Exciting rewards can motivate people to perform against a range of pre-set criteria that are frequently sales driven. To understand whether your incentive has been effective, it’s important to set out the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that you’ll track from the start.
Tracking the effectiveness of an incentive
While some KPIs are straightforward (e.g., achieving a sales target), others provide deeper insight. Consider data such as:
- Marketing engagement – Email open rates and click-throughs
- Attendee experience – Post-event feedback and event app interactions
- Long-term impact – Employee retention, brand sentiment, and productivity shifts
By defining the data you’ll capture early on, you can avoid missing critical performance metrics that may be difficult to measure later.
Beyond the bottom line:
The success of an incentive isn’t just about sales. The data should take a holistic view of its impact, including:
- Improved company culture
- Increased retention rates
- Greater staff engagement
- Enhanced brand sentiment
Key metrics to track for incentive success
There are a whole range of metrics/KPIs to track with an incentive, and below is a snapshot of the data you could measure:
- Employee engagement (i.e., absenteeism, turnover, retention rate, employee net promotor score)
- Email open rate
- Email click-through rates (CTR)
- Sales growth
- Pre, during and post-event feedback
- Incentive activity feedback
- Event app interactions
- Brand sentiment improvement
- Productivity
Go granular with your KPI objectives
Start off by truly digging deep to understand what you are trying to achieve and why an incentive is the best way to support that. Is it to motivate the sales team to grow revenue? Is it to increase employee engagement and reduce staff turnover? These objectives will form the foundations of what you measure.
For instance, if the incentive is to reward sales performance, then consider how that will be structured to create a fair and level playing field. There is no point in only engaging a small percentage of the sales team if the majority feel demotivated by an unachievable target or measurement criteria. That can actually create a negative impact overall.
It is also important to benchmark activity so you can see whether any performance upturn is due to the incentive rather than seasonal factors, increased marketing or some other factor. Once you have a baseline and sound structure, your KPIs will more accurately reflect how successful the incentive has been in driving performance.
Of course, getting the incentive reward right will also have an impact on success, so it is worth looking at what has proved effective historically, as well as researching your audience’s preferences. For instance, did an all-inclusive week in Bali drive a higher performance than New York? Understanding what experiences and destinations drive improvement will also help you to determine future destination choices within your budget.
Tracking performance over 12 months
Incentive success isn’t measured only at the final event. It’s a year-long campaign.
Touchpoints throughout the year:
- Emails & campaign content – Open & click rates
- Teaser videos – Views & watch time
- Event website – Page clicks & bounce rates
This continuous tracking builds a clear performance picture and maximizes engagement.
Understanding the cost & ROI of incentives
If your goals are around increased sales performance, then you can calculate the financial ROI of your incentive:
Total incentive budget: Not just the event, but marketing, comms, project management, and data analysis.
Self-funding principle: The incentive should drive performance above expected levels to justify costs.
Example ROI analysis:
- 800% ROI in a year when partners were invited vs. 400% the year prior.
- Location & experience impact. Did one destination drive better results?
Tracking ROI year-on-year helps fine-tune incentives for future success.
Plan, track and improve
By implementing clear objectives, ongoing measurement, and a structured approach to ROI, you can ensure your incentive programs drive real, measurable change.
Key Actions:
Define clear KPIs upfront
Track performance over 12 months
Measure beyond just sales
Improve based on data-driven insights.
Last updated on Feb 14, 2025 11:00:00 AM
