We all know how important keywords are for SEO, and thereby subscriber acquisition. But is that the only function they serve?

Peter Figueredo, Founding Partner at Netx, says no. He advocates for the use of keywords that promote lifetime value for your subscriptions. And that may mean abandoning your most popular keywords.

For example, a B2C medical site may find that “swine flu” gets them the most traffic, but “flu remedies” gets them the highest conversion. But a deeper dive into keyword analysis may reveal that acquisitions who came to your site and converted after searching for “avoiding the flu” also ended up having the longest lifetime value.

Figueredo also says that subscription marketers have to make sure they’re tracking the right metrics, and that may mean developing work-arounds for cumbersome data sheets from Apple and other platforms. He says some companies have found work-arounds using something as simple as Excel, but creating integrated marketing metrics takes foresight and diligence.