By Judith Lee,

Did you know the average American spends more than 11 hours a day on electronic media? But don’t think that means they’re absorbing your marketing messages. A study shows that thanks to ad blocking and DVRs, the average consumer pays attention to only 12 of the 363 advertisements they’re exposed to each day.

Engagement is something you have to earn by offering content your customers value. But how do you know if you’re succeeding? Digital technology presents new ways to measure your effectiveness.

First, focus on customer retention. Are there any better eyes to focus on than the ones you already know are interested in you? Recent studies show engaged consumers buy nearly twice as much their unengaged counterparts, spend 60% more per transaction and deliver 23% more revenue.

You can measure retention by looking at email click-to-open rates, how recently a customer looked at your messages, or how often visitors return to your website.

Next, shift your emphasis from campaigns to individual customers. Make certain you don’t show your customers content they find irrelevant: three out of four consumers say they’re fed up with irrelevant content.

Through Facebook analytics and tools offered by other platforms, you can send your promotions to the exact people for which they’re intended. Then closely watch your data to reveal how consistently your customers are interacting with your content over time.

Instead of looking just at demographics, look at customers’ behavior. If you know someone’s age, gender and location, do you actually know what they’re interested in? The best you can do is make an educated guess.

But knowing that a consumer spends her time watching Taylor Swift videos on YouTube and sharing articles about cats on Facebook is a lot more useful. Track the sites visited, apps downloaded, and purchases made to uncover more accurate pictures of consumers. One report from corporate marketers shows that 68% of them say focusing on personalization and behavioral data boosts return on investment, and 74% say it improves engagement.