Thetive
     i
 efinide
D Gu


Marketing
Metrics &
Analytics


marketo.com
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Contents




Why Should I Read the Definitive Guide                       Part 5: Program Measurement                                 37
to Marketing Metrics and Analytics?                      3   Why Measuring Marketing Programs is Difficult               38
                                                             Method One: Single Attribution (First Touch / Last Touch)   40
Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability    4   Method Two: Single Attribution with
Why Now Is The Time For Marketing Metrics                7   Revenue Cycle Projections                                   41
                                                             Method Three: Attribute across Multiple Programs
Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI                       9   and People                                                  44
Step One: Establish Goals and ROI Estimates Up-Front    11   Method Four: Test and Control Groups                        46
Step Two: Design Programs to Be Measurable              15   Method Five: Full Market Mix Modeling                       48
Step Three: Focus on the Decisions                           Program specific metrics – what you should
that Improve Marketing                                  16   measure and track                                           49
                                                             Conclusion: Program Measurement Applied                     50
Part 3: A Framework for Measurement                     17
Where Metrics Go Wrong                                  19   Part 6: Marketing Forecasting                               51
The Right Metrics                                       21
                                                             Part 7: Dashboards                                          55
Part 4: Revenue Analytics                               23
Define the Revenue Cycle                                24   Part 8: Implementation • People, Process,
Revenue Cycle Metrics That Matter                       29   and Technology                                              59
Revenue Performance Management Metrics                  33   People and Culture                                          60
                                                             Process                                                     62
                                                             Technology                                                  64

                                                             Conclusion                                                  65
                                                             Key Lessons to Improve your Performance, Profitability,
                                                             and Credibility with Marketing Metrics and Analytics        66


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                               2
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Why Should I Read the Definitive Guide
to Marketing Metrics and Analytics?




Do you know what profits a 10% increase               This guide will help you do just that. We
in your marketing budget would generate?              will help you answer key questions like:
According to the Lenskold Group’s 2010 B2B            • What are the most important marketing
                                                                                                    5 QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOUR
Lead Generation Marketing ROI Study, the                metrics for me to use?
                                                                                                    MEASUREMENT INSIGHT
most common answer to this question is                                                              1. What are your specific objectives for marketing
                                                      • How can I measure my various marketing
“I Don’t Know.”                                                                                        investment and how will you connect your
                                                        programs’ impact on revenue and profit?
Forty-four percent (44%) of qualified                                                                  investments to incremental revenue and profit?
                                                      • How can I best communicate marketing
marketers have no idea what a 10% budget                                                            2. What impact would a 10% change in your
                                                        results with my executive team and board?
increase could do for their companies.                                                                 marketing budget (up or down) have on your
                                                      • Which personnel, procedural, and               profits and margins over the next year?
If you fit into this 44%, you will experience
                                                        cultural changes need to occur within my       The next three years? Five?
difficulty protecting your budget. In fact, you’ll
                                                        organization so I can implement marketing
likely find yourself asking the question the other                                                  3. Compared to relevant benchmarks (historical,
                                                        measurement?
way around: “What will happen now that my                                                              competitive, marketplace), how effective are you
budget has been decreased by 10%?”                    • And many more…                                 at converting marketing investment into revenue
You can’t expect your organization to place value                                                      and profit growth?
                                                      The bottom line of any business is the top
on something you’re unable to quantify.               line: revenue and faster growth!              4. Which are appropriate targets for improving
                                                                                                       revenue leverage (defined as dollars of profit
                                                      So let’s get started.
                                                                                                       over dollars of marketing and sales spend) over
                                                                                                       the next few years? Which initiatives will get you
                                                                                                       there?
                                                                                                    5. What questions do you still need to answer
                                                                                                       with regard to your knowledge of the return
                                                                                                       on marketing investments? What are you going
                                                                                                       to do to answer them?

                                                                                                      (Source: MarketingNPV)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                             3
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 1: Measurement
Builds Respect and
Accountability




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       4
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect
and Accountability




Marketing suffers from a crisis of credibility.       • How much profit was made last quarter
Typically, executives outside the marketing             versus this quarter?
department perceive that marketing exists
                                                      • How much revenue and profit do you
                                                                                                                        CUT PROGRAMS TO BUILD CREDIBILITY
solely to support sales, or that it is an arts and
                                                        forecast for the next quarter?                                  According to Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez, the #1
crafts function that throws parties and churns
out color brochures. Either way, marketing            • Why are you confident in the above answers?                     thing a marketer can to do to build credibility with
often does not command the respect it                                                                                   the CEO is to offer some cuts to marketing programs.
deserves.                                             Soft metrics like brand awareness, GRP,                           Show that you are “de-funding” things you
                                                      impressions, organic search rankings and                          previously did that either A) didn’t work; B) weren’t
What can marketers do so they are seen                reach are important – but only to the extent                      aligned with evolving company goals; or C) seem
as part of a machine that drives revenue              that they quantifiably connect to hard                            less important now than other initiatives. This helps
and profits? How can marketers take more              metrics like pipeline, revenue, and profit.                       demonstrate a strong sense that you are managing a
control over the revenue process, build the                                                                             portfolio of investments, and that you are willing to
respect of their organizational peers, and            Of course, marketers must track and measure
                                                      the impact of all key marketing activities,                       make hard choices with company money.
earn a seat at the revenue table?
                                                      both hard and soft. But keep all but the
                                                      most critical metrics internal to marketing.
Use metrics that matter to                            By speaking the same quantitative language
the CEO and CFO                                       as the CEOs and CFOs, marketers will better
It’s no secret that CEOs and boards don’t
                                                      communicate marketing’s value and impact to
care about the open rate of your last email
                                                      the executive suite.                            Seventy-six percent (76%) of B2B marketing professionals agree
campaign or your last press release’s number
of views.                                             See Part 4 for more on how to measure           or strongly agree that their “ability to track marketing ROI gives
In today’s economy, CEOs and CFOs
                                                      the right revenue metrics.                      marketing more respect.” Source: Forrester Research
care about growing revenue and profits:
• How much faster are we growing now
  versus last quarter? Last year?




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                             5
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect
and Accountability




Know the impact of each                               When you talk about marketing spending,            “Marketing has always been a grueling and competitive sport – not
marketing investment                                  other executives think of costs and profit          unlike running a marathon. With the changes in the buying process,
If you can’t confidently identify which parts of      loss. When you talk about future results,           in media and technology, and managing expectations, it’s like
your marketing truly deliver financial returns,       they think of revenue and growth.
                                                                                                          running a marathon as the ground shifts beneath your feet. What
marketing’s impact and influence will continue
to be limited across your company. This will
                                                      To formulate accurate forecasts, sales              was already difficult is becoming increasingly difficult. If you’re
                                                      and marketing must sit together at the              going to do it without measurement, it’s like running a marathon,
not only hurt marketing’s influence and               revenue table.
credibility; it can also prevent your company                                                             in an earthquake, blindfolded.” David Raab, Author, Winning the
from making the right strategic investments to        See Part 6 for more on Marketing Forecasting.       Marketing Measurement Marathon
improve results over time.
See Part 5 for more on measuring the impact
                                                      Make hard business cases for spending
                                                      With its forecast in place, marketing must then
of various marketing programs.
                                                      make a hard business case for the resources
                                                      it needs to deliver the results it has promised.
Forecast results, not spending                        This requires knowing what it will take – in
Forecasting is perhaps the single most                money, time, and effort – to acquire new
important thing marketers can do to change            qualified leads and nurture those leads until
the perception that marketing is a cost center.       they are ready to talk with sales.
In the same way that you can’t drive quickly          Marketers who use this type of rigorous
if you rely only on your rear-view mirror, you        methodology are able to frame their budgets
can’t be an effective marketer if you only            in terms of investments, not costs, and are
report what has happened in the past. The             better able to justify and defend their budgets.
best marketers forecast the results they expect
in the future – and quantify their forecasts in
terms of leads, pipeline, and revenue.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                 6
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect
and Accountability




                                                      As the function that “owns” the relationship      CEOs Grade Marketing
WHY NOW IS THE TIME FOR                               with these early stage prospects, Marketing       67% of CEOs give their marketing departments a B or C
MARKETING METRICS
                                                                                                                                     20%
                                                      now is responsible for a much greater portion
                                                      of the revenue cycle than ever before.
The way that prospects research and buy
solutions today has been forever transformed          But with great power comes great
by the abundance of information available on          responsibility.                                    Not sure the marketing programs
websites and social networks, and this in turn                                                           made a difference, but they probably
                                                      Enter Marketing Metrics.                           had some impact even though
fuels a significant change in the way marketing                                                          contribution wasn’t measured
and sales teams must work – and work                  CEO ratings of marketing’s performance

                                                                                                                                                                  47%
together – to drive revenue.                          directly rise and fall with marketing’s ability
                                                      to quantify how their campaigns and programs
Because they have ready access to                     deliver value in line with company revenue
information, buyers resist engaging with sales        objectives. It is more important than ever for
until much later in the buying process.               marketing to link the impact of its efforts and    Marketing programs made
This presents an incredible opportunity               financial investments to revenue and profit,       a difference but contribution
for marketing to reinvent itself as a core            and establish a true process for marketing ROI     wasn’t measured
part of the company’s revenue engine.                 in their companies.

