Promotional Campaign Success Metrics

83% of leaders demand ROI above all else. Yet most track metrics that destroy growth. I met with a prospect last week who was celebrating 20,000 website visitors. Problem: Not a single one converted to a lead. Most marketing leaders are dangerously attached to metrics that look impressive but drive zero leads or revenue. They're not measuring what matters. They're measuring what's easy. The cost isn't just wasted budget. It's lost revenue growth. Each stage serves a purpose: 1. Traffic Metrics 🌊 → Shows movement, not money → Clicks and sessions → Website traffic trends → CTR and bounce rates 2. Awareness KPIs 👀 → Measures mindshare growth → Social engagement depth → Brand mention velocity → Content consumption time 3. Lead Metrics 💸 → Actually drives business → Qualified leads generated → Pipeline contribution → Customer acquisition cost The framework for success is more than just a KPI it's how it connects to the end goals: Revenue Connection 🎯 → Cost per qualified opportunity → Pipeline velocity by channel → Marketing-influenced revenue Executive Clarity 👔 → Clear metrics your CEO understands → Example: "Marketing sourced 42% of Q2 pipeline" → Impact: Secured additional budget mid-year by channel Attribution Accuracy 📊 → Captures true customer journey → Maps touchpoints to conversion → Shows what actually drives sales Leading Indicators ⚡ → Predicts future revenue → Flags opportunities early → Guides resource allocation 💥 Actionable takeaways: 1. Audit your dashboards: Sort KPIs by funnel stage 2. Stop mixing metrics: Traffic ≠ Awareness ≠ Revenue 3. Align team goals: Everyone needs to know which metrics matter when What KPIs do you measure for success? 👇 ___ ♻️ Share this with a marketing leader drowning in meaningless metrics ➕ Follow Jennelle McGrath for more frameworks that drive real results

B2B marketers need to seriously rethink how they measure the success of their media channels Marketers have more channels and more data than ever. Yet when the CFO asks which channels are actually creating pipeline? too many marketers freeze in their tracks. The problem isn’t effort. It’s measurement. We’ve been conditioned to track activity at the person level: clicks, impressions, and leads. But these numbers often create an illusion of success. High traffic doesn’t mean high value. In B2B, what matters is whether you’re engaging companies that sales can actually pursue. And that requires looking at channel performance through a financial lens. Four Metrics That Matter 1. Return on Marketing Spend (ROMS) Revenue or pipeline influenced per dollar spent. A $100K campaign that drives $1M in pipeline = 10x ROMS. It’s the number every CFO understands instantly. 2. Cost per Visit Total spend divided by website visits. If $10K drives 2,000 visits, that’s $5 per visit. It’s a baseline measure of efficiency. But remember, not every visit has value, in fact - most do not! 3. Cost per Target Account Spend divided by the number of target accounts or companies in your addressable market that engage, or visit. If $10K generates activity from 100 target accounts, that’s $100 per account. This serves as a great leading indicator for future pipeline and can save you a lot of time and money waiting months for the pipeline that does not show up. Targeting Efficiency (Quality!) Last, but not least, if you understand the targeting efficiency of your media channels (defined as the % of impressions that are reaching the intended audience, or the % of companies that visit that fall into your addressable market), you’ll quickly understand the economics of any vendor or channel and their ability to influence pipeline. I’ve seen targeting efficiency range all over the map from 5% to 95%, so don’t be surprised if one channel is 10x more effective than another when measuring $ per target account engaged.   It is highly dependent on the size and type of companies you are trying to reach, the underlying targeting technology and how well it is tuned for the B2B marketer.   The lesson: channels don’t succeed or fail in a vacuum. They succeed or fail based on fit with your audience. Interested in learning more?  DM me here on LinkedIn and will be happy to have a chat.   Will also be posting an eBook benchmarking the financial efficiency of Google Paid Search vs. LinkedIn Paid and Organic Social.   Stay tuned!!

A fashion e-commerce company CMO asked me this question. They recently launched a 360-degree brand campaign and promoted only one particular high-frequency category item in the campaign.   They want to understand how they should define the campaign's success metric. My answer was this. First, define what success metric should answer to state that the campaign is successful. - Is the sale of items on the platform increasing? - Is the intent to buy the item increasing on & off the platform? - Is the promoted item the right one to bring new users to the platform? - Is the campaign sustainable? Then, define the metrics to answer the above questions exactly or directionally. 1. The metric to answer the first question was simple. - Week-on-Week & Month-on-Month growth trends of the product will answer this. - This should be measured at two levels but we will see this in the fourth question The metric used to measure the second question is two parts. 2.1. Measuring items intent on the platform  - Number of searches( including spelling mistakes) for the items  - CTR of the item banners/highlights on the homepage¬† 2.2. Measuring the items intent off the platform   - Brand + items search volume (Google, Bing & Marketplaces)   - Brand search volume (Google, Bing & Marketplaces)   - Engagement rate of items specific posts on Social media The third question is important to understand the potential of the item. 3. Is the item being promoted the right? - Number of new users growth trend pre-, during, and post campaign - Retention/repeat purchase rate of promoted item bought/searched user The last question needs to be measured with a slightly longer-term lens. 4. Campaign sustainability   - Overall sales lift during the campaign   - Overall new user lift during the campaign   - Overall sales baseline shift after the campaign   - Overall new user baseline shift after the campaign Can you add one more question and its metric to polish this further?

Forget conversion rate and platform ROAS. After analyzing 4,000+ ecommerce brands, I found the 3 metrics that predict success better than anything else. 1. Brand Power This is a combination of direct traffic + organic traffic + branded search. Pro tip: To calculate this in Polar, you can create a custom metric with this advanced formula in 3 clicks. It proves your compounding marketing value. If people are actively seeking out your brand (vs. stumbling on it through ads), you're building a real asset. It’s a number you should see increase as your brand grows. 2. CAC by Product Most brands look at CAC as a single number. But tracking it by product reveals hidden opportunities. You can map the spend based on the landing page and the campaign name to figure out your hero product — the one that drives a significant portion of sales, customer acquisition, and brand awareness. Think of it like this: A beauty brand discovered their $10 moisturizer had a $2 CAC while their expensive products were much costlier to convert. That "low AOV" moisturizer became their best acquisition tool. 3. 180-Day LTV by Product Track the 6-month value of customers based on their first purchase to figure out which products create loyal customers. Sometimes your best entry point isn't your highest AOV product. It might be a cheaper product that will get people to come back. The problem with most platforms is they make these metrics hard to track. That's why we built them directly into Polar Analytics - just a few clicks and you can see exactly which products are driving your business forward. I’m curious: What other unconventional metrics do you track?

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