue, or reducing customer churn.

"I've seen a lot of clients get really excited about personalisation and say, ‘We need to do this,’ but they often don’t know why or understand the outcome for the customer,"

says Ewan Nicolson, Director of Data & AI at Kin + Carta.

Start by understanding what you want to achieve, then align these efforts with strategic goals. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and which metrics will most accurately reflect the success of personalisation initiatives. "If you can't connect personalisation to business outcomes, you might be doing it for personalisation’s sake," says Jared Johnson, Strategy Director at Kin + Carta.

Here are some key metrics to help you connect your personalisation initiatives to the broader business.

  • Customer retention: Repeat purchase rates and subscription renewals can show whether personalisation efforts improve customer retention over time and build long-term loyalty.
  • Sales and revenue: Relevant metrics include: conversion rates, average order value, and total revenue generated from personalised campaigns.
  • Customer satisfaction and engagement: Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer satisfaction surveys, and engagement metrics (e.g. click-through rates, time spent on site) show how customers perceive and interact with personalised experiences.

Broaden your horizon

As you measure personalisation results, don’t limit yourself to immediate metrics like click-through rates or the most recent sales data. Look at the long-term effects on customer experience and brand loyalty.

"When you start off in the right way, by focusing on the value, measuring the impact becomes easier because you have already identified a goal. Then it's just about tracking the relevant metrics,”

says Heather Ryan, Lead Data Consultant at Kin + Carta.

Personalisation affects deeper aspects of customer relationships, such as brand affinity and customer lifetime value (CLV), for a more comprehensive view of your campaigns. To capture this, consider metrics that indicate sustained engagement and loyalty over time:

  • Customer journey metrics: Assess the entire customer journey to identify how personalisation impacts different touch points. Relevant metrics include purchase history, time to first purchase, frequency of interactions, and the length of time customers engage with your brand.
  • Churn rate: Lower churn suggests that personalised experiences resonate with customers and encourage them to stay.
  • Customer feedback and sentiment analysis: Tools that analyse customer reviews, social media mentions, and direct feedback can show how customers perceive personalisation efforts.
  • Engagement depth: What happens after the initial engagement? For example, do personalised messages or recommendations lead to further action, such as cross-sells or users exploring additional products or services? This can help gauge the true impact of personalisation on customer behavior.

Test, learn, and iterate

Effective personalisation requires continuous testing and refinement. Start small, iterate based on feedback. For example, segment your audience to test which groups respond better to specific tactics or levels of personalisation.

Over time, you’ll see how personalisation drives behavioural changes, such as shifts in purchase patterns or increased engagement with tailored recommendations. For example, a company that wanted to move toward e-commerce could start by segmenting its customer base to provide customised experiences, depending on if they were already loyal buyers of the brand or just getting familiar with it.

Get specific with your testing. Deploy personalisation rules to infer the positive, neutral, or negative impact of your strategies on standard engagement and personalisation KPIs. Start by measuring changes in metrics such as bounce rates, time on page, and pages per visit after implementing personalisation efforts.

Gather qualitative and quantitative data. Collect customer feedback through surveys or direct interactions, so you can fully understand your audience’s perception of personalised shopping experiences. Pairing metrics with customer stories will generate comprehensive insights into your personalisation strategy and your overall marketing approach.

Want learn more about the complex world of personalisation?

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