                                                                                                                                                            35%
“70% of the buying process is now complete                                                               Marketing programs made an
 by the time a prospect is ready to engage with                                                          impact and marketing was able to
 sales.” SiriusDecisions, Inc.                                                                           document their contribution
                                                                                                        Source: VisionEdge Marketing & Marketo 2010 Marketing
                                                                                                        Performance Measurement and Management Survey of
                                                                                                        423 executives




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                         7
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect
and Accountability




THE 5 STAGES OF MARKETING ACCOUNTABILITY
1. Denial                                             3. Confusion                                       Inevitably, this will reinforce the perception
“Marketing is an art, not a science. It can’t be      “I know I should measure marketing results,        that marketing is a cost center, not a revenue-
measured. The results will come; trust me!”           but I just don’t know how.”                        producing asset.
At first, the CMO may deny the need to be             The CMO knows that marketing accountability
accountable for results. Being stuck in this          is inevitable, but the path to achieve it          5. Accountability
stage often leads to marketing’s isolation from       remains hidden. Basic metrics such as lead         “Revenue starts with marketing.”
other departments and executives.                     source tracking and cost-per-lead are put in       At this stage, marketing truly finds its place
                                                      place, but there is no holistic understanding      in front of the revenue pipeline – where
2. Fear                                               of how marketing activities are impacting key      marketing stops being a cost center and
“What if my marketing activities don’t impact         bottom line metrics.                               starts justifying marketing expenditures as
the bottom line? Will I lose my job?”                                                                    investments in revenue and growth. This is
Taking on accountability can be scary,                4. Self-Promotion                                  when the CMO can act, and talk, like a true
especially when you don’t yet know how                “Hey, come look at all these charts                C-level executive, measuring and forecasting
well (or poorly) your department is doing.            and graphs!”                                       marketing’s impact on metrics that matter to
Marketing accountability is a double-edged                                                               the CEO and CFO. This is when marketing truly
                                                      In a desperate attempt to appear accountable,
sword, shining a bright light on weak                                                                    earns a seat at the revenue table.
                                                      marketing measures everything that can be
performance as well as good performance.              (easily) measured — from website page views        Getting to this final stage of marketing
Some CMOs may be tempted to avoid                     to press release downloads to search engine        accountability is difficult for any organization.
accountability just to avoid facing which             rankings. These CMOs proudly display their         It requires top-level commitment, discipline,
category they are really in.                          results and claim marketing accountability.        and investment in the right systems and tools.
                                                      However, important as these metrics may            It can also require a rethinking of marketing
                                                      be, they lack an explicit connection to hard       incentives and compensation. The journey
                                                      metrics like pipeline, revenue, and profit. The    may not be easy, but the results—in terms
                                                      result is a focus on soft marketing KPIs instead   of peer respect and impact on profits—are
                                                      of hard revenue growth, on short-term ROI          clearly worth it for any marketing team.
                                                      over long-term marketing accountability.


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                              8
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for
Marketing ROI




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       9
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




Many marketers think of marketing ROI as              The fastest-growing companies measure             Marketing ROI Management Process
reporting on the outcome of their programs,           ROI to find not just what works, but what
often in the form of a set of reports they have       works better. They focus on “improving ROI,”         1                               Best Assumptions
to deliver monthly. But the best companies            not just “proving ROI.”                            Process begins with ROI
recognize that reporting for reporting’s sake                                                            scenarios early in the
                                                      Planning for marketing ROI involves                planning cycle to shape
is less important than the decisions those
                                                      three main activities:                             objectives, strategies            ROI Scenarios
reports enable to improve profits.                                                                       and tactics.
                                                      1. Establishing targets and ROI
This is the difference between backwards-
                                                         estimates up-front
looking measurement and decision-focused
management.                                           2. Designing programs to be measurable             2a                                Objectives           Strategy   Tactical Plan   Impact &
                                                                                                         Measurements are                                                                  Contribution
It’s important to plan your programs with ROI         3. Focusing on the decisions that will             prioritized first and
in mind from the outset. When you quantify               improve marketing                               then planned concurrent
the outcome you expect from each marketing                                                               to campaign plans, so tests       Measurement Plan
                                                      Only with discipline, planning, and a              and variations can be             Test Variations in Plan
investment, you can then determine exactly                                                               incorporated to
how you will measure the program against              closed-loop process will you be able to            improve precision.
those goals and position yourself to achieve          improve your marketing ROI.
                                                                                                                                           Measurements
them.                                                                                                    2b
                                                                                                         Measurements capture
                                                                                                         lift, diagnose weaknesses,
                                                                                                         and generate insight to
                                                                                                         improve effectiveness.


                                                                                                           3                               ROI Measurement
                                                                                                         ROI results guide changes
                                                                                                         to strategies and tactics
                                                                                                         in the next cycle of marketing,
                                                                                                         based on which have the           History to Guide
                                                                                                         higher ROI potential.             Next Campaign


                                                                                                     (Source: Lenskold Group)

      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                      10
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




    STEP
    ONE

ESTABLISH GOALS AND                                   Benefits of ROI goals
                                                      With ROI goals in place, the CFO will see not
ROI ESTIMATES UP-FRONT                                only the cost that goes out the door, but also       SHOULD MARKETING HAVE
                                                      exactly what benefit is expected to come from        TO JUSTIFY ITSELF?
When planning any marketing investment,               that cost. As a result, he or she will be much
your first step is to quantify your expected          more likely to support the investment.               According to consultancy MarketingNPV, the two
outcomes. All too often, marketers plan                                                                    most common questions asked by non-marketing
programs and commit their budgets without             Don’t worry too much about the fact that             executives are:
establishing a solid set of expectations about        you are making estimates. As long as they are
what impact they expect the program to                clearly labeled, the CFO will understand that        1. “Does our marketing generate any value for
have. This is a terrible habit, and is one of         any plan requires numerous assumptions.                 shareholders?”
the underlying reasons why other executives,          Just the fact that the marketer is walking           2. “How do we know that marketing really works?”
especially CFOs, question marketing                   in the door with a spreadsheet of numbers
                                                      establishes that marketing is speaking the           Unfortunately, these questions immediately put
investments.
                                                      CFO’s language. That in itself is highly effective   marketing on the defensive and inevitably cause
The solution is to assign up-front goals,             for building credibility.                            marketers to conduct time-consuming and expensive
benchmarks and KPIs for each marketing                                                                     analysis to justify their business function. This results
program.                                              Modeling your ROI goals will also help you to:       in a significant “insight opportunity cost” since all
                                                                                                           the resources that could have been directed towards
The first step of any program plan should be to       • Identify the key profit drivers that most
                                                                                                           the pursuit of true insight are instead diverted to
define your objectives and then pick measurable         affect the model and ultimately your profits.
                                                                                                           “proving” that marketing works.
metrics to support those goals. Imagine if each       • Create “what if” scenarios to see how
PO came with an ROI plan – with best case, worst        changing parameters may vary the results
                                                                                                           Most companies will find that profits increase when
case, and expected case scenario outcomes –             and impact profitability.
                                                                                                           constrained analytics resources are focused on the
that answered the basic (but critical) question of                                                         key decisions that will improve profits rather than
“what do we expect will happen in exchange for        • Establish the targets you will use to compare      justifying marketing’s existence.
this money we want to spend?”                           actual results.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                  11
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




    STEP
    ONE
How to build models for ROI goals                     Here’s an example ROI calculation, courtesy
Not every program will have a complete ROI            of Lenskold Group. Note how it captures all
calculation. Some programs will have softer           expenses including all variable costs on the
goals, such as number of attendees at an              left, and focused on incremental gross margin
event, but as always, the closer you can get to       on the right.
measuring profits and ROI, the better you will
justify the investment.                               Basic ROI Calculation
Even the simplest ROI goals should include:
                                                      MARKETING EXPENSES (EXCLUDING OFFER COSTS)                 MARKETING IMPACT                 QUANTITY
• How many incremental sales are generated
                                                      Campaign Development                            $25,000    Target Reached                   27,000
• How much revenue each sale produces
                                                      Mass Media                                      $100,000   % Convert to Sale                2.2%
• The gross margin percentage
• The total marketing and sales investment            Direct Marketing                                $40,000    Incremental Sales                594
                                                      Total Marketing Budget                          $165,000   Net Present Value per New Sale   $875
                                                      MARKETING STAFF EXPENSE                                    Incremental Revenue              $519,750
                                                      Number of Staff Days                            6.25
                                                      Average Daily Rate                              $450       Average Gross Margin %           38.0%
                                                      Total Staff Expense                             $2,813     Profit from Incremental Sales    $197,505
                                                      Total Marketing Investment                      $167,813   Incremental Gross Margin         $197,505
                                                      Gross Margin – Marketing Investment                        Return (i.e., Net Profit)        $29,693
                                                      Return / Marketing Investment                              ROI                              17.7%
                                                      (Source: Lenskold Group)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                              12
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




    STEP
    ONE
Lenskold Group provides excellent tools
for managing marketing ROI, including an
online Lead Generation ROI planning tool.
This and other tools are available for free
from the Lenskold Group website (http://www.
lenskold.com/tools/LeadGenTool.html).




                                                      (Source: Lenskold Group ‘CMO Guide to Marketing’)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                           13
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




    STEP
    ONE

Understand Best Case, Worst Case,
and Risks Scenarios
The best plans show a range of targets,               INCORPORATE ALL
including expected case, best case, and worst         RELEVANT EXPENSES
case scenarios. This lets you protect your
credibility in case things go sour, and shows         Often, marketing ROI models show ridiculously high
an understanding of how changes to various            returns because they don’t incorporate all relevant
assumptions might impact the results.                 variable and semi-variable costs. Examples include:

It also shows that you understand the possible        • Staff costs within marketing
risks that would hurt your program’s ROI. It’s        • Travel expenses
often a good idea to run your assumptions and
                                                      • The cost of sales’ time spent following up on leads
targets by the most skeptical and pessimistic
member of your team. Let them find all the            Take, for example, a program that generates a lot
ways the program could fail – and then, where         of leads but does not include the cost of the time
possible, put in place contingencies to manage        sales wastes on pursuing leads that don’t convert.
the risks. This may include things directly           It’s quite possible that a program that at first appears
related to the program, but it can also include       profitable will show a negative ROI once these
broad changes to the business environment             expenses are included.
and economy. By proactively identifying
and managing risks up-front, you lessen the
likelihood that other executives will shoot
bullets at your feet later on.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                            14
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




    STEP
    TWO

DESIGN PROGRAMS TO BE                                 Data Collection
                                                      A key part of planning for measurement is
MEASURABLE                                            simply tracking the appropriate attributes             MEASUREMENT COSTS MONEY –
                                                      for all your marketing programs (and their             SO SPEND WISELY
The best marketing programs have                      variants). This can include target audience,
intentional measurement strategies planned            message, channel, offer, investment level, and         Exercise discernment.
in advance. So as part of planning any                any other relevant attributes.                         While it’s possible to measure just about anything
program, you need to answer these three                                                                      in marketing, it is impossible (and unprofitable!) to
questions:                                            Most companies do not begin this process
                                                                                                             measure everything.
                                                      early enough in their lifecycle, and they pay
• What will you measure?                              for it later. Even if you don’t use the data           Begin with the end in mind.
• When will you measure?                              right away, it will become invaluable down             As Jim Lenskold says, “Prioritize when and
• How will you measure?                               the road when you attempt any of the more              what to measure based on the answers you need
                                                      sophisticated approaches towards measuring             to make decisions that will improve your profits.”
In almost every case, you will need to                program effectiveness. These attributes can            Invest in Marketing R&D.
take specific steps to make your marketing            be stored in anything from your marketing              This is a term used by consultant Jim Sterne
programs measurable. This often includes              automation system to a simple spreadsheet              (@jimsterne). Just like the overall corporation invests
setting up test and control groups or varying         hosted on a share drive – what matters the             in R&D to generate future profits, marketing should
your spending levels across markets to                most is that you start to build the history as         do the same to generate similar insights to optimize
measure relative impact. Without variance             early as possible.                                     future profits. In other words, sometimes it is OK to
in your marketing, you may not be able to                                                                    run a marketing program where the primary goal is
use modeling to tease apart the incremental                                                                  to learn whether something works, or how to make
impact of your marketing programs and                                                                        it work better. A good rule of thumb is that allocating
improve your marketing precision and mix.             “ It is more important to periodically capture         10% of your budget to testing and experimentation
See Section 5 for more on measuring ROI                potentially high-impact insights than to frequently   is usually a wise investment.
using test and control groups.
                                                       measure less important outcomes simply for
                                                       reporting purposes.” Jim Lenskold, Lenskold Group




