How’d your launch really go? Three ways to measure success. (hint: It’s so much more than sell-through)

Launches are about tapping into opportunity. Here are the metrics you should be tracking to measure impact, define success, and drive strategic decision-making.

At EQL, we power the experience for the world’s hottest brands to sell their high-demand products, eliminating common hassles and pain points for both creators and their fans. But a more efficient approach to selling is just scratching the surface of what EQL can accomplish on behalf of our brand partners. By adopting a multi-faceted launch strategy, EQL encourages meaningful fan connections, community building, and loyalty that lasts well long beyond release day.

While launching offers vast potential, quantifying success and impact is more complex than merely counting revenue. 

What should you really be looking at to understand the total impact of your launches? Let’s dig into the metrics that tell the whole story of a launch: from the short term to the long term to new and innovative ways of conceptualizing success.

Short-term measurements of success

The easiest way to determine the success of a launch is by looking at short-term measurements: metrics that provide a clear picture of the launch’s immediate performance. 

These are cut-and-dry numbers that allow you to directly measure ROI and strategize for future improvements to your campaigns. While these metrics don’t represent the complete, comprehensive potential for what your launch can achieve, they’re easily quantifiable and a good place to start your analysis.

Sales and revenue

Naturally, brands want to know how well they accomplished the most basic function of a launch: selling products. The two primary metrics that come into play here are:

Using these numbers as a starting point, brands can determine the basic ROI of their launch and how much profit was earned after factoring in costs of their launch platform, marketing, and fulfillment. Full sell-through is often a given when demand is high enough, but if that’s not achieved, or if the brand lost money on the launch, that’s a clear red flag that something might need to be re-evaluated — whether it’s the comms strategy, number of units, or logistics of the launch.

Traffic and engagement

Traffic and engagement data offer a slightly more nuanced look at how fans are responding to a launch and the associated campaign. You already know how many products you sold, but how many more people visited your launch site, and where did they come from? Find out by measuring:

Examining this data helps you understand more about your audience’s interest in the launch and what promotional efforts are most effective at reaching fans and driving them to your launch page.

If you’re using EQL to power your launch, you can also measure fan enthusiasm by using the Notify Me feature and analyzing how many participants expressed advanced interest in your launch (and then how many of those notified went on to enter the launch). 

Entries and participation

These metrics allow you to start exploring the fan experience of the launch, still in a relatively straightforward and easily quantified way. How does the actual number of entrants compare to the page views you received? If there’s a significant gap, that raises questions about whether there is a barrier to entry such as technical errors or an entry process that is not user-friendly.

These metrics can guide future strategic improvements, such as removing barriers to conversion and informing future inventory decisions (how many more units could you sell while still maintaining a desirable degree of scarcity?).

Fraud prevention

The final category of short-term launch metrics covers fraud. How many of those units sold actually went to real human fans vs bots? How many fraud attempts did your platform successfully block? Bots and bad actors are frustrating for brands and fans alike, so limiting their influence on your launches is key to future campaign successes (and avoid lining the pockets of profit-driven resellers).

EQL’s approach to fraud prevention is unique in that all entries are accepted, then analyzed and verified on the back end. That allows our technology to constantly learn and adapt to new methods for cheating, without the bad actors catching on that they’re being blocked.

Check out the total ROI you can get running your launch through EQL vs other platforms:

Long-term measurements of success

This category of launch analysis guides brands through thinking in terms of the larger potential for launches to make an impact beyond just attracting entrants and selling through inventory. 

This approach to measuring success reflects the unique opportunities in the high-heat retail space. Say your brand is red-hot, and demand regularly exceeds supply by exponential degrees. Are you really gaining anything by just checking off the ‘100% sell-through’ box with each and every launch? Sure, that’s important performance data to be aware of, but it’s a pretty limited view. 

Here are some other points to consider as you think through what your launches are capable of.

Sentiment analysis 

How your fans feel about your brand goes far beyond their willingness to make a purchase. Is your brand temporarily trending, or have you earned the dedicated fan fervor that will translate to long-term loyalty? 

Each and every launch affects the perception of your brand over time. Too many frustrating or poorly-run launches can erode fandom, while consistently delivering on expectations and demonstrating dedication to the fan experience will garner unshakeable devotion.

Naturally, it’s harder to put an exact number on feelings than it is to measure the metrics we’ve discussed so far in this article. Participant feedback can be measured using surveys, as well as by keeping an eye on the online discourse on social media and fan forums. Here are a few of the categories to consider:

Customer retention

Brands that go the distance are the ones that strike a balance between consistently attracting new fans while maintaining the support of existing ones. For this reason, customer retention is another valuable long-term metric to track. Analyze your retention rates by looking at:

EQL helps encourage retention by making launches smooth, fair, and hassle-free for entrants — but also by implementing the EQLizer algorithm, which boosts odds for fans on a future launch with your brand every time they take an L. After all, loss after loss can lead to disillusionment and declining interest. Even the most popular brands can’t get by on heat alone if launches are consistently disappointing to fans.

