Marketing Metrics to Track

For half a decade, I thought I was tracking the right metrics I was wrong Revenue. Growth rate. ROAS. Conversion rate. New customers. Repeat revenue All important But they could tell me the business was growing without telling me whether that growth was making the company more valuable You can buy more traffic, discount more aggressively, and acquire less-profitable customers while the top line keeps going up The business gets bigger That doesn’t automatically mean its equity value does A stronger Brand should make future revenue easier to earn, more profitable, and less dependent on buying every sale Here are the 11 metrics I wish I’d started tracking sooner, framed as questions: 1. Are branded organic searches growing faster than revenue? 2. Are contribution dollars and contribution margin going up? Contribution Dollars = Revenue - variable costs like COGS, marketing, and shipping 3. Is direct and branded search revenue growing faster than overall revenue? 4. Is the gap between gross and net sales shrinking? This signals less reliance on discounts and fewer returns 5. Are 30, 60, and 90-day incremental LTV going up, excluding the first purchase? 6. Is reach growing as fast as—or faster than—revenue? 7. Have your worst days gotten better? One way to measure this: is the average of your 30 lowest-revenue days trending up? 8. For organic search, is revenue per session rising while sessions are growing or stable? 9. Is your share of branded organic searches growing versus your competitive set—at both the Brand and category level? 10. Is Baseline Revenue growing, both in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue? I define Baseline Revenue as revenue from direct traffic, organic search, and organic social referrals It’s imperfect. But if it’s rising in dollars AND as a percentage of revenue, good things are generally happening 11. Is Baseline Revenue per branded organic search going up? Branded searches are an imperfect proxy for the Brand you’re building. Baseline Revenue per search shows whether you’re monetizing it better If searches are soaring but Baseline Revenue per search isn’t, that’s something to audit — A few caveats: None of these metrics are perfect. You can game any of them They’re also mostly leading indicators—not the ultimate company scorecard The ultimate outcome is more operating profit and net cash over time The right metrics also change with the company’s stage, economics, and strategy. A five-month-old company shouldn’t use the same scorecard as a 100-year-old company But if you can honestly answer “yes” to most of these questions, there’s a good chance the quality of your growth is improving And that gives you a better chance of building a more valuable company—not just a bigger one Question for the people of the internet: What else do you track to understand whether growth is increasing the quality and equity value of the business?

Brand conversations, especially in earlier-stage B2B organizations, get stuck when we treat “brand” as a fuzzy idea instead of a measurable driver of pipeline. We covered brand and demand, working together, in last week's CMO Coffee Talk sessions. And we asked each attendee to share how they are measuring brand strength and impact today. Out of hundreds of responses, here's what stood out. What CMOs are primarily measuring: 🔥 Awareness (aided/unaided) and branded search volume as leading indicators 🔥 Consideration/shortlist rates and first-page SEO/AEO visibility 🔥 Perception/sentiment, PR reach, review-site ratings and analyst recognition 🔥 Supplementary signals: NPS/CSAT, eNPS, and % of TAM reached/engaged How leaders frame “brand” internally: Many avoid the word altogether and talk about awareness, reputation and future pipeline/early demand indicators. This focuses more on the "job to be done" and helps connect the dots to revenue. Programs most tied to measurable lift: ➕ Consistent winners were content/PR & thought leadership, Share of Search/SEO/GEO programs, events & sponsorships/keynotes, and customer advocacy initiatives. ➕ Several leaders emphasized brand-exposed cohort analysis over last-click attribution to show lift in conversion, win rate, and sales-cycle time. A few practical brand KPIs CMOs are pivoting to this quarter and into 2026: 🧮 Market indicators: Share of Search; branded search & direct visits; aided/unaided awareness; consideration/shortlist 🧮 Trust & authority: sentiment/attributes; analyst placement; review-site ratings; NPS/CSAT; eNPS 🧮 Pipeline linkage: cohort-based lifts for brand-exposed audiences (opportunity creation, win rate, cycle time) TL:DR: If you’re fighting for "brand" budget, lead with the market indicators and tie them to cohort-level pipeline outcomes (including top of funnel interest/awareness indicators). This creates a straight line from “brand work” to business impact without pretending every dollar should show up in last-touch.