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                      15
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Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI




    STEP
   THREE

FOCUS ON THE DECISIONS                                Your highest-ROI decisions will often flow
                                                      from strategic questions about offers,
THAT IMPROVE MARKETING                                messages, target segments and geographies –      MARKETING REPORTING: JUST BECAUSE
You’ll deliver the best ROI and reap the
                                                      not simply “pass/fail” assessments of specific   YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD
                                                      programs or tactics. You can always evolve
highest corollary benefits when you move past         your mix of tactics, but even the best tactics
backward-looking measurement to forward-                                                               Perhaps you’ve heard the adage that you can
                                                      applied across the wrong strategies won’t
looking decisions.                                                                                     torture the data until it confesses? What this means
                                                      produce a fraction of your desired results.
                                                                                                       is it’s important not to measure just what you can,
This is the difference between marketing              In other words, marketers should focus           but what you can ACT on. Think about where you
measurement and marketing management.                 beyond “what is” and start measuring             want to end up before you begin, and strategize from
It is the difference between data, intelligence,      “what if.”                                       there. Ask yourself, “What question am I trying to
and knowledge.                                                                                         answer, and what would I do if the answer were
                                                      Each measurement should seek to augment          X or Y?”
An integral part of your planning process             your understanding of how to make the
is identifying up-front what decisions you            program better and align it with your
need to make to drive company profits, and            company’s strategic objectives. This way,
then building your measurements to capture            even if you don’t meet all of your program
information that facilitates these decisions.         goals, you can still figure out why and how to
This means you must measure things not just           improve the program. This is almost always
because they are measurable – but because             better than launching a new program you
they will guide you towards the decisions             don’t yet know anything about.
you need to make to improve company
profitability.
Isn’t it time to swap your over-the-shoulder
stance, which prevents you from moving
forward efficiently, for strategic, objective-
driven momentum?




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                         16
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 3: A Framework
for Measurement




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       17
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 3: A Framework for Measurement




CEOs and boards don’t care about 99% of               There are many other areas of marketing
the metrics that marketers track – but they           metrics that are not addressed directly in this
do care about revenue and profit growth.              Guide. These include:                                 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND NET PROMOTER SCORES
There are two primary categories of financial         Customer Profitability: Lifetime value of an          For many companies, a key metric is their Net Promoter Score (NPS),
metrics that directly affect revenue and profits:     incremental customer                                  a customer loyalty metric based on customer answers to the question,
• Revenue Metrics: Marketing’s aggregate              Web Analytics: Measures Web visibility to             “how likely are you to refer us to friend or colleague?” According to
  impact on company revenue                           target audiences against potential audiences,         answers on a 0-to-10 rating scale, customers are grouped into three
                                                      and compares against industry and competitor          categories:
• Marketing Program Performance Metrics:              benchmarks                                            Promoters (9-10)
  The incremental contribution of individual
  marketing programs                                  Public Relations: Measures views and impact           Enthusiastic customers who will fuel growth with repeat and referral
                                                      of corporate communications initiatives               business.
                                                                                                            Passives (7-8)
                                                      Product Performance: Comparatively
                                                                                                            Current customers susceptible to competitor offerings and thus have a
                                                      measures the total sales and margins of
                                                                                                            neutral brand impact.
                                                      individual products
                                                                                                            Detractors (0-6)
                                                      Brand Preference and Health: Assesses
                                                                                                            Customers who voiced dissatisfaction and harm
                                                      brand preference in relation to preference for
                                                                                                            the brand.
                                                      competing brands
                                                                                                            To calculate a brand’s NPS, use the following equation:
                                                      Sales Tool Usage: Measures which product              NPS = [% of Promoters] – [% of Detractors]
                                                      marketing materials are being used the most
                                                                                                            A company’s Net Promoter Score has been shown to have positive
                                                      And many other areas…                                 correlations with faster growth and profits. Marketo’s own research
                                                      This is not to imply that these metrics are not       provides support for measuring customer satisfaction: high-growth
                                                      important for marketers to track – just that          companies are more likely than low-growth companies to incorporate
                                                      they are likely to be less relevant to financially-   customer satisfaction into their marketing executives’ compensation.
                                                      focused executives outside of marketing.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                    18
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Part 3: A Framework for Measurement




WHERE METRICS GO WRONG                                Measuring what is easy                             Activity, not results
                                                      When it is difficult to measure revenue and        Marketing activity is easy to see and measure
There are literally hundreds of marketing             profit, marketers often end up using metrics       (costs going out the door), but marketing
metrics to choose from, and almost all                that stand in for those numbers. This can          results are hard to measure. In contrast, sales
of them measure something of value. The               be OK in some situations, but it raises the        activity is hard to measure, but sales results
problem is that most of them relate very little       question in the mind of fellow executives          (revenue coming in) are easy to measure. Is it
to the metrics that concern a CFO, CEO and            whether those metrics accurately reflect the       any wonder, then, that sales tends to get the
board member.                                         financial metrics they really want to know         credit for revenue, but marketing is perceived
                                                      about. This forces the marketer to justify         as a cost center?
Of course, it’s okay to track some of these           the relationship and can put a strain on
metrics internally within your department             marketing’s credibility.                           Efficiency instead of effectiveness
if they will help you make better marketing                                                              In a related point, Kathryn Roy of Precision
decisions. But it’s best to avoid sharing them        Focusing on quantity, not quality                  Thinking suggests paying attention to the
with other executives unless you’ve previously        According to a 2010 Lenskold Group / emedia        difference between effectiveness metrics
established why they matter.                          Lead Generation Marketing ROI Study, the           (doing the right things) and efficiency metrics
                                                      number one metric used by lead generation          (doing – possibly the wrong – things well).
Vanity metrics                                        marketers is lead quantity, whereas barely half    For example, having a packed event is no
Too often, marketers rely on “feel good”              of marketers measure lead quality. Focusing        good if it’s full of all the wrong people.
measurements to justify their marketing               on quantity without also measuring quality         Effectiveness convinces sales, finance and
spend. Instead of pursuing metrics that               can lead to programs that look good initially      senior management that marketing delivers
measure business outcomes and improve                 but don’t deliver profits. (To take this idea to   quantifiable value. Efficiency metrics are likely
marketing performance and profitability, they         the extreme, the phone book is an abundant         to produce questions from the CFO and other
opt for metrics that sound good and impress           source of “leads” if you only measure quantity,    financially-oriented executives; they will be no
people. Some common examples include                  not quality.)                                      defense against efforts to prune your budget
press release impressions, Facebook “Likes”,                                                             in difficult times.
and names gathered at trade shows.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                              19
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Part 3: A Framework for Measurement




Cost metrics                                          What went wrong here? The marketer
The worst kinds of metrics to use are “cost           performed well, but he made the mistake
metrics” because they frame marketing as              of not connecting his marketing results to         FINANCIAL OUTCOMES OVER ACTIVITY
a cost center. If you only talk about cost and        bottom-line metrics that mattered to the CEO.
budgets, then no doubt others will associate                                                             Look at the following (sanitized) letter from a CFO to a CMO for an
                                                      By framing his results in terms of costs, he       illustration of why financial outcomes are more important than activity,
your activities with cost, too.                       perpetuated the perception that marketing          cost and quantity.
Let’s take a look at a real-life example:             is a cost center. Within this context, it’s only
                                                      natural that the CEO would reduce costs and        “We seem to be purchasing GRPs and click-thrus at a lower cost than
 Recently, a marketer improved his lead                                                                  most other companies, but what value is a GRP to us? How do we
                                                      reallocate the extra budget to a “revenue
 quality and simultaneously reduced his                                                                  know that GRPs have any value at all for us, separate from what others
 cost-per-lead to $10. Thrilled with his              generating” department such as sales.              are willing to pay for them? How much more/less would we sell if we
 results, he went to the CEO to ask for                                                                  purchased several hundred more/less GRPs?
 more money to spend on this highly
                                                                                                         I think we need to look beyond these efficiency metrics and find a
 successful program.
                                                                                                         way to compare all these options on the basis of effectiveness. We
 Did the marketer get his budget?                                                                        need a way to reasonably relate our expenses to the actual impact
 No. The CEO decided the reduced lead cost
                                                      MARKETING CHAMPIONS                                they have on the business, not just on the reach and frequency we
                                                                                                         create amongst prospective customers. Until we can do this, I’m not
 meant marketing could deliver the same               “Marketers have to be clear about what marketing   comfortable supporting further purchases of advertising exposure
 results with fewer dollars – and so she cut          produces. Sales sells, but what does marketing     either online or offline…
 the marketing budget and used the extra              produce? You might answer brand awareness,
 funds to hire new sales people.                                                                         It seems to me that, if we put some of our best minds on the challenge,
                                                      leads, and sales tools. But these answers
                                                                                                         we could create a series of test markets using different levels of
                                                      disempower the marketing function. The best
                                                                                                         advertising exposure (including none) in different markets which might
                                                      answer is that marketing generates cash flow in
                                                                                                         actually give us some better sense of the payback on our marketing
                                                      the short term and identifies sources for future
                                                                                                         expenditures.
                                                      cash flow in the long term.”
                                                                                                         My experience tells me that we are not approaching our marketing
                                                      Roy Young and Allen Weiss, MarketingProfs
                                                                                                         programs with enough emphasis on learning how to increase the
                                                                                                         payback, and are at best just getting better at spending less to achieve
                                                                                                         the same results.“
                                                                                                         (Source: MarketingNPV)



      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                 20
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Part 3: A Framework for Measurement




