How to Measure the Success of your Cyber Security Awareness Month Campaign

Cyber Security Awareness Month (CSAM) is a great opportunity to boost security practices within your organization. But once the month is over, how do you know if your efforts truly made an impact? Did employees apply what they learned, and are they adopting better security habits?

Measuring outcomes is crucial to understanding whether your campaign has led to lasting improvements. Without proper evaluation, you're essentially flying blind – investing time and resources without knowing if they're actually making your organization more secure. Measuring the success also provides valuable insights to make future campaigns even more successful. This article will guide you through practical tips to measure your campaign's effectiveness and ensure long-term success.

Tips to Effectively Measure your CSAM Campaign’s Success

1. Start Smart: Set SMART Goals and Baseline your Knowledge Before you Begin

Think of this as your preparation phase – what gets measured gets managed, right? Before launching your CSAM campaign, you need to know where you're starting from and where you want to go.

Set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. Instead of saying "improve security awareness," aim for something like "achieve 80% employee participation in security awareness training" or "reduce phishing click-through rates by 20%." Ask yourself: What specific security behaviors would you like to see change in your organization?

Here's the game-changer: conduct a pre-campaign assessment to establish your baseline. Use a simple survey or quiz covering key topics like phishing, password security, and malware. For example, if 70% of employees can identify phishing emails before your campaign, and 95% can do so afterward, you've got concrete proof of improvement. Without this baseline, it would be difficult to assess whether your campaign has truly made an impact.

2. Track the Pulse: Monitor Employee Engagement Throughout

Are your employees actually participating, or simply completing the tasks without meaningful involvement? Employee engagement tells you whether your content is hitting the mark and if people are genuinely interested in learning.

Employee participation and engagement are key indicators of your CSAM campaign’s success. Track training completion rates, attendance in live webinars, and participation in interactive activities. If 85% of employees finish the security awareness training and 75% attend live sessions, you're seeing strong involvement. However, it’s also important to ask yourself: Are these numbers consistent across different departments? Which content formats are getting the most engagement?

These aspects should be checked and evaluated to get a clearer understanding of the overall engagement and areas that may need further attention. Low engagement may indicate areas for improvement, while high engagement shows that employees are actively invested in the learning process.

3. Watch for Real Changes: Measure Behavioral Shifts that Matter

This is where the real impact happens. Are employees actually changing their daily security behaviors, or did the security awareness training just tick a checkbox? Behavioral change is the true measure of success.

Track concrete actions that align with your organization's security priorities. For example, if password security was a key focus of your training, track how many employees are now using strong, unique passwords or password managers. If the pre-campaign survey showed that only 60% of employees were using secure passwords, and now 85% are, it reflects a positive shift. Similarly, if phishing awareness was another key focus, monitor how many employees are reporting phishing emails. For example, if 50% of employees were reporting phishing attempts before the campaign and 80% do so now, it indicates that the campaign has made a noticeable impact.

By assessing these changes against pre-campaign benchmarks, you can determine whether the campaign has resulted in lasting improvements and whether employees are truly integrating secure practices into their daily routines.

4. Listen and Learn: Gather Employee Feedback for Continuous Improvement

Your employees are your best source of insight into what's working and what isn't. Their feedback helps you understand not just participation rates, but the quality and relevance of your campaign.

Distribute post-campaign surveys asking targeted questions like "What topics were most helpful?" and "How confident do you feel applying what you learned?" Consider conducting focus group discussions for deeper insights. This isn't just about satisfaction scores – it's about understanding the training's real-world impact.

Ask yourself: Which topics resonated most with employees? What barriers are preventing them from applying security best practices? Their answers will help you refine future campaigns and ensure your security awareness training stays relevant and engaging.

5. Measure Knowledge Retention: Is the Learning Lasting?

A successful CSAM campaign doesn’t end when the training is over. To truly measure its effectiveness, you need to assess how well employees retain and apply the knowledge they’ve gained over time. Knowledge retention is a critical indicator of the lasting impact of your campaign.

Schedule follow-up assessments or quizzes periodically, ideally every 3-6 months, to measure how much information employees have retained. If employees continue to perform well in these follow-up tests, it indicates that the security awareness training was effective and lasting. If scores are lower than expected, this signals a need for further reinforcement, such as refresher courses or periodic phishing simulations.

It’s important to remember that cyber security awareness training shouldn’t be confined to just one month. Ongoing training, periodic refreshers, and real-world simulations should be part of your long-term strategy to ensure that employees continue to apply best practices year-round. By tracking knowledge retention, you can ensure that your CSAM efforts are not just temporary but contribute to continuous, long-term improvements in your organization’s cyber security practices.

Ensure Lasting Impact This Cyber Security Awareness Month 2025

Measuring the success of your Cyber Security Awareness Month (CSAM) campaign is essential for understanding its true impact and effectiveness. By evaluating the outcomes, you can ensure that your efforts are driving meaningful changes in security culture. Tracking these results helps identify which areas need improvement and how to refine future initiatives. Furthermore, measuring the long-term impact of your campaign demonstrates its value by showing sustainable improvements in security behaviors. As a leader, this analysis ensures that cyber security awareness doesn't end after the month, but instead becomes an ongoing priority embedded in your organization’s operations.