Lifetime value

Customer retention data unlocks intelligence into customer lifetime value (LTV). Commonly calculated by multiplying average revenue per user by gross margin and dividing by churn rate, LTV can be tracked over time to understand whether your launches and campaigns are ultimately gaining you more value from your existing customers or not.

It’s a well-documented fact that increasing LTV is a more strategic approach to long-term success over continually attracting and losing short-lived new customers, so this is a crucial metric for brands to be aware of. 

Brand perception

Brand perception goes beyond just being liked or disliked. What do fans like about your brand? How would they describe you? Are you trendy or timeless? Classic or avant-garde? What are you contributing to the overall culture of the category in which you operate?

Understanding perception to this level of nuance is crucial to achieving coveted tastemaker status — the level of respect that guarantees your brand a lasting place in the spotlight. It’s also a testament to how well your messaging is landing as intended. In our era of social media-fueled discourse, product narratives can easily take on a life of their own, so it’s important for brands to monitor conversations and course correct as needed.

Key points to analyze:

Tracking these metrics can be done through a combination of surveys, tracking discussion points on social media and fan forums, and even holding occasional focus groups for a deep-dive into the mindset and opinions of your fans.

[Check out the total ROI you can get running your launch through EQL vs other platforms]

New ways of conceptualizing success

As we’ve covered, launches have both short- and long-term impact, and tracking a wide range of metrics is necessary for a comprehensive picture of their successes. But even this list doesn’t fully capture the potential of the launch model — much of which is continually being rewritten and expanded as brands’ infinite creativity meshes with powerful launch tools like EQL to unlock new avenues of opportunity.

Here’s a few of the new frontiers that EQL and our brand partners have been exploring when it comes to launch potential.

Dialing into specific audiences

Yes, it’s important to have a generalized view of what your audience at large thinks about your brand and how your launches are run. But that data becomes infinitely more powerful when you can analyze it by specific sections of your audience — and even wield greater control over their unique outcomes to achieve specific brand goals.

What was the launch experience like for your VIP customers? For brand new fans? For fans in specific geographic markets? 

Answering these questions allows you to make strategic choices in the future in alignment with your objectives. If you want to focus on building your audience, you might cater to the new customer experience with special offers, enhanced odds of winning, or even a newbies-only launch. If retention is a top priority, you might allocate a percentage of your inventory to be won by fans who have taken a few Ls in a row and are at risk of churn.

Tailoring outcomes by fan type moves brands away from an outdated one-size-fits-all approach and enables deeper, more personal relationships that allow fans to feel seen and appreciated by the brands they love. Use your launches to reward loyalty, create unforgettable experiences for new followers, and ensure that no one gets left behind.

Increasing production efficiency

Going beyond basic sell-through rate, EQL offers brands variant data for a much more granular picture of demand. Say you ended your launch with 90% sell-through — sounds pretty good, until you realize that you have a thousand unsold pairs in small sizes. Now, you can make more informed choices when it comes to your next release, setting yourself up for increased revenue through greater production efficiency.

Beyond size data, EQL reports give brands insights into colorways, flavors, collectible versions, and other variants for a detailed breakdown of what product options are most successful— and who liked what best.

Community building

Participating in high-heat launches isn’t just about fans wanting to own a new pair of sneakers, another bottle of whiskey, or something to fill space on a display shelf. Rather, it’s about engaging with brands that represent something more meaningful. The brands consumers love become part of their identity — and the opportunity to connect with a larger community. Ultimately, that’s the real fun and allure of being a fan.

Launches can play into community building in a number of ways. Hybrid or location-specific launches can bring people together in person for memorable moments of connection. Unique launches can ignite online buzz, getting fans chatting with each other. Contests and challenges can inspire creativity and shared experiences.

It’s difficult to use any simple metrics to track how much fans feel part of a community around your brand, but baking connectivity into your strategic goals can keep your following feeling fresh and energized. Turn to online forums like Reddit and Discord and track social media conversations to see how much your efforts are paying off.

Achieving comprehensive launch success with EQL

EQL has always been about inspiring brands to do more: to give their fans better experiences, to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation, and to expand the definitions of success in the unique category of commerce we’re playing in. Passion is volatile, but when it can be harnessed with a successful launch, the sky's the limit. The metrics covered in this article have been informed by the thousands of launches we’ve run in partnership with some of the world’s most creative and forward-thinking brands, but there’s still vast amounts of untapped potential.

For more about what your brand can achieve from your launches, and how EQL can elevate them, we invite you to connect with our team. Click here to get started.

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