These 4 Marketing Measurement Mistakes Could Be Hurting Your Strategy

When trying to figure out the best way for your marketing team to do something, it can often be more helpful to know what not to do as opposed to what you should do.

After all, different things work well for different companies, strategies, and people. But across the B2B marketing industry, there are a few prevalent mistakes that are commonly clouding the ways in which we measure, communicate, and improve upon marketing impact.

One of the best ways to make sure your marketing measurement approach is properly designed is by making sure you’re avoiding these four common missteps, which we explore in a new guide.

4 Marketing Measurement Mistakes to Avoid

The B2B Institute conducted in-depth research and analysis around the topic of measuring ROI in B2B marketing. These are four key miscues that surfaced in the data.

1. Measuring too soon

The latest Global Annual Marketing Report from Nielsen found that only 54% of marketers around the world are confident in their ability to measure full-funnel ROI. This lack of confidence may stem, at least in part, from the tendency of short-sighted measurement to provide an incomplete picture.

Research shows that the average B2B sales cycle today is more than six months long. However, 77% of digital marketers say they’re trying to prove ROI within the first month of a campaign. It’s like trying to write a book report when you’ve only read the first couple of chapters!

This is not to say that marketers shouldn’t be proactively measuring and assessing campaign performance, even in the early stages – but there’s a nuance at play: differentiating between KPIs and ROI.

2. Mixing metrics (KPIs =/= ROI)

Another reason many marketers struggle to confidently get an accurate read on ROI is that the metrics they’re using often don’t actually measure ROI. Instead, they track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which should be treated more as predictive guides rather than conclusive stories.

For example, B2B Institute’s survey found that 42% of digital marketers with a lead generation objective claimed to use cost-per-click (CPC) as their ROI metric. But measuring CPC this way leaves out vital context when trying to evaluate the campaign’s success. What happened with those clicks? What was the greater revenue impact, in the long run?

Your ROI metrics should be focused on telling the full story, as much as possible. So in this case, a measurement like cost-per-lead (CPL) might be more meaningful.

3. Bowing to internal pressures

Most marketers can relate to the challenge. Even if you understand and agree with the two premises above, you still might be feeling the pressure – to earn budget, to show results, to gain approval.

The survey found that:

• Short-term marketers (defined as those who measure ROI within one month of their campaigns) have twice as many monthly budget allocation discussions.
• 90% of digital marketers in Technology, Financial Services, Education, and Professional Services make optimization decisions within the first month of a campaign running.
• 58% of decision-makers say they need to show ROI in order to justify spending and gain future budget approval.

Buckling under the weight of these pressures can unfortunately be counterproductive.

4. Missing out on the value of marketing efforts

The greater sum of these missteps above is a big, overarching, and very costly one: marketers are underselling the value of what they do. 

Because of the aforementioned lack of confidence in ROI measurements and the stories they’re using these measurements to tell, marketers are holding back: 40% say they do not actively share ROI metrics with stakeholders. Providing no information isn’t much better than providing inaccurate information, so we’re doing ourselves no favors by staying quiet.

Course-correct and Gain Confidence in Measuring Marketing Impact

If you’re falling victim to any of these missteps, the good news is that it’s never too late to get back on track with what you’re tracking and reporting.

Here are three key recommendations to guide your marketing measurement strategy going forward:

1. Measure results over the full length of your sales cycle, and reduce the urge to draw conclusions based on short-term performance metrics.
2. Define and distinguish the KPI versus ROI metrics you’re using, and leverage each for the proper purpose. Use KPIs to optimize in-flight and ROI to gauge the campaign’s ultimate success.
3. With more accurate measurement techniques in place, evangelize your marketing impact! Share ROI results cross-functionally with marketing peers, sales teams, and financial decision-makers.

Check out our new quick-reference guide.