What Does Measuring Your Marketing Actually Mean?

As a marketing analytics firm, we've been challenging our clients to measure the value of marketing. But what does that mean? When I ask various people within agencies and brands, I get a wide range of answers, all related to business value metrics. Most reporting and analytics do not convey this level of value, so organizations must combine the activity data with actual conversion activity and use first-party data strategy.

To demonstrate marketing value, marketers must combine media activity with website conversions in their reporting. They should be able to answer questions about website performance, cost per conversion, campaigns' ROI and attributed marketing value. To further measure marketing value, marketers must align it to business outcomes by looking at lead conversion rate, cost per lead, cost per opportunity, cost per order, cost per customer and marketing ROI.

To start measuring marketing value, marketers can use the ROI formula. They should also challenge themselves with questions about demonstrating the value of marketing dollars and quantifying the impact on revenue. With the three levels of insight outlined in this article, marketers can start measuring their marketing ROI.