Can you measure marketing?
We got a client from a post with 50 views and no likes.
The only reason we know this post worked is because we asked the client where he found us.
At the same time posts with 4000 views brought nothing.
We were thinking that views lead to likes/engagements. Engagement leads to DMs, and DMs lead to calls. And so we can measure these, calculate the conversions and then optimize everything, right?
That’s not what happens.
If you think in these steps, you will optimize for completely wrong things.
For metrics that DON’T MATTER.
Platforms love to show you internal metrics (likes, impressions, followers, etc) so you can “make better content”. And there are so many numbers! You feel like a scientist doing this.
But that’s THEIR business metrics, not yours.
Vanity views and likes don’t lead to deals
But they are easy to measure!
What led to attracting and closing a prospect? Hard to find out. Hard to measure.
This problem is not exclusive to organic social media.
You’re getting SEO and direct visits with no idea what underlying reason caused someone to search your site. Was it that recent podcast? An old interview? Instagram post? Email you sent?
You pay for Meta ads and you can’t see the actual effect on people who googled you or asked ChatGPT instead of clicking through. Even beyond that - someone saw 6 ads before deciding.
No wonder tracking and attribution companies like Hyros got so big. But as you know - they aren’t fully accurate. Because (as it stands currently) it’s impossible to attribute everything.
What gets measured gets improved
Or so they say.
Yes, marketers (whether internal or external) are often asked to focus on ROI, revenue, growth.
But a lot of this growth is very difficult to properly track. And asking to measure things NOT properly - is a big mistake (one example: looking at direct ad ROAS with no regard for blended campaign results)
This is infamous last-touch attribution problem
Last-touch is easy to see. Whole customer journey is not.
You currently have tens of threads that will lead to next deals.
Most of them - you can’t measure or give attribution to. Some of them will affect one decision maker and others - another. And some of them will influence decisions prospects will take in 6+ months.
By then you’ll have decided that these initiatives were unsuccessful, without ever knowing how they affected your deals (If you’re always about attribution and quick iteration)
The fact that measurement is difficult makes lives of marketers difficult. Where salespeople get a commission, Marketing team gets questions from CFO and every single other exec. But that’s a topic for another day.
Core issue comes down to short-term vs long-term. Last-touch attribution can help with daily operations and short-term results. Relying on it hurts long-term.
What to do
My suggestion - yes, measure what you can, but don’t treat last-touch as the single deciding factor on your initiatives. And don’t confuse easy-to-measure things with what’s actually important for growth.
- Ask customers where they found you. That’s crucial
- See what they are saying in public (comments, replies)
- Track their journey in as many details as you can
- Note changes made in your campaigns, see how results change over time
- Make people join your newsletter because email enables plenty of attribution abilities
- Simplify your funnels where it makes sense
Yes, content must contribute to ROI. But I hate the idea that you need to measure direct revenue effect of EACH piece of content you have. That creates pressure on your team to always produce content that just extracts value from the audience and creates no long-term goodwill (e.g selling in every post).
Instead, use a variety of formats with understanding that direct attribution is almost impossible, everything organic is blended. You often can and should measure blended results of messaging campaigns you’re running.
This is Part 1 of my mini-series on measuring marketing and how to grow with imperfect data.
Part 2 (How to grow before you have the numbers): https://blog.internetisdead.net/how-to-grow-before-you-have-the-numbers-from-your-marketing-results/
Part 3 (How to be visible on social media): https://blog.internetisdead.net/how-to-be-visible-on-social-media/
P.S. Want help with any of this? Book a risk-free consultation