THE RIGHT METRICS                                     The Time Dimension                                      Set Goals
                                                      Lenskold Group points out that there are                As discussed in Section 3, make sure you set
If activity, cost, and quantity aren’t the            also different types of metrics in each                 goals for each of the key metrics you choose
right metrics to use, what are? Anything              category, based on time:                                to track. Your goals will put your performance
that speaks to the CFO’s areas of primary             Past: How did we do?                                    into context, and help you and your fellow
concern: revenue, margin, profit, cash flow,          Present: How are we doing?                              executives see if your results are on par with
ROI, shareholder value – in other words, your         Future: How will we do?                                 what’s expected – or better, or worse.
company’s ability to generate more profits
and faster growth than your competitors.              These questions break into three
                                                      corresponding metric categories:
This is what Roy Young and Allen Weiss
of MarketingProfs call “speaking the financial        Business Performance                         These are the most common reporting metrics that
language of business.”                                Metrics & KPIs                               you share with fellow executives, often on a dashboard.
Financial Metrics                                     How did we do last week? Last month?         They are mostly BACKWARDS looking metrics.
Most B2B marketers should focus on two                Last quarter?
categories of financial metrics:                      Diagnostic Metrics                           These metrics deliver insight into your CURRENT
                                                      What is working, and what can work better?   performance, often by comparing against historical data
Revenue Metrics           Marketing’s aggregate                                                    trends and competitor and marketplace benchmarks.
                          impact on company revenue   Leading Indicators                           These metrics help you look FORWARD and forecast
Marketing Program The incremental                     How will we be doing in the future?          future results. (See Section 6, Forecasting.)
Performance Metrics contribution of individual
                    marketing programs




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                21
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Part 3: A Framework for Measurement




The Right Metrics: Summary
                                                               BUSINESS PERFORMANCE      DIAGNOSTIC METRICS    LEADING INDICATORS        PAUL ALBRIGHT, MARKETO’S CHIEF REVENUE
                                                               METRICS & KPIS            PRESENT: WHAT         FUTURE: HOW WILL          OFFICER, SHARES HIS SECRETS FOR
                                                               PAST: HOW DID WE DO?      IS WORKING?           WE BE DOING?              MEASUREMENT SUCCESS:
Revenue Metrics                         Aggregate impact       • Lead generation         • Conversion rate     • Size of prospect        1. Choose no more five key metrics. It’s hard to
                                        on company revenue       versus targets            versus trend or       database size              put organizational focus on more than that, so
                                                               • Cycle time                benchmark           • Marketing                  choose wisely.
                                                                                                                 contribution forecast   2. Measure success versus goals for those metrics
                                                                                                                                            for every campaign, every channel, every sales
Marketing Program                       Incremental            • Investment              • Response rates      • Expected                   rep/region, every product, etc.
Performance Metrics                     contribution of        • Pipeline contribution   • Lift over control     contribution forecast
                                        individual marketing   • Program ROI               group                                         3. Show trends for those metrics over time – that
                                        programs                                                                                            way you can immediately see where you are
                                                                                                                                            improving and where you are not.
Profit Per Customer                     Lifetime value of an   • Average selling price   • Investment to       • Retention rates         4. Put on a dashboard for everyone to see so there
                                        incremental customer                               acquire             • Products per               is always a succinct view of what marketing is
                                                                                           a customer            customer                   trying to achieve, and where you stand.
                                                                                         • Marginal cost to    • Net promoter scores
                                                                                           serve                                         5. Have recognition systems tied to goals. Make
                                                                                                                                            sure top contributors get recognition – give them
                                                                                                                                            badges they can put on the desks or cube.
                                                                                                                                         6. Rinse and repeat. The best performing companies
                                                                                                                                            track results weekly, monthly, and quarterly
                                                                                                                                            – so they can improve just as often.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                              22
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Part 4: Revenue
Analytics




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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Perhaps the most important metrics for                a prospect’s movement from one stage to
building marketing’s credibility are the              the next, they create the foundation for a
metrics that show marketing’s aggregate               comprehensive set of robust revenue metrics.       A NEW BREED: REVENUE MARKETERS™
impact on revenue.
                                                      Methodology                                        To thrive in today’s changing marketplace, marketing
Some old-fashioned marketers say that                 Defining the stages of the revenue cycle           must begin to operate and sound more like sales.
marketing isn’t responsible for revenue. We           requires a new revenue methodology.                As demand generation agency The Pedowitz Group
disagree. In today’s online and social world,                                                            says, marketers must “manage a predictable, reliable
                                                      Traditional sales methodologies such as SPIN
marketing is responsible for up to 70% of                                                                funnel with a plan that ultimately produces higher
                                                      Selling and Miller Heiman provide standard
the entire buying process – which means                                                                  value leads and maximizes revenue.”
                                                      benchmarks and best practices for the sales
marketing and sales need to rethink how
                                                      function, and these sales methodologies form       Today’s successful marketer has evolved beyond
they work (and work together) to generate
                                                      the basis for the best sales analytics. At their   the language of traditional marketing. The Pedowitz
revenue. This new way of working requires
                                                      core, these methodologies break the sales cycle    Group coined the term “Revenue Marketer™”
new metrics and analytics.
                                                      into stages and allow the sales executive to       in 2007 to describe this new breed of marketer.
We call this new measurement process                  track movement through the stages – which in       Debbie Qaqish, Chief Revenue Marketing Officer
‘Revenue Cycle Analytics’, and this new               turn lets them answer key questions such as        of The Pedowitz Group, says that these Revenue
way of working ‘Revenue Performance                   “how long is the sales cycle?” and “how much       Marketers™ use the language of business to describe
Management’.                                          pipeline coverage will help me hit my targets      their contributions with metrics that measure
                                                      for this quarter?”                                 pipeline, opportunities, and revenue. They measure
                                                      Traditionally, marketers have not applied          what matters to a CxO – and talk about these metrics
DEFINE THE REVENUE CYCLE                              the same level of rigor to their portions of       in terms their executive leadership can understand
                                                                                                         and evaluate.
                                                      the revenue cycle. This is unfortunate, since
The first step in Revenue Cycle Analytics is          it is the only way marketers will be able          At any given moment, a Revenue Marketer™ knows
to define the stages of the revenue cycle,            to understand how their activities move            how their key metrics stack up against their targets,
starting with potential buyer awareness and           prospects forward.                                 and what they plan to do to improve their results.
moving through marketing and sales to closed          That is why the foundation of Revenue Cycle
business and beyond. When marketing and               Analytics rests in clearly defined stages and
sales collaborate to formally define each stage,      clear rules for how prospects move through
as well as the business rules that determine          the stages over time.


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                              24
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics

Example: Marketo’s Revenue Cycle
Different companies will make different decisions about what                                                                        AWARENESS
definitions best suit their revenue cycles, but as a case study
example, here are Marketo’s definitions. The methodology
behind these definitions is in part responsible for Marketo’s
highly efficient revenue engine and fast growth.                                                                                    All Names




                                                                                                            Marketing
STAGE                     DEFINITION
                                                                                                                                     Engaged
All Names                 This is the entry point for everyone. We have purposely called this stage
                          “Names” because these individuals are not leads when they first enter the
                          funnel.
                                                                                                                                    Prospect &
Engaged                   This definition applies to those who show real engagement, such as attending                               Recycled
                          a webinar, downloading content from our website, or clicking an email that
                          we send. At this stage, we filter out the names that haven’t engaged with us
                          as a brand, such as those who simply threw business cards into our bowl at                    Nurturing
                          a trade show.                                                                                 Database




                                                                                                                                                                     MQL
                                                                                                                                       Lead




                                                                                                            SDR
Prospect                  This stage refers to qualified prospects that could buy one day, but aren’t yet
                          ready for engagement with sales. “Qualified” denotes the right kind of person
                          at the right kind of company, as determined by our “fit” scoring rules. This is                             Sales




                                                                                                                                                               SAL
                                                                                                                                      Lead
                          the first metric that we report to fellow executives and the board.




                                                                                                                                        Opportunity Customer
Lead                      These marketing-qualified leads are prospects that show enough behavioral




                                                                                                            Sales
                          engagement or buying intent that we want to call them.




                                                                                                                                                          SQL
Sales Lead                These leads have been qualified as “sales-ready” by a sales qualification rep.

Opportunity               The sales team has accepted these leads and added them to the pipeline as
                          a deal they are actively working.

Customer                  We have closed these deals and won new customer business. (These customers
                          are then passed on to a new revenue cycle for upsell and retention.)




        © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                          25
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Three Categories of Stages
Your company may use only a few revenue
stages, or you may model something more
sophisticated like Marketo’s model – but no
matter which specific stages you choose, there
are only three categories of stages:



CATEGORY                                          DEFINITION / TIMELINE                                            EXAMPLE

Inventory Stages                                  An inventory stage is a “holding pool” where leads and           Common examples of inventory stages include the prospect
                                                  accounts can sit for an unlimited amount of time until they’re   pool, where leads are nurtured until they are sales-ready;
                                                  ready to move to another stage.                                  active opportunities are not yet committed
                                                                                                                   to a certain timeline.

Gate Stages                                       A gate stage is a simple qualification check with no time        Assume your company only wants leads from companies of
                                                  dimension.                                                       $100+ million in revenue. In the gate stage, a lead will move
                                                                                                                   forward if his/her company has more than $100 million in
                                                                                                                   revenue. If not, the lead is disqualified.

SLA Stages                                        SLA stands for “service level agreement”. These stages denote    When a lead is deemed “sales-ready,” it can become
                                                  a defined time period in which a lead must be evaluated          a “marketing-qualified lead.” The appropriate sales
                                                  before moving forward or be eliminated from the process.         representative has 14 days to contact the lead and choose
                                                                                                                   to accept the lead, disqualify it, or recycle it back for further
                                                                                                                   nurturing. If a lead stays in this stage for over 14 days, it
                                                                                                                   becomes “stale,” which can trigger a process that alerts
                                                                                                                   sales management or even reassigns the lead to a different
                                                                                                                   sales rep.



