Breaking Free from Vanity Metrics: How to Measure What Matters in Marketing
Are you investing heavily in marketing but not seeing the growth you expected? You’re not alone. Many companies face this issue because they’re measuring the wrong things. Traditional metrics like marketing-qualified leads and multi-touch attribution seem appealing but often miss what truly drives revenue.
Here, we’ll explore how to reframe your marketing approach to focus on metrics that directly boost revenue and align with today’s customer journey.
Why MQLs and MTA Often Lead Us Astray
For years, MQLs—leads that marketing qualifies based on specific criteria—have been a common metric. The idea is simple: more leads mean more sales. But in reality, not all leads are created equal, and focusing on quantity often comes at the expense of quality. I’ve seen this firsthand. One company increased their MQLs by 50% year-over-year, only to find that sales didn’t want to work with these leads because of their low conversion rates. This misalignment between sales and marketing led to inefficiency and missed revenue opportunities.
Multi-touch attribution promises a comprehensive view of the customer journey by tracking every touchpoint, from initial contact to purchase. However, MTA’s data is often incomplete and skews toward short-term, easily tracked actions like clicks and form fills. For instance, I worked with a global company where MTA attributed just 1% of revenue to a key channel. Digging deeper, we discovered this channel was actually driving 30% of revenue, which MTA failed to capture.
Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics: Focus on Real Revenue Drivers
Relying on vanity metrics like MQLs or misapplied MTA data can be costly. Instead, focus on metrics that genuinely reflect marketing’s impact on revenue. Here are a few metrics that are more meaningful:
Customer Acquisition Cost Payback: This metric measures how long it takes to recoup the costs of acquiring a new customer.
Profit Margin per Customer: Profitability matters more than just sales volume. A high customer lifetime value combined with a low CAC drives sustainable growth.
Retention Rate and Lifetime Value: Strong retention rates and high LTV indicate brand loyalty, which reduces the need to replace customers frequently.
Go-to-Market Efficiency: This metric balances the investment in sales and marketing to maximize ROI without over-investing in either.
When you focus on these metrics, marketing and sales efforts naturally align with financial goals, supporting a healthier growth trajectory.
The Power of Brand: Why Long-Term Investment Matters
One of the biggest misconceptions in marketing is that brand investment is hard to measure or not worth the cost. In reality, a strong brand doesn’t just improve recognition—it drives inbound leads, shortens sales cycles, and increases retention. A study by marketing experts Les Binet and Peter Field showed that companies allocating about 70% of their marketing budget to brand-building tend to outperform those focused mainly on lead generation.
The key takeaway? Brand marketing primes buyers for purchase. When customers are ready to make a decision, your brand is already top of mind, leading to higher-quality leads that are easier to convert.
Six Steps to Measuring What Truly Matters
Shifting from vanity metrics to meaningful ones requires practical steps. Here’s how to get started:
Measure Incrementality: Determine the actual lift or incremental impact of your campaigns on revenue. Instead of tracking every click, look for direct increases in inquiries or sales after launching specific campaigns.
Self-Attribution Forms: Add questions like “How did you hear about us?” to capture insights on what actually drives traffic. Companies like Slack use this to track word-of-mouth, which is often a primary driver of demand.
Website Traffic Correlation: Track correlations between brand-building activities (e.g., PR campaigns, thought leadership articles) and direct website traffic or engagement. If a campaign leads to increased website visits, it’s likely reaching your audience effectively.
Separate Branded and Non-Branded Search: When assessing paid search performance, split branded and non-branded keywords. Often, brand search campaigns can lead to misleadingly high conversions, as they capture traffic that would likely come to you anyway.
Sales Insights: Align with your sales team, who have direct access to customers. They understand buyers’ motivations, pain points, and why they ultimately choose your product, providing invaluable insights that go beyond any automated metric.
Collaboration Over Competition: Build a collaborative culture between sales and marketing to ensure both teams work towards shared revenue goals, not just their own metrics. When marketing and sales work together, they can leverage insights from each side of the customer journey.
The Takeaway: Quality Over Quantity
Reframing your marketing strategy to focus on quality over quantity isn’t just a tweak—it’s a shift that aligns your entire go-to-market approach with how customers actually make buying decisions today. By prioritizing brand-building, fostering sales-marketing alignment, and focusing on metrics that track real revenue impact, you’re investing in sustainable, long-term growth.
This isn’t just about meeting targets. It’s about creating a marketing approach that genuinely supports your business goals. By embracing quality, understanding incrementality, and supporting brand-driven growth, you’ll build a strategy that resonates with your audience and drives meaningful.