Identifying Successful Marketing Campaigns: The Right Way
For marketers, understanding whether their campaigns make a measurable impact is important. Accurate data isn’t just about tracking performance—it influences key decisions such as whether a campaign is repeated, budgets are expanded, or strategic directions are changed. It even determines if someone gets the promotion they’ve been hoping for. However, incomplete marketing analysis risks steering decision-makers down the wrong path, potentially wasting resources and missing opportunities.
Beyond Traditional Metrics
Traditional lead lifecycles measurements like MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), SALs (Sales Accepted Leads), SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads), and sourced pipelines are all valuable lead generation measurements. Yet, they don’t tell the full story. Erik Eaton, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations and Website Strategy at SheerID, points out that measuring marketing’s true impact requires a broader lens.
“How is marketing impacting and driving pipeline, and how do you report on that accurately?” Erik recommends combining traditional lead lifecycle conversion metrics with data on channel velocity and campaign influence.
For example, blogs may seem ineffective as lead-generation tools. However, deeper analysis often reveals that blogs play a critical role in nurturing prospects already engaged in the sales pipeline.
“Blogs have been a horrible lead creation channel […] but what we’re finding out is that people with open opportunities are coming to the blogs, reading them, and getting value.” - Erik Eaton
This shift in perspective highlights the importance of multi-faceted reporting. We know that thought leadership should be heavily incorporated into our content strategy. Using lead generation and campaign influence data, Erik found that SheerID’s target audience “wants to read a specific example of another company doing the same thing. Thought leadership isn’t as effective. People want tangible examples.” This finding completely changed their content generation strategy.
Getting our B2B marketing attribution setup right isn’t just a marketing concern, it’s a business priority. We must advocate for the right approach in our strategies to ensure that investments in data and technology are made to empower our teams. If we don’t help ourselves, we can’t help out customers.
Choose Marketing KPIs That Matter
Revenue growth is the ultimate goal for any business, yet many marketing teams are still judged primarily on lead volume. It’s striking that even though reporting capabilities have changed, the way we determine marketing’s success or failure hasn’t. While metrics like MQLs have long been a standard, they don’t always align with revenue objectives. Erik notes, “If you’re judged on MQL, what happens at the end of the quarter is somebody’s going to go buy a huge list of content syndication.”
This approach may fulfill MQL quotas, but it burdens sales teams with low-quality leads that rarely convert. Revenue impact must become the guiding metric to truly measure marketing’s success.
“What can we bring to the revenue table?” Erik challenges marketers to reevaluate high-volume lead sources that fail to generate meaningful revenue. Modern marketing measurement tools help teams track pipeline generation and influence, providing more relevant insights into campaign performance.
The ROI Advantage in Marketing Operations
One of the greatest assets in Marketing Operations is the ability to tie campaigns to ROI. Decisions based on subjective impressions—such as how a field event “felt” or anecdotal feedback—often lead to biased outcomes. Erik recounts an event that initially received poor feedback: “We looked at the ROI, and it’s actually positive. So we should probably go to it again.”
Using data to replace subjective judgments not only leads to better decision-making but also bolsters marketing’s credibility. Demonstrating ROI can help secure budget approvals and secure buy-in for experimental tactics.
Erik highlights a direct mail campaign as an example. Despite initial skepticism, the campaign delivered strong ROI, prompting further investment.
“Sometimes we find success. In the startup growth space, you have to experiment. If you fail, that’s okay—just pick yourself up and move on to the next thing.”
Setting Goals for Experiments
Before launching any experimental campaign, Erik emphasizes setting clear objectives and defining KPIs. This structured approach ensures campaigns are evaluated fairly and their true impact is measured. Whether the campaign succeeds or fails, having defined goals allows teams to learn and iterate for future success.
Driving Strategic Change Through Data
Accurate measurement transforms tactical decisions into strategic insights. When SheerID’s analysis revealed that their audience prefers concrete examples over traditional thought leadership the marketing team reshaped their content strategy, leading to more effective engagement.
Marketers equipped with robust data and insights can steer their organizations toward better outcomes. With a focus on campaign influence, pipeline velocity, and ROI, marketing teams can confidently advocate for resources and deliver impactful results.
Ready to take your marketing measurement to the next level? CaliberMind can help unlock the full potential of your team’s campaign. Why wait? Contact us today.
