Field Marketing KPIs: What to Measure on an Activation Campaign

"How did the campaign go?" is a question most field teams answer with one number at the end. By then it's too late to change anything.

Good field marketing teams track a small set of KPIs every day while the campaign runs. They fall into six groups. You won't need all of them on every brief, but you should choose deliberately.

1. Coverage: did we go where we planned?

Coverage is the foundation. If outlets weren't visited, nothing else matters.

• Outlets visited vs. planned: the share of your outlet list that has had at least one visit.
• Visits vs. planned visits: if an outlet should be visited daily, did it get its visits?
• Outlets with no recent visit: the list worth checking every morning. An outlet with one visit in four days is a risk you want to see on day four, not day thirty.

Coverage only works if outlets come from a fixed list. Free-typed outlet names make it impossible to measure.

2. Compliance: did visits happen the way the brief said?

• Verified check-ins: visits where the agent's location matched the outlet.
• Visits with the required photos: if the brief asks for a photo of the display, how many visits have one?
• Flagged visits: visits a reviewer rejected. A rising flag rate on one team is an early warning.

3. Results against target

These are the numbers your client actually cares about. Set them per campaign, because every brief is different:

• Samples given, trials, units sold, leads collected or displays set up
• Progress against target, overall and per outlet, updated daily
• Daily run rate: at today's pace, will you hit the target by the end date?

Daily targets per outlet are far more useful than a campaign total. They show which outlets are falling behind while you can still move people.

4. Conversion: did engagement turn into action?

Activity isn't the goal; action is. Useful ratios include:

• Trial or purchase per sample given
• Sales per visit or per agent-day
• Revenue: units sold multiplied by price, if the brief is sales-led

Compare conversion between outlets. The gap between your best and worst outlets usually tells you more than the average.

5. Stock and shelf

For merchandising and in-store campaigns, the shelf matters as much as the shopper:

• Stock on hand per SKU at each visit
• Days of cover: roughly how many days current stock will last at the current rate of sale
• Out-of-stock outlets: every day a shelf is empty is sales that don't come back

Our retail merchandising audit checklist covers what to record on each visit.

6. Data quality

Every other KPI depends on this one, and it's the most often ignored:

• Visits submitted on time versus typed in hours later
• Visits with complete fields
• Corrections made after submission

If data quality is poor, treat every other number with caution.

Track KPIs live, not at the end

The value of KPIs comes from seeing them while the campaign runs. A daily view of coverage, results against target and your best and worst outlets lets you move agents, fix a stock problem or call an outlet before the client notices.

The client benefits too. A short daily summary in their inbox builds more confidence than a perfect deck after the campaign ends.

How eNsight tracks them

In eNsight you set your own metrics and targets for each campaign. Every visit records its outlet, a location check, time and photos, and the dashboard shows coverage, progress against target, best and worst outlets, and who on your team is out, idle or offline, live. See field campaign tracking and field team management.