“Blogging is dead.” // “AI killed the blog” // “No one reads blog posts” // “Google is dead” — These are some of the wild (misguided) takes flooding the feed and inboxes right now… Here’s the harsh truth though: That’s all false. The real issue is that most marketers are creating reports that aren’t connected to what matters. They’re not talking about RESULTS.. Most marketers track page views and social shares, but real ROI is about revenue impact. Here’s how to show the ROI of blogging: 1. Define What “Return” Means for You Not all blogs are designed for direct revenue. Some drive leads, some build brand authority, and others improve retention. Choose the right KPI: ✅ Lead Generation – Track blog-assisted form fills, newsletter signups, and gated content downloads. ✅ Sales Impact – Analyze closed-won deals where a blog was a touchpoint. ✅ SEO Value – Measure the cost savings from organic search traffic vs. paid traffic (organic traffic value). ✅ Customer Retention – Track whether blog readers have a higher LTV (lifetime value). 2. Content ROI Modeling: Connect Content to Business Outcomes The biggest mistake? Giving blog posts content zero credit: ➡ First-touch attribution: When a blog is the first interaction before a lead enters your CRM. ➡ Last-touch attribution: When a blog post is the final touchpoint before conversion. ➡ Multi-touch attribution: Assigns weighted value across all touchpoints, showing how blogs contribute throughout the journey. Use tools like: • Google Analytics: Event-based tracking + attribution modeling. • CRM Reports (HubSpot, Salesforce): Tie blog traffic to closed deals. • UTM Parameters: Track conversions from blog-specific campaigns. And ask: “How’d you hear about us?” 3. Lead Quality: Not Just Quantity Traffic means nothing if it doesn’t convert. • Measure Traffic-to-Lead Ratio: (Total Leads from Blog / Total Blog Traffic) x 100 • Analyze MQL to SQL Progression: Are blog leads actually converting into sales-qualified leads (SQLs)? • Check Lead Source Data: Identify high-intent pages driving conversions. 4. Revenue Per Asset: The best way to quantify blog impact? Directly assign revenue. Use CRM + analytics tools to calculate: (Total Revenue from Blog-Assisted Deals / Number of Blog Posts Published) = Revenue Per Blog Post. Example: If 10 deals closed in a quarter where a blog was a touchpoint, and those deals totaled $100K, that blog is worth $10K. 5. Is Your Blog Profitable? Calculate true content ROI using: Blog ROI = (Revenue Attributed to Blog – Blog Production Costs) / Blog Production Costs x 100 • Include writer salaries, SEO, distribution, and promotion in costs. • If a blog generates $50K in sales and costs $10K to create, ROI = 400%. The Bottom Line: Blogging isn’t just about traffic. It’s about leads, opportunities, conversion rates, and revenue impact. If you’re not optimizing for this — you’re leaving money on the table. #ContentMarketing #SEO

I often see marketing teams engage in what I call "Analytics Window Dressing": they'll build dashboards for a wide variety of metrics that could serve as component parts to an LTV or ROAS model, but they under-invest in the model itself and don't have an effective grasp of their marketing performance. In these cases, marketing decisions are often made by steering these component metrics to historical benchmarks without revisiting those benchmarks as proxies for ROAS or, critically, understanding how the interplay of these metrics, as an ensemble, may have changed. This isn't performance marketing; it's performative marketing -- akin to shuffling paper around on a desk. The central task of performance marketing is discerning the efficiency of marketing activities as a function of a product's core unit economics. Merely collating data isn't the job; the objective of performance marketing is to bring these varying component metrics into a cohesive, responsive, and dynamic projection of marketing efficiency.

If your web analytics strategy still focuses only on pageviews and bounce rates, you may be measuring the past—not the customer journey of today. The digital world has changed. Customer behavior has changed. And the way businesses understand their audience must evolve too. 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐛 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 is no longer just about tracking clicks and sessions. It is about understanding intent, context, and customer needs. The future of analytics is moving towards: 🔹𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫 Understanding why customers engage, not just what they click. 🔹𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞-𝐒𝐢𝐳𝐞-𝐅𝐢𝐭𝐬-𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 Building flexible ecosystems that bring together the right data sources. 🔹𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭-𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝-𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 Creating direct relationships with customers through trusted data strategies. 🔹𝐂𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 Finding patterns that help businesses make smarter marketing and product decisions. The companies that succeed will not be the ones collecting the most data. They will be the ones who understand their data better and turn insights into action faster. 👉 Analytics is no longer just a reporting function. It is a strategic advantage. How is your organization evolving its analytics approach? #WebAnalytics #DigitalAnalytics #DataStrategy #MarketingAnalytics #DigitalTransformation #Analytics #BusinessIntelligence #FirstPartyData

SEO isn’t about traffic anymore. More clicks ≠ more sales. One client saw +60% traffic YoY… but revenue dropped 20%. Why? They tracked the wrong metrics. The shift is clear: • Clicks → Customers • Bounces → Engagement • Rankings → Revenue Focus on: User Engagement, Revenue per Page, Conversion Rate, CLV. Traffic is vanity. Revenue is reality. Ready to measure what matters?