      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                        26
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Revenue Stage Model Best Practices                    Detours                                          DETOUR       DISQUALIFIED     INACTIVE        RECYCLED       LOST
A best-practice revenue stage model is based          Of course, not all leads follow a linear
                                                                                                       STAGES
on three fundamental principles:                      success path, so make sure your model
                                                      also defines “detour stages” to capture
Sales resources are relatively expensive. To                                                           Definition   Names            Prospects       Qualified      Lost or
                                                      leads that are not qualified, or that require
provide the highest value, sales should not                                                                         marked as        who are non-    leads in       deferred
                                                      a few rounds of nurturing before they’re
engage with prospects until prospects are                                                                           not-in-profile   responsive      need of more   opportunities
                                                      sales-ready.
ready to engage with sales. Sales interactions                                                                                       over the last   nurturing      (ongoing
should start relatively late in the pipeline,         Transition Rules                                                               6 months                       nurturing)
once leads are well qualified, and use lower          As the final step in formulating your revenue
cost channels such as marketing to develop            stage model, you need to define the business
relationships with everyone else.                     rules that govern how and when your
                                                      prospects move from one stage to another.
No lead left behind. Don’t let potential              This includes how your leads move from the
customers end up in “lead purgatory.”                 traditional success path to various detour
Implement SLA stages wherever possible                stages and back again. For example:
to ensure your leads either flow forward or
are recycled back to marketing. Keep your             1. A person may move from Engaged to
inventory stages to a minimum – perhaps just             Prospect if their company reports annual
one in marketing – so prospective customers              revenue above $10 million and belongs to
don’t sit idle.                                          one of your target industries.
A prospect’s journey from initial awareness           2. A Prospect may become a Lead when his/
to customer is often non-linear. Sometimes               her Lead Score exceeds 100 points.
leads originally deemed “sales-ready” are not.
                                                      3. A Prospect may become Inactive
Because no lead should ever remain stagnant
                                                        if they don’t respond to a campaign or visit
in the system, these leads should be recycled
                                                        your website in more than six months.
back to marketing for nurturing.
                                                      4. An Inactive Lead may move back
                                                         to Prospect status if they respond to
                                                         a new program.


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                 27
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Example:
Marketo’s Complete Revenue Cycle
Below is Marketo’s final revenue cycle as             BENEFITS BEYOND ANALYTICS
shown in the Revenue Cycle Modeler. You’ll
note that it includes the success path stage,         A revenue cycle model creates a common language the entire
as well as detours and transition rules.              organization can use to measure results, understand the status of
                                                      any prospective customer, and define the actions required from each
                                                      department. Based on this, Sales and Marketing can better coordinate
                                                      their activities and ensure alignment throughout the revenue cycle.
                                                      A revenue stage model also provides operational benefits that improve
                                                      lead management processes. A revenue stage model can help you:

                                                      Customize lead nurturing based on each prospect’s location in the cycle
                                                      and automatically move prospects between nurturing tracks as they
                                                      move through the funnel.

                                                      Adjust lead scoring rules and sales alerts by stage. For example, you
                                                      might be interested if an early-stage prospect visits your pricing page,
                                                      but expect it from a late stage opportunity.

                                                      Trigger campaigns and sales actions as prospects transition from stage
                                                      to stage.

                                                      Define service level agreements for how long a lead can stay in certain
                                                      stages, and automatically send alerts and trigger campaigns when leads
                                                      go stale. For example, you can reassign a lead if no sales action is taken
                                                      within a specific time.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                  28
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




REVENUE CYCLE METRICS                                 METRIC          QUESTIONS IT WILL ANSWER                    EXAMPLES
THAT MATTER
                                                      Flow (Lead      How many people entered each stage          How many new prospects were created
With the model in place, marketers can begin          Generation)     in a given period?                          last month, and how many marketing qualified
to explore the four key “metrics that matter”:                        Are these trending up or down?              leads did we pass last week?
Flow, Balance, Conversion and Velocity.
This is where critical insight can be gained          Balance (Lead   How many people are in each                 How many active prospects do I have –
in measuring and optimizing marketing’s               Counts)         pipeline stage?                             since the size of my target prospect database
aggregate impact on revenue.                                          How many accounts?                          is a key leading indicator of future success?
                                                                      How does that vary by lead type?
                                                                      Are the balances going up or down
                                                                      over time?

                                                      Conversion      What is the conversion ratio                Which (if any) of my conversion rates
                                                                      from stage to stage?                        are trending up or down?
                                                                      Which types of leads have
                                                                      the best conversion rate?

                                                      Velocity        What is the average “revenue cycle” time?   Do certain types of leads move faster through
                                                                      How does it break down by stage?            the pipeline?
                                                                                                                  How is their speed changing over time?




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                   29
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




                                                                                                                      The larger your flow in any given
                                                                                                                      stage, the more meaningful these
                                                                                                                      metrics become.                                      QUESTION: SHOULD METRICS COUNT PEOPLE,
                                                                                                                      Companies that sell a lot of deals at lower          ACCOUNTS OR DOLLARS?
                                                                                                                      price points will find more significance in their
                                                                                                                      conversion metrics and flow than companies           People are the easiest variables to track across the
                                                                                                                      that sell fewer deals of greater size. But even      entire revenue cycle, but the value of these metrics
                                                                                                                      companies in the latter scenario will find           is limited because revenue usually comes from
                                                                                                                      meaningful flow and results data at the early        accounts, not individuals.
                                                                                                                      stages of their funnel. In this case, digging into   Accounts are relatively easy to track for later-stage
                                                                                                                      your earlier stages can serve as a valid proxy       deals, but CRM systems such as salesforce.com make
                                                                                                                      for marketing ROI.                                   it hard to track accounts for early-stage leads.
                                                                                                                      For example, a company that closes only              Dollars are what we want, but it is difficult to
                                                                                                                      several deals per quarter may find it more           accurately track revenue until the sales cycle. Also,
                                                                                                                      meaningful than a company closing many               if your deal amounts are highly variable (or just
                                                                                                                      deals to measure marketing’s results on              large), some of your marketing activities will show
                                                                                                                      qualified leads generated rather than                wild profits while others will not, based simply on
                                                                                                                      measuring closed business – especially the           whether a deal has closed. It’s a bit like playing
                                                                                                                      ROI of specific programs.                            roulette.
                                                                                                                                                                           Given these pros and cons, most companies
                                                                                                                                                                           (including Marketo) find that a mix of these three
                                                                                                                                                                           approaches is best.
Here is a screenshot of Marketo’s Revenue Cycle Analytics Dashboard. Note the ability to see the metrics that
matter: balance, flow, conversion, and velocity. The ability to track how all those metrics are trending over time
gives critical insight into trends versus historical benchmarks, and drilling down into performance by lead source,
business unit, geography, etc. helps to understand the aggregate revenue impact of each lead type.




       © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                                                   30
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Example: Marketo’s Metrics                            Opportunities. As discussed above, our
Understanding the conversion rates and                SDRs apply a very strict filter to what they
velocities of each stage in your revenue              qualify and pass onto the sales team. Our        LEAD DEFINITIONS & CONVERSION RATES:
cycle will help you better understand – and           SDRs only pass 7% of all Leads to our AEs        AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP
communicate – your revenue cycle economics.           as Sales Leads – but a full 80% of what they
                                                      pass gets converted to an Opportunity.           There will always be a trade-off between how strictly
Let’s use Marketo’s actual revenue cycle              It’s typical for more than one lead to be        you define your leads and the conversion rates you
metrics to illustrate:                                attached to each Opportunity, so the resulting   see as a result. At Marketo, we use behavioral lead
Paid Names. As of early 2011, Marketo spends          combined conversion between number of            scoring to determine when a Prospect becomes a
~$275,000 a month on various demand                   leads and number of opportunities is 4%. This    Lead that one of our Sales Development Representa-
generation programs to produce 9,500 new              means an incremental opportunity is worth        tives (SDRs) should contact.
paid Names each month.                                about $2,000 in terms of variable demand         For Marketo, it is relatively inexpensive for an SDR
                                                      generation investment.                           to call an incremental lead, but relatively expensive
Prospects. About 40% of paid Names
ultimately become Prospects, generating ¾             New Customers. Finally, Marketo wins about       in opportunity cost if we miss out on a potential
of all our Prospects; inbound programs                35% of all opportunities (the vast majority of   deal. For this reason, Marketo is relatively loose
generate the remaining ¼. Our average                 the others are deferred or no decision), so an   in what we call a Lead. At the same time, we don’t
investment per paid Prospect is $73, and the          incremental customer is worth about $5,800       want to annoy potential customers by calling them
average for all Prospects is $55.                     of marginal demand generation investment.        too early in the buying cycle. So we’ve set our
                                                                                                       scoring thresholds such that about 20% of all new
Conversion of Prospects to Leads. Typically,          This information is invaluable when it comes     Prospects become Leads within a short timeframe,
20% of our new Prospects become Leads in the          time to set and defend the marketing budget.     and about 4% of the active Prospect database
first month, and the rest enter our nurturing         At Marketo, we set the demand generation         becomes a Lead every month.
database. Slightly less than half of our Leads        budget by working backwards from how many
                                                      customers we want to close in future months.     But while we incur a relatively low cost on SDRs, it’s
come from new Prospects, and the rest come
                                                      It also allows us to answer precisely how        much more expensive when our Account Executives
from the nurture database. On average,
                                                      and when more (or less) budget will impact       (AEs) call Sales Leads. That’s why Marketo’s SDRs
4% of the nurture database becomes a Lead
                                                      revenue.                                         apply a very strict filter to which Leads they qualify
each month, and about 10% goes “inactive,”
                                                                                                       and pass on to the Sales Team. In fact, our SDRs pass
meaning they haven’t done anything in six
                                                                                                       only 7% of their Leads to Sales – but a full 80% of
months. About 40% of Prospects will become
                                                                                                       those Sales Leads convert to Opportunities.
Leads over a two-year period.


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                            31
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Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Drilling in by Lead Type                              Other examples might include industry,
                                                                                                        LEAD SOURCE                   CONVERSION RATIO              AVG TRANSITION              FLOW
Different types of leads will move through            product line, or channel source. Drilling in
                                                                                                                                      (ALL TYPES)                   TIME (DAYS)
the revenue stages differently; some will             by lead type is a great way to make better
have better conversion rates than others,             marketing investment and mix decisions. Not       Website                       47.77%                        14                          2465
some will convert faster than others. That’s          only can you parse the differences between
                                                      your conversion rates, velocities, and your       Online Ad                     13.87%                        29                          1736
why Revenue Cycle Analytics become even
more powerful when you can drill into the             investments required for each lead type;          Trade Show – Virtual          11.67%                        54                          1362
metrics that matter (balance, flow, conversion,       you’ll also be able to track what is trending
                                                                                                        Trade Show                    14.49%                        37                          946
velocity) by lead type.                               up and down.
                                                                                                        AppExchange                   50.88%                        15                          464
                                                      For example, if your leads for a certain source
 Important Lead Type Variables                        or product are converting faster than others,     Webinar                       17.03%                        38                          418
 A Lead Type is any specific category of              it may be a sign to invest more in that area.
 leads that may move through the revenue                                                                Alliance                      36.95%                        37                          313
 cycle differently. Examples include:                                                                   PPC_GS_US                     43.48%                        13                          260
 Lead source: Leads generated from                                                                      Not Available                 26.32%                        4                           234
 pay-per-click will usually convert faster
 than leads from purchased lists.                                                                       Sponsorship                   5.44%                         70                          229
                                                                                                        Partner                       8.82%                         55                          164
 Company size: Leads from large enterprises
 may convert more slowly than SMB leads.                                                                Content Syndication           10.04%                        37                          133
 Division: Whether your divisions are                                                                   Web Direct                    30.83%                        44                          115
 by geography, business unit or both,                                                                   Organic – Google              44.84%                        24                          113
 the leads from each division will likely
 behave differently.                                                                                    Web Referral                  51.63%                        40                          111
                                                                                                        Example of revenue cycle metrics by Lead Source. Here, we see Marketo’s Prospect to Lead conversion rates,
                                                                                                        flows, and velocities by lead source. This shows that Prospects from the AppExchange and Website are the
                                                                                                        highest quality and are most likely to convert to Leads; Prospects from PPC tend to convert the fastest; and
                                                                                                        Prospects from Sponsorships, Partners, Virtual Trade Shows, and Content Syndication convert at the slowest rate.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                                      32
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 4: Revenue Analytics




