Insights / Marketing Strategy
How Do I Know If My Marketing Is Working?
Marketing generates a lot of numbers. Clicks. Impressions. Followers. Traffic. Leads. Engagement. Conversions. But more data doesn't necessarily provide a better answer.
The simplest way to determine whether your marketing is working is to go back to the original objective: What did we need the marketing to accomplish?
Measure that first.
Start With the Business Objective
If your objective was awareness, website leads alone may not tell the whole story.
If your objective was lead generation, impressions aren't enough.
If your objective was online sales, social engagement may be useful—but revenue-producing actions matter more.
The metric should reflect the objective.
Match the Metric to the Objective
1
Awareness
Useful indicators might include:
Reach
Video views
Branded search activity
Website traffic
Direct traffic
Audience growth
2
Engagement
Look at actions such as:
Content engagement
Website behaviour
Email interaction
Video completion
Repeat visits
3
Lead Generation
Focus more heavily on:
Qualified inquiries
Phone calls
Form submissions
Appointments
Quote requests
Cost per qualified lead
4
Sales & Conversion
Depending on the business:
Purchases
Conversion rate
Customer acquisition cost
Return on advertising spend
Revenue attributable to marketing
Not every business should measure the same things.
Don't Confuse Activity With Results.
A campaign can generate thousands of clicks and still fail. A social post can receive hundreds of likes without producing a meaningful business outcome. A website can attract more traffic while generating fewer qualified inquiries. These metrics aren't useless. They simply need context.
The question isn't just “Did the number go up?”
It's:
“Did the marketing move us closer to the business objective?”
Look at the Whole Customer Journey.
Marketing channels rarely operate in isolation.
Someone might:
See a video.
Visit your website.
Leave.
Search your company two weeks later.
Read an article.
Return through Google.
Contact you.
Which channel generated the lead? Potentially all of them. That's why measurement should consider the customer journey, not simply give all the credit to the final click.
Measure Quality, Not Just Quantity.
More leads aren't necessarily better leads. More traffic isn't necessarily better traffic. More followers aren't necessarily better customers. Sometimes the strongest marketing improvement isn't generating more activity. It's generating better activity.
That might mean:
More qualified inquiries
Higher-value opportunities
Better conversion rates
Lower acquisition costs
Reaching the audience that matters most
Establish a Baseline.
Improvement is difficult to measure if you don't know where you started.
Before making major changes, capture the current performance where possible.
Then compare:
Before → After
Target → Actual
Channel → Channel
Period → Period
What Comes Next?
Once you understand what's working, the next question becomes even more important:
What should I change if my marketing isn't working?
The answer isn't always “spend more.” Sometimes the problem is the audience. Sometimes it's the offer.
The audience.
The offer.
The creative.
The message.
The channel.
The website.
The strategy itself.
Measure what matters
Connect marketing performance to the objectives that matter.
PLAY helps businesses connect marketing performance to the objectives that actually matter—and use those insights to make better marketing decisions.