If you’re still looking at channels separately, you’re missing out on real ROI. Here’s how to think about measurement loops instead: What’s a measurement loop? Feedback flowing between channels instead of a straight line of clicks. Why does linear attribution fail? It focuses on the channel and the last click, ignoring the influence of everything else in the journey. Closed-loop feedback works. Search informs email. Email informs social. Social fuels search again. Cross-platform tracking is key. Continuous data flow prevents drop-offs when people switch apps. The loop in motion combines channel, here are some of my favorites: - Simple but goody, Social Impressions / Landing Page Clicks - Tracking Topical Authority: A Simpler Way to Monitor a Complex KPI Topical authority is tricky but it’s one of the most useful signals you can track. Here's one way to break it down. - Start by calculating total reach across both SEO and organic social. You can do this combined or separately by SEO and social search. - Then stack that against key outcomes: -- Primary KPIs like conversions or lead volume -- Secondary KPIs like product detail views or email signups - Now take all of that and map it out in a simple waterfall-style diagram for each topic cluster weekly or biweekly, depending on how fast your content is moving. - Once you look at it this way, you’ll start to see patterns in behavior. The momentum becomes clearer. Other KPIs to track? Not last-click. Look at social-to-form starts, search-to-email reopens, and re-engagement conversions. Multi-channel measurement loops don’t just give cleaner reports. They compound impact. ------------------------ Find this insightful? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Ryan Edwards for more. Join our newsletter to get tips and tricks to help you turn data to insights and insights into strategy. Join 3,000+ other marketers https://lnkd.in/gyrXK4mf

ROAS is lying to you. I discovered this the hard way after burning through $100K+ in ad spend while chasing "good" ROAS numbers. Here's the truth about marketing metrics that nobody talks about: The real metric you need to track is Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER). Here's how it works: Take your last 12 months of revenue ➗ by your TOTAL marketing investment And I mean TOTAL: • Ad spend • Marketing team salaries • Agency fees • Software costs • Everything that goes into running your program Why add in all these costs: I've seen Meta campaigns with a 3x ROAS turn into complete money pits once you factor in the true costs. That "profitable" campaign? Add in your $8K/month marketing manager and $3K/month agency fee and watch those margins disappear. MER gives you the full picture - no sugar coating, no false wins. Pro tip: Track your MER monthly, using a rolling 12-month window. This eliminates seasonal noise and gives you the clearest signal of what's actually working. The companies that succeed, cash flow, and ultimately exit in this market display a good-and-improving MER. What's your current marketing efficiency ratio? Drop it below and let's compare notes 👇 #MarketingMetrics #DigitalMarketing #ROI #MarketingStrategy

I did a 30-min speech at INBOUND. Here’s the 3-min TL;DR. My talk: How to build a data-driven marketing budget. The problem: Last year, we spent $300K on marketing. 80% of it did… nothing. We were running 18 GTM channels (paid ads, SEO, events, influencers, AI experiments) but couldn’t answer: “What’s actually working for us?” The turning point: As a CFO-turned-founder, watching thousands disappear with no return physically hurt. So we did what finance people do best — built a system. Step 1️⃣ — Track every experiment 300+ experiments in a year. For each, we tracked: - Cost - Time to see results - Payback period - Impact on leads Every week: - Kill - Iterate - Scale Step 2️⃣ — Know your limits We built a calculator to set the max we should spend per lead or customer (comment & I'll send you my slides with the link). Step 3️⃣ — Build visibility An internal dashboard tracking: - ROI by channel - LTV/CAC - Payback period - Cost per lead - Revenue vs expenses (All in real time) Step 4️⃣ — Track the “unmeasurables” Not perfect, but good enough to act: PR → web traffic Podcasts → demo signups The mistake we almost repeated: On the way to $5M ARR, we kept acting like we were still in the $0–1M phase — too many experiments, too little focus. ROI down, GTM expenses up. The solution — 70-20-10 rule: 70% → Proven channels 20% → Controlled experiments 10% → Big, bold bets * Sometimes that 10% bet becomes your new 70%. Key takeaways if you want a high-ROI budget: 1. Burn money to find what works. 2. Track → kill/iterate/scale weekly. 3. Know your cost limits. 4. Past $1M — use the 70-20-10 rule to stay focused. If you want my slides, drop a comment and I’ll share a PDF.

5 Underrated Marketing Metrics Every Brand Should Track Everyone talks about CTRs and conversions. But the real marketing advantage often hides in the metrics fewer people pay attention to the ones that reveal why campaigns succeed, not just if they do. Here are five underutilized metrics every brand should start tracking: 1. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Understand the total worth of a customer over time it helps you invest smartly in acquisition and retention. 2. Content Engagement Rate: Beyond likes, measure how long users spend engaging with your content. Quality beats vanity metrics. 3. Share of Voice (SOV): Track how often your brand is mentioned compared to competitors. It’s a great signal of brand visibility and authority. 4. Organic Conversion Rate: Identify what percentage of organic traffic actually converts a strong indicator of SEO quality and brand trust. 5. Customer Advocacy Rate: Monitor how many customers actively promote or recommend your brand. Advocacy is today’s most authentic marketing fuel. Brands that dig deeper than surface metrics build stronger strategies, sharper insights, and ultimately lasting customer relationships. What’s one underrated metric your team swears by? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow Sanya Malik for more such insights :) #MarketingStrategy #BrandGrowth #DigitalMetrics #CustomerInsights #DataDrivenMarketing