REVENUE PERFORMANCE                                              With an RPM mindset in place, companies       With this in mind, here are some additional
                                                                 begin to realize that the most important      metrics that effective RPM marketers can add
MANAGEMENT METRICS                                               marketing metrics are really about sales      to their own dashboards:
                                                                 effectiveness. In other words, the most
Revenue Performance Management (RPM)                                                                           -   Average selling price
                                                                 important questions you can answer about
is a strategy to optimize interactions with                                                                    -   Sales cycle times
                                                                 marketing’s results are:
buyers across the revenue cycle to accelerate                                                                  -   Sales productivity
predictable revenue growth. Because RPM                          1. What effects are marketing’s investments   -   Win rates
is about transforming how marketing and                          having on sales’ effectiveness and            -   Time to ramp a new sales rep
sales work – and work together – it requires                     productivity?
a new set of metrics that focus not on how                       2. How are marketing’s activities lowering
marketing or sales is performing, but on the                     the total expense-to-revenue ratio for
overall effectiveness and efficiency of the                      sales and marketing combined (e.g. how is
end-to-end revenue engine.                                       marketing improving the net revenue engine
The best way to measure the overall                              effectiveness)?
effectiveness of your revenue engine is to                       When you no longer focus on marketing
measure total revenue (or bookings, or gross                     in isolation, but rather on how marketing
margin) generated divided by the total spend                     impacts sales productivity, you will gain
on marketing and sales. This metric, more                        a much more comprehensive view of your
than any other, provides an accurate measure                     activities’ true ROI.
of your revenue engine’s efficiency.


                                                       (Total Revenue or Bookings)
Revenue Engine Effectiveness =
                                                  (Total Marketing and Sales Investment)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                               33
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 4: Revenue Analytics



The Big List of Revenue Metrics
Incorporating all these together, here’s
a broad list of metrics you can choose from
to measure your impact on revenue.


FLOW                                               CONVERSION                 IMPACT                      INVESTMENT                 SALES AND RPM              OTHER

# of New Names                                     % Name to Prospect         % of Pipeline Contributed   Investment per New         Average Selling Price      Balance of Active Prospects
                                                                              by Marketing                Names                                                 in key inventory stages

# Prospects                                        % Prospect to Marketing-   Value of Pipeline           Investment per Prospect    Sales Cycle Times          Balance of Open
                                                   Qualified Lead             Contributed by Marketing                                                          Opportunities

# Marketing Qualified                              % Marketing-Qualified      % of Wins Contributed by    Investment per Marketing   % Reps Making Quota        Velocity / Cycle Time for
Leads                                              Lead to Sales-Accepted     Marketing                   Qualified Lead                                        New Name to Lead
                                                   Lead

# Sales Accepted Leads                             % Sales-Accepted Lead to   Value of Revenue            Investment per Sales       Time To Ramp a New Sales   Velocity / Cycle Time for
                                                   Opportunity                Contributed by Marketing    Accepted Lead              Rep                        Opportunity to Win

# Opportunities                                    % Opportunity to Win                                   Investment per             RPM Efficiency = (Total    Key “Awareness” Metrics:
                                                                                                          Opportunity                Revenue) / (Total          web traffic, direct/branded
                                                                                                                                     Marketing + Sales          traffic, social followers, etc.
                                                                                                                                     Investment)

# Wins                                                                                                    Investment per Win         Total Period Revenue
                                                                                                                                     vs Quota

# Lost                                                                                                                               Discounts

# Churn                                                                                                                              Pipeline

                                                                                                                                     Renewals / Retention


       © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                              34
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Variants of Each Metric                               TRACKING METHOD                     BENEFIT
Each metric on the previous table will have
multiple variants depending on how you slice
                                                      By week, month and quarter          A regular cadence helps keep
and dice them, each of which will frame your
                                                                                          operational focus.
metrics in a different context to help you
make better decisions.
                                                      Trends over time                    Looking at your data over time
For example, you may look at the number                                                   helps you see if you’re improving.
of Marketing-Qualified Leads and conversion
rate from Prospect to Lead over time versus           Versus goals                        The best marketers set goals (weekly, monthly,
goals for each geographic region.                                                         and/or quarterly) for all key metrics, and
                                                                                          always track results AND results versus goals.
It can be costly and unwieldy to look at too
many variants too frequently, so pick the             Versus benchmarks                   Compare results (e.g. conversion rates) versus
number of metrics to track in keeping with                                                similar companies, as well as versus your own
your organization’s needs.                                                                company’s historical results.

                                                      By source                           Many companies look at lead flow and
                                                                                          opportunity creation by source (e.g. sales
                                                                                          created vs. marketing created).

                                                      By channel, product, region, etc.   The more complex your business, the more
                                                                                          important it is to track your key metrics on a
                                                                                          more granular level.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                            35
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 4: Revenue Analytics




Example: Marketo’s Key Revenue                        Here are some of the key metrics we track on    Lead to Opp %
Metrics                                               a monthly basis. We track Actual, Target, and
                                                                                                      Size of Target Prospect Database
At Marketo, we track five key metrics versus          Actual / Target %. We also track the 12-month
goals on a weekly basis, and 30 key metrics           trend for all these variants over time.         Size of Open Opportunity Pipeline
versus goals on a monthly/quarterly basis.              All Website Traffic                              Deferred or Lost Opps
                                                           Branded Traffic                               Net-Add Opps
Here are the key metrics Marketo tracks on
                                                           (Direct + “Marketo” Keyword)                  Won Opps
a weekly basis, as well as the key variants:
                                                           Blog Subscribers                              Dollar Value
1. New Prospects: New Since Last Week, New                 Facebook Monthly Users                     Total Demand Generation
   Month-To-Date, % On-Target
                                                        Total New Prospects                           Programs Investment
2. New Leads: New Since Last Week,                                                                      Demand Gen Investment Per Prospect
   New Month-To-Date, % On-Target                       Total New Leads                                 Demand Gen Investment Per Opportunity
                                                          New Target Active Leads
3. New Opportunities: New Since Last Week,                Target Latent Leads                         Total Marketing Investment
   New Month-To-Date, % On-Target                         Inbound Leads                               (All Programs + All Headcount)
                                                          SMB Leads • West                              Total Marketing Investment
4. Size of Target Prospect Database:                                                                    Per Opportunity
   Size today plus trend over 12 months                   SMB Leads • East
                                                          Enterprise Leads                            Total Bookings
5. Size of Open Opportunity Pipeline:                     International Leads                           SMB
   Size today plus trend over 12 months                                                                 Enterprise
                                                        Total New Opportunities
6. New Business Closed: Month-To-Date,                    Marketing/SDR Opps                            Channel
   vs Quota, % On-Target                                  Sales Outbound Opps                           International
                                                          Referral Opps                                 Install Base
7. Upsell Business Closed: Month-To-Date, vs
   Quota, % On-Target                                     SMB Opps • West                             Average Selling Price
                                                          SMB Opps • East
8. Renewals Business Closed: Month-To-Date,               Enterprise Opps                             Average Discount
   vs Quota, % On-Target                                  International Opps                          Retention / Churn




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                 36
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       37
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




WHY MEASURING MARKETING                               larger companies or more complex purchases,
                                                      such a committee can involve 21 or more
PROGRAMS IS DIFFICULT                                 influencers. Different marketing programs affect       DON’T GO OVERBOARD ON PROGRAM
                                                      each individual differently, so it is a challenge to   MEASUREMENT
It’s easy to ask the question, “What kind of          know which programs have the most impact.
results do my programs deliver?” However,                                                                    Marketing measurement should not be about
determining the answer can be very difficult.         Extraneous variables. In many cases, factors           proving ROI, but improving ROI. Jim Lenskold points
Some of the key challenges to marketing               outside marketing’s control can significantly          out that marketers tend to overemphasize their
program measurement are:                              impact program results – from macro-economic           assessments of media and marketing channels, since
                                                      trends to the weather to the quality of the            these align to the budget allocation process and tend
Knowing when to measure. The money you                sales reps. If revenues increased because the          to be visible to the CFO and other executives.
invest today will have an uncertain impact at an      economy improved, can marketers claim their
uncertain point in the future. Last month’s trade     programs delivered better ROI?                         In the end, the revenue metrics in Part 4 are
show may deliver results next month or perhaps                                                               usually more important than program effectiveness
                                                      Measuring the contribution that a given                measurement.
not for two years, but marketers need to decide       marketing program has on revenue and
where to invest their budgets today.                  profits has been the holy grail of marketing
                                                      measurement ever since John Wanamaker
Multiple touches. Conventional marketing              famously remarked, “Half of the money
wisdom says at least seven touches are needed         I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble
in order to convert a cold lead into a sale.          is, I don’t know which half.”
Whether or not this is the correct number every
marketer knows it takes multiple touches to           Perhaps the most common question marketers
create a customer. This fact makes it difficult to    ask is, “Did this program (trade show, email blast)
allocate revenue to any specific touch.               deliver results?”
Multiple influencers. According to                    This section is all about how marketers can
MarketingSherpa, the average buying committee         answer this challenging question – and build
for a five-figure purchase at a mid-sized             a sensible framework for measuring the
company comprises six people. In the case of          effectiveness of their decisions.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                38
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




Methods to Measure Marketing Program ROI              Each sequential method on this list will give        How lead generation marketers
Just because measuring marketing ROI is hard          you a more accurate view into your customer          measure marketing programs:
doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Fortunately,            value data – but this additional insight comes
various methods exist to give companies               with a corollary rise in cost and complexity. As a
insight into their various programs’ levels of        result, most organizations begin the process of
effectiveness:                                        marketing program measurement with the first
                                                      and second methods and begin to experiment                                 45%
                                                      with more approaches as they move up the                                   Single Attribution
                                                      maturity curve.



