# Understanding the Digital Marketing Environment with KPIs and Web Analytics
## 1 Introduction  
The growth of the Internet over the past decade is one of the most widely used examples to help explain globalization. In the information age and the increasingly networked economy, electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) is seen as one of the main instruments to foster business growth, labour movement and interpersonal relationships. DM is not just a transactional tool, but also generates change at the commercial and microeconomic level, which in turn demands changes in marketing practice and theory [1]. From a historical perspective, it is clear that all types of companies have had to adapt all their business practices to the availability/progress of new technology, new management techniques and an ever-changing communications landscape.  
The rapid spread of computing power in all manner of devices has fostered the creation of the Digital Economy, or \"a new socio-political and economic system characterised by an intelligent space consisting of information access tools and information processing and communication capabilities\" [2]. While WA is widely used by popular websites to provide useful data for client companies, its rising popularity among users is not necessarily reflected in academic research. The research that is done also paints a rather discouraging picture showing that most WA use is ad-hoc, the analysis is not used strategically, and the benefits tend to be imprecise. Thus, in practice, many marketing managersremain wary of performance measurement data and prefer to rely on intuition and experience for decision-making [3]. Given the evolving nature of WA, this is understandable. This study therefore suggests that the main benefits of WA for DM performance measurement will be determined by how companies exploit the system under specific contextual circumstances.  
Understanding the effectiveness of DM strategies requires the ability to analyze and measure their impact [4]. Appropriate, accurate and timely DM metrics are critical for a company to assess whether they are achieving their objectives, or whether the selected strategy is appropriate to achieve organizational goals [5].  
DM is the simultaneous integration of strategies on the web, through a specific process and methodology, looking for clear objectives using different tools, platforms and social media. The importance of DM for companies resides in changes in the ways that today's consumers gather and assess information and make purchasing decisions, in addition to the channels they use for this process [6].  
According to [7], we can distinguish four types of control necessary to guarantee the outcome of a marketing plan for business: Control of the annual plan; Control of Profitability; Efficiency Control and Strategic Control. In this research, we cover the necessary actions for the Control of Profitability in DM, Strategic Control in the web measurement and analytical KPI's relevant to the consumer or Internet users.  
While there are a great number of possible metrics and indicators, each one designed to measure a specific aspect of the DM plan [8], the choice of which metrics will enable insightful and useful analysis remains a tricky question for business managers. It is the aim of this article to survey the various DM metrics to determine and address the following question: What are the most relevant metrics and KPIs that companies need to understand and manage in order to increase the effectiveness of their DM strategies?  
Identifying KPIs for DM and WA, Marketing professionals and Academics can efficiently measure key indicators related to the development of tactics and actions that are performed in the digital environment. By identifying the most important indicators, companies could improve conversion rates and consequently, increase their visibility on the Internet.