We can measure almost everything in marketing. Except, apparently, whether it’s actually working.

Website traffic is up. LinkedIn impressions are climbing. Campaign dashboards are glowing reassuringly green.

Excellent.

But is any of it generating profitable business?

“We’re not entirely sure.”

And somewhere in Finance, someone quietly closes their laptop.

In this episode of Marketing, Properly!, Sean Makin explores why marketing measurement has become simultaneously incredibly sophisticated and surprisingly unhelpful and why collecting more numbers doesn’t necessarily lead to better decisions.

The problem often starts with measuring what’s easy rather than what’s important.

Website traffic. LinkedIn impressions. Clicks. Followers. Downloads. Leads.

All useful indicators.

But none automatically tells you whether the business is attracting the right customers, generating profitable opportunities or achieving its commercial objectives.

We look at why marketing measurement should start with business goals, why lead quality matters more than simply counting enquiries, and why following the numbers through Sales, revenue and customer retention can completely change your understanding of what’s working.

Then there’s attribution.

Google Ads claims the conversion. LinkedIn claims the influence. Sales remembers meeting the customer at an exhibition two years ago.

And the customer says:

“Oh, I’ve known about you for ages.”

Excellent.

Glad we’ve cleared that up.

We explore why customers rarely follow neat, measurable journeys and why the last click isn’t necessarily the reason someone bought.

There’s also the question of marketing activity that’s difficult to measure precisely.

Brand awareness. Reputation. Trust. PR. Thought leadership. Word of mouth. Customer experience.

These things can have considerable commercial value, even when they don’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet.

But that doesn’t mean marketers should be allowed to hide behind the argument that some things simply can’t be measured.

Not everything valuable can be measured perfectly. But everything we invest in should have a reason for existing.

We also look at how businesses can measure offline activity more effectively, why Sales and Marketing need to agree on what constitutes a lead or opportunity, and why measurement should be planned before a campaign begins rather than reconstructed afterwards through an archaeological excavation of Google Analytics.

Most importantly, we ask whether the numbers being reported actually help anyone make a decision.

Should we spend more?

Spend less?

Change the message?

Stop the campaign?

Target different customers?

Because a dashboard containing 74 numbers nobody acts upon isn’t particularly sophisticated.

It’s decoration.

So before commissioning another marketing report, ask:

“What are we trying to achieve, what evidence do we have that it’s working, and what are we going to do differently as a result?”

You won’t measure everything perfectly.

And you shouldn’t pretend you can.

But you should be able to explain why you’re spending the money, what you expect it to achieve and what you’re learning along the way.

Because marketing doesn’t need perfect measurement.

It needs useful measurement.

And if your monthly report contains 47 pages of charts but nobody can explain whether marketing is helping the business, you probably don’t need another dashboard.

You need better questions.

Marketing, Properly! - practical marketing thinking for business owners and Managing Directors who want clearer strategy, better decisions and marketing measurement that actually means something.

Hosted by Sean Makin, a Fractional CMO and Strategic Marketing Consultant with over 25 years’ experience in marketing and brand.

Produced in Scotland.