                                                              LESS ACCURATE         LESS COST                   20%
                                                                                                                No tracking
1. Single Attribution (First Touch / Last Touch)

2. Single Attribution with Revenue Cycle Projection                                                                                                      21%
                                                                                                                                                         Attribute Across
3. Attribute across Multiple Programs and People                                                                                                         Multiple Programs
                                                                                                                                                         and People
                                                                                                                                   11%
4. Test and Control Groups                                                                                                         Test and
                                                                                                                                   Control
5. Full Market Mix Modeling                                                                                                        Groups

                                                                INCREASED           INCREASED                                                     3%
                                                                  INSIGHT           COMPLEXITY
                                                                                                                                                  Market Mix Modeling
                                                                                                           (Source: The Lenskold Group /
                                                                                                           eMedia Lead Generation Marketing ROI study)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                              39
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           PROS AND CONS OF SINGLE ATTRIBUTION
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           (FIRST TOUCH / LAST TOUCH)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Pros                                   Cons
  METHOD
   ONE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Relatively easy implementation and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           low cost
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Doesn’t account for the influence of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  subsequent touches– so insights are
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  directional at best
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Provides good insight into the early
SINGLE ATTRIBUTION                                                                                                                                                       The most common methodology for tracking the                                                      stages of the revenue cycle            Attributes too much credit to lead
                                                                                                                                                                         results of marketing programs is to assign all the
(FIRST TOUCH / LAST TOUCH)                                                                                                                                               value to the first (or last) program that touched                                                 Works well when the majority
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  generation programs and not enough
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  to nurturing touches or contributions
                                                                                                                                                                         the deal. This usually means allocating the                                                       of investments are made in lead
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  from sales
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           generation instead of lead nurturing
                                                                                                                                                                         deal to the source of the first person from that
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Hard to account for quality until the deal
                                                                                                                                                                         company, or to the key person.                                                                    Gives straightforward insight into
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  closes; can be skewed by a particularly
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           “investment per” lead metrics          large deal or long sales cycle



                                                                                                       Program Analyzer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           SINGLE            DEFINITION                  EXAMPLE
                                                                                                                 New                         Analyzer Settings                 Print                     PDF                                                               ATTRIBUTION
             Default
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           First Touch       First touch attribution     If a company held
                                                 Program Analyzer

                 Standard Reports
                                New                                          Analyzer Settings
                                                                                                      Filter: Driver: Chris, Shonal | Location: San Francisco, New York
                                                                                                           Print   PDF

   Default
                      Lead Reports
                                                Filter: Driver: Chris, Shonal | Location: San Francisco, New York
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Settings                                            allocates all the value     a webinar and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             to the FIRST program        generated a Lead that
      Standard Reports
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                X Axis
         Lead Reports        Leads by Campaign                                                                                                                         Settings
                                                                                                                2,000,00,000




                                                                                                                                                                              X Axis


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             that touched the            closed a deal one year
              Leads by Campaign
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            G"4.$
                                                          2,000,00,000




              Leads by Month Leads by Month                                                                                                                               G"4.$



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             deal. Typically this is     later, that company
         Email Reports
                      Email Reports
         Campaign Reports
                                                                                                                                                                          From: 2500          To: 8000


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            From: 2500          To: 8000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             the Lead Source.            would give revenue
         Company Reports                                                                                                       Program: Webinar                               Y Axis
                      Campaign Reports                                                                                         Cost $53,000
                                       Pipeline Dollars




         Web Page Reports                                                                                                      Pipeline Contribution: $10,000             S'2)6'*)$T"66%#4$

                                                                                                                                                                                              Program: Webinar                                  Y Axis
                      Company Reports
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         credit to the initial
      Revenue Cycle Analytics                                                                                                  Contributing Leads: 45
                                                                                                                               Tags
                                                                                                                                                                           From: 1000         To: 4500
         Example Reports                                                                                                       Location: San Francisco
                                                                                                                                                                                              Cost $53,000
                                                                                             Pipeline Dollars




                      Web Page Reports                                                                                                                                                                                                      S'2)6'*)$T"66%#4$
                                                                                                                                                                                              Pipeline Contribution: $10,000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         webinar.
         My Models                                                               Program: Webinar                                                                              Bubble Size
         Analyzers                                                               Cost $53,000                                                                             M)37)#4$
                 Revenue Cycle Analytics                                         Pipeline Contribution: $500,000                                                                              Contributing Leads: 45
              Success Path Analyzer                                              Contributing Leads: 45
              Comparison Analyzer
                                                                                 Tags                                                                                     From: 400
                                                                                                                                                                                              Tags
                                                                                                                                                                                              To: 600
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             From: 1000         To: 4500
                      Example Reports
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Last touch attribution      If a Lead becomes
                                                                                 Driver: Chris
                                                                                                                                                                                              Location: San Francisco
              Opportunity Analyzer

              Program Analyzer
                                                                                 Location: New York                                                                            Color
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Last Touch
                      My Models                                                                                                                      Program: Webinar                                                                            Bubble Size
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             gives revenue credit        a Prospect after
                                                                                                                                                                          N-,,)44$M)37)#4$
                                                          0




              Contribution Analyzer

                      Analyzers
              Batting Average Analyz
                                                                         0
                                                                                                                                                     Cost $53,000
                                                                                                                                                              200,000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            M)37)#4$
                                                                                                                                   20,3)$
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             to the LAST program         watching a product
                                                                                                                                                                        From: 400 To: 6000
                                                                                                                                                     Pipeline Contribution: $500,000
                            Success Path Analyzer                                                                                                    Contributing Leads: 45
                            Comparison Analyzer
                                                                                                                                                     Tags
                                                                                                                                                     Driver: Chris
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            From: 400           To: 600                      that touched the lead       demo, that demo
                            Opportunity Analyzer                                                                                                     Location: New York                                                                          Color
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             before the key action       would receive revenue
                            Program Analyzer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            N-,,)44$M)37)#4$
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             was taken.                  credit, even though a
                                                                                                                0




                            Contribution Analyzer
                                                                                                                               0                                                                                               200,000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         sales rep had nurtured
                            Batting Average Analyz
                                                                                                                                                                                                         20,3)$                             From: 400           To: 6000                                                 the Lead in several
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         other ways.


             © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 40
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   TWO
SINGLE ATTRIBUTION WITH                               Solution: revenue cycle projections
                                                      By adding revenue cycle projections to
REVENUE CYCLE PROJECTIONS                             a first touch single attribution, you can gain     PROS AND CONS OF SINGLE ATTRIBUTION
An obvious disadvantage of first and last
                                                      deeper insight into the long-term impacts          WITH REVENUE CYCLE PROJECTION
                                                      of your programs. For example, instead of
touch attribution is that today’s marketing           waiting to see the actual results of a trade       Pros                          Cons
investments may not pay off for quite some            show, this approach looks at what impact
time, so the ROI of your current marketing            the trade show had at the top of the revenue       Focuses on revenue impact     Attributes value to lead
programs remains in limbo.                                                                               of programs, not just top     sources without accounting
                                                      cycle and embellishes that view by estimating                                    for the influence of other
                                                                                                         of the funnel
Approaches to marketing ROI measurements              the trade show’s long-term impact based on                                       marketing touches
that do not properly account for the time-to-         historical conversion metrics.                     Uses estimates to quantify
                                                                                                         the future value of today’s   Uses past performance to
investment payoff can lead to decisions that          In the example model on the next page, Trade                                     estimate future results,
                                                                                                         investments
bias towards short-term gains over building           Show 1 occurred a year ago and shows a                                           so cannot incorporate
true long-term value. This applies across all                                                            Uses lead quality, not
                                                      fairly good picture of its returns. In contrast,                                 underlying changes
industries, but its impact is especially acute in                                                        just quantity, to evaluate
                                                      Trade Show 2 just happened last week. With         programs                      Requires that estimates
companies with considered-purchase products           the basic first touch single attribution model,                                  must eventually be backed
and long revenue cycles.                              Trade Show 2 looks as if it has delivered very                                   up with actual results
                                                      poor results. But this is not an apples-to-
                                                      apples comparison.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                   41
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   TWO

PROGRAM                   INVESTMENT              DATE        ALL TOUCHED   PROSPECTS   LEADS        OPPS        WINS        PIPELINE        REVENUE

Trade Show 1               $18,000                Last Year   901           560         207          17          5           $421,082        $117,903

Trade Show 2               $12,000                Last Week   1,012         517         21           1           0           $15,946         $–


However, when we apply revenue cycle
understanding of how leads from similar trade
shows have converted over time to the above
model, we are able to estimate what the total
future impact of the trade show
will be.


PROGRAM                   INVESTMENT              DATE        ALL TOUCHED   PROSPECTS   EST. LEADS   EST. OPPS   EST. WINS   EST. PIPELINE   EST. REVENUE

Trade Show 1               $18,000                Last Year   901           560         209          21          7           $590,510        $161,214

Trade Show 2               $12,000                Last Week   1,012         517         221          18          7           $663,221        $258,656


Think of it this way. When discussing
a recent marketing program, would you rather
say, “The event was great; 500 people stopped
by the booth,” or “The event was great; 500
people stopped by the booth, and we expect
to add an incremental $600,000 to pipeline
over the next 12 months as a result?”


