Vanity metrics are the junk food of marketing analytics. Impressions, followers, and page views feel good but tell you almost nothing about business impact. The CMOs driving real growth obsess over a tight cluster of metrics that connect marketing activity to revenue.
The Marketing Metrics Hierarchy
Think of marketing metrics in three tiers. Activity metrics (posts published, emails sent) track effort. Performance metrics (CTR, open rate, conversion rate) track effectiveness. Business metrics (CAC, LTV, revenue attributed) track impact. Most dashboards are 80% activity metrics. The best CMO dashboards are 80% business metrics.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by channel — your efficiency benchmark
- LTV:CAC ratio — should be 3:1 minimum for sustainable growth
- Marketing-attributed pipeline — how much revenue marketing sourced
- Payback period — how long to recover CAC from a new customer
- Channel contribution — which sources drive your best customers
“If your weekly marketing report doesn't include a number your CFO cares about, you're reporting on the wrong things.”
— Omar Farouk, Analytics Director”