Marketing Metrics that Matter

Carl Panteny wrote a blog post titled Metrics that matter (November 22, 2021).

« I thought I’d ask the Twitterverse a simple question: “We need an honest conversation about what metrics matter. Who wants to go first?” … Smart people responded… Rather than leave these to the confines of the archives, this blog is about sharing those responses here. »

« One thing is clear, as summarised by, @FinanceDirCFO: “The specific metrics depend on your company and industry, but there’s one thing I can tell you which is of near-universal application….you only really need about 5% of the metrics you’re currently measuring. “More depth, less breadth is the best way…”[tweet] »

« @RuthArnold shared prompts developed by @duncan3ross to support this process of ensuring we’re collating only what we need, when we need it. They included:

• Why are you doing this?
• What surprises are there in the data?
• What else could you measure?
• What bias have you overlooked?
• How sure are you about the question? »

« Changing metrics mid-campaign or through a new strategic approach is like moving the goal to another pitch. We should only compare like for like. If you have campaign metrics like sessions, impressions etc. Keep them. Introducing new ones? You’ll need to calculate the previous or at least provide context that this is ‘year one’ if the data is unavailable. »

« For metrics that matter, this blog covers three key areas:

• The ones that lead to paying the bills
• The ones that pay the bills
• The ones that lead to paying the bills in the future »

« The ones that lead to paying the bills

• Reach (% Audience reached)
• Ad recall
• Share of Search
• Mental Availability
• Measures of attention
• Intent
• Recognition of brand assets
• Conversion rates (relative to own performance and peers – from ad performance to applications and sales)

The ones that pay the bills

• Sales (Unit/volume of sales)
• Revenue
• Profitability (CEPs, margins etc.)
• Gross profit  
• Elasticity

The ones that lead to paying the bills in the future

• Retention
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Market penetration
• Return of marketing expenditure (ROME – instead of ROI)
• Share of Market (SoM) »

« Without data, we can’t make the diagnosis. Without the diagnosis, we won’t know what we need to track. »

« Any metric without a purpose is useless. Regardless of what they are. Each one should inform strategy and action. Otherwise, there’s no point in collating it.  »

« References  

Ambler, T. (2003) Marketing and the Bottom Line, 1^st edition, Pearson Education

Binet, L (2018) How not to Plan: 66 ways to screw it up, 1^st edition, APG Ltd.

Binet, L, Field, P. (2007) Marketing in the Era of Accountability: Identifying the marketing practices and metrics that truly increase profitability. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

Marketingcharts (2021) What Are B2B Marketers’ Most Critical Challenges Right Now? Available at: https://www.marketingcharts.com/customer-centric/datadriven-117333 (Accessed 10 November 2021)

Vaughan, Kelly & Corsi, Armando & Beal, Virginia & Sharp, Byron. (2020). Measuring advertising’s effect on mental availability. International Journal of Market Research. 63. »