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                             42
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   TWO
Marketo Case Study Example
Marketo relies mostly on Single Attribution with
Revenue Cycle Projection to internally assess its                                                 KEY INSIGHTS:                                           COLUMN DEFINITIONS:
program results. Below is a summary of some
of our recent program results:                                                                    Inbound leads are by far the highest quality, fastest   Sources above the line are programs with variable
                                                                                                  moving, and most likely to convert to opportunities.    demand generation program investments. Those
SOURCE                       PROSPECTS             INVESTMENT     % LEAD   VELOCITY   LEAD TO     This reflects the fact that our website does not        below the line are Sources with fixed investments
                                                   PER PROSPECT            (DAYS)     OPP INDEX   require registration for early-stage content but does   only.
                                                                                                  for buying-oriented content, so any Prospect who
                                                                                                                                                          Prospects show the total flow (number) of new
Trade Show – Virtual         3,793                 $25.44         17%      81         1.0         actually does register on the website is likely to be
                                                                                                                                                          Prospects from each Source.
                                                                                                  later in their buying process.
3rd Party Email to                                                                                                                                        Investment per Prospect lists the average variable
                                                                                                  On the other hand, we meet prospects at every
Promote Content              3,302                 $34.65         18%      43         0.5                                                                 investment per Prospect from that Source.
                                                                                                  stage in the buying process with paid programs.
                                                                                                                                                          % Lead shows the likelihood that a Prospect from
Trade Show                   2,703                 $221.30        23%      61         1.9         Taking all the costs and conversion rates into
                                                                                                                                                          that Source will convert to a lead over a 12-month
                                                                                                  account, virtual trade shows are the best performing
                                                                                                                                                          time period.
Paid Webinar                 1,760                 $68.50         21%      60         1.0         source; followed by PPC, paid webinars, and using
                                                                                                  third-party email lists to promote our content.         Velocity shows the average time it takes a Prospect
Pay per Click Search         990                   $158.10        45%      42         1.4                                                                 from that Source to convert to a Lead.
                                                                                                  In-person trade shows are not a cost-effective way
                                                                                                  to generate new Leads (though they can be useful to     Lead to Opp Index shows the relative likelihood
Content Syndication          536                   $82.84         12%      59         0.3         accelerate movement from existing leads).               that a Lead from that Source will convert to an
                                                                                                                                                          Opportunity. (For example, Leads from the website
Other Paid                   208                   $187.50        13%      93         1.3         Content syndication tends to generate very early
                                                                                                                                                          are 2.6 times more likely to turn into Opportunities
                                                                                                  stage Prospects that do not convert.
                                                                                                                                                          than leads from a virtual trade show.)
Website                      2,871                                58%      27         2.6

Sales Prospecting            1,888                                26%      46         2.2

Partner Co-Marketing         903                                  17%      102        1.1

Other Inbound                370                                  100%     19         9.0

       © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                               43
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   THREE

ATTRIBUTE ACROSS MULTIPLE                             By Time: You may want to weight some touches
                                                      over others based on when they occurred in
PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE                                   relation to the action that delivered value. This   EXAMPLE OF ATTRIBUTING ACROSS
                                                      assumption is especially true for programs that     MULTIPLE PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE
This approach recognizes that it takes multiple       happen immediately before the key behavior.
touches from multiple people to close a deal,         For example, the fact the prospect attended last    Assume a deal worth $100,000 recently closed.
and attempts to measure the contribution of           week’s webinar may have more to do with them        Three people were involved in the deal:
each individual touch.                                becoming a lead than the white paper they           Person A attended Trade Show 1 and Seminar 2.
How to Track and Analyze Allocations                  downloaded and trade show they attended
                                                      12 months ago.                                      Person B attended Trade Show 1 only.
First things first. Start with the action you are
analyzing (pipeline creation, closed revenue,         By Role: You may give more weight to programs       Person C was sent Direct Mail 1 and clicked to
etc.) and work backwards to identify each             that touched the key decision maker than those      the website.
significant touch that affected all of the contacts   affecting other influencers. Just be sure your      In this scenario, you might give $50K credit to Trade
associated with that particular deal – but make       weighting matches your business realities – a       Show 1, $25K to Seminar 2, and $25K to Direct Mail 1.
sure you account for only the touches that            CEO shouldn’t be weighted more heavily than
occurred before the action was taken. You will        a Manager if he or she has little impact on the
track each touch and contact person from here.        deal.
Once you compile a comprehensive list, you            By Program Type: Some marketers will choose
need to allocate portions of the resulting deal       to weight certain types of touches more heavily
                                                                                                          PROS AND CONS OF ATTRIBUTION ACROSS MULTIPLE PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE
to each one – including count, pipeline, revenue,     than others, based on the level of engagement.      Pros                                              Cons
profit, and so on. This is where things can get       For example, attending a two-hour seminar may
tricky, so refer to our best practice guidelines:                                                         Incorporates nurturing touches as well as lead    Requires assumptions that can add bias to the
                                                      have more impact than a simple website visit.       generation                                        analysis
Allocation Methodologies                              However, be careful not to give more weight to
                                                      more expensive programs just because they cost      Especially useful for long revenue cycles with    Important to find any possible “hidden”
Before you allocate your revenues across                                                                  many touches                                      contributors, including online and sales activity
multiple programs and people, you need to             more – that opens you up to other executives
decide how to weight each touch point – if at all.    questioning your assumptions.                       Focuses on all contacts associated with a deal,   Lacks insight into synergy of tactics, no
                                                                                                          not just the first                                correlations or connections
                                                                                                                                                            Risk of over-crediting low impact touch points,
                                                                                                                                                            especially if you weight all touches equally



      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                               44
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Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   THREE
The first step in attribution across multiple                                  all the relevant contacts associated with an
programs and people is to track all the                                        opportunity. Once you have that, you need to
significant touches – including programs,                                      allocate the value of the opportunity to each                                                 WHEN YOU ASSUME YOU MAKE AN ASS OUT
online activity, sales activity, etc. – that affect                            of the touches.                                                                               OF U AND ME
                                                                                                                                                                             Assumptions may be necessary when using
                                                                                                                                                                             multi-touch attribution, but they inherently add
                                                                                                                                                                             a subjective element to any ROI analysis. So no
                                          Account Analyzer       Publish Settings
                                                                                                                                                       Add more people       matter what allocation assumptions you make, be
                                              New       Analyzer Actions           Print        PDF
                                                                                                                                                       to this opportunity   sure you can defend them in front of your executive
   Against Score or Against the                                                                                                                        like a consultant
      Default
                                                                                                                                                                             leadership and board – otherwise you risk hurting
   Model as the LINE dimension               View: Score Mode       Account: Acme Inc
          Standard Reports
                                                                                                                    Star = Role in Opty
                                                                                                                                                  Acme Inc
                                                                                                                                                                             the credibility of the entire analysis.
            Lead Reports                  Account Analyzer                                                             Activity
                                                                                                      Interesting
                Leads by Campaign         Edit me and clone me                                                         Logged                       Joe Smith (8)
                                                                                                      Moment                                        Nancy Jones (12)
                Leads by Month
                                        80                                                                                                          Phil McCloud (4)
            Email Reports
                                                                                                                                                    Frank Johnston (3)
            Campaign Reports
                                        70                                                                                                          Freddie Rainbow (1)
            Company Reports
                                                                                                                                                    Harold Scotsman (0)
            Web Page Reports
                                        60
                                                                                                                                                    Jamal Tucker (0)
          Revenue Cycle Analytics

            Example Reports             50
            My Models
                                                                                                                                      Checking box includes
            Analyzers                   40                                                                          Opty              their history – these
               Success Path Analyzer                                                                                Created           are people attached
               Comparison Analyzer      30                                                                                            to the account but not
                                                                              Program : Webinar
               Opportunity Analyzer                                           Cost per Lead: $21                                      the opty
                                        20                                    Success: ?
               Program Analyzer
               Contribution Analyzer                                                                                                             Ability to right click on
                                        10
                                                                                                                      Web Activity               a name and add a role
               Batting Average Analyz
                                                                                                                                                 to an opty right here
                                                       Time Axis (By first touch for any lead “checked” to last)



This is a screenshot of the Marketo Influencer Analyzer. You can
see every time an opportunity touches a contact.


       © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                                               45
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   FOUR

TEST AND CONTROL GROUPS                               Putting it to practice                                             2500
                                                      With test and control groups, you need to
A great way to measure the true impact                apply the program or treatment that you                            2000
of a particular marketing program is to test          want to measure to one component of your
                                                      target buyer group, and not to another




                                                                                                         Outcome Units
the effectiveness of that initiative against a                                                                           1500
well-formed control group by comparing the            homogeneous part of that group. All other                                                                                     Control group adjusted
two groups’ results. Of course, this means you        factors being equal, you’ll be able to attribute                                                                              to treatment group size

need to plan your programs to be testable             any difference in buyer behavior between the                       1000           Baseline includes
from the get-go.                                      two groups to the particular program.                                             all other marketing
                                                                                                                                        and non-marketing
Almost anything can be measured using                 Say, for example, that you want to measure                         500

proper test design, but it’s prohibitively            the impact of one of your brand advertising
expensive to test everything.                         campaigns on target awareness. One potential                         0
                                                      approach would be to split your market into                               1   2        3       4        5    6      7     8        9       10     11      12
                                                      two equal geographic parts, and spend twice                                                                 Time Period
                                                      as much on one group than the other. You
                                                      can compare the behaviors of these two                                                                                                 Baseline         Campaign
                                                      market segments to analyze your campaigns
                                                      effectiveness – did you experience more              Source: Lenskold Group
                                                      growth in direct and branded search from the
                                                      geography with more spending? Assuming
                                                      all other marketing and sales influencers on
                                                      these two groups were the same, you can
                                                      credit any difference in traffic growth to your
                                                      brand advertising spend.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                                      46
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Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   FOUR
Test design                                           The importance of statistical
The outcome metric (what you measure) can             significance
be anything: revenue, profit, leads, search           You don’t need to go overboard, but                                                 ANOTHER OPTION: PRE-POST TESTING
traffic, conversion rates, average selling price,     you do need to make sure the difference
etc. – or all of them. This is good in situations     between your control and test groups is                                             A common, much less rigorous form of testing is
where it may be hard to see the impact of the         statistically significant in comparison with                                        to compare your results before your marketing
program on things like revenue.                       average standard deviations. Eighty percent                                         program to your results after – or to project what
                                                      confidence should be good enough – we’re not                                        the outcomes WOULD have looked like without the
You can also test almost anything, including:                                                                                             touch, based on historical trends.
                                                      talking about drug testing or other things that
Programs and tactics. Did that particular             require 99% confidence.
webinar have an impact?                                                                                                                   Pro: This approach doesn’t give all the credit to the
                                                      For more on testing statistics, see Marketo’s                                       marketing touch since it assumes you would have
Messages. Which message and/or copy                   The Ultimate Guide to Test Statistics.                                              some existing sales without it. No one wants to be
resonated the most with you target audience?                                                                                              the brunt of the joke that says, “If results are up,
                                                                                                                                          marketing gets credit. If results are down, it must
Contact frequency. How often should we
                                                                                                                                          be something else.”
send an email?
Spending levels. What happens if we double            PROS AND CONS OF TEST AND CONTROL GROUPS                                            Cons: It’s difficult to account for seasonal or cyclical
investment in display advertising?                    Pros                                      Cons                                      effects. Pre-Post testing doesn’t have a rigorous
                                                                                                                                          control group in which all other factors are the same.
It’s also possible to measure combinations
                                                      More sophisticated and analytical –       Focused on specific tactics – can’t       Other factors – such as the economy, sales initiatives,
of touches rather than just single touches.
                                                      reveals the true impact of a marketing    report on effectiveness of all programs   and other marketing programs – can still influence
This is a great way to test lead nurturing
                                                      program                                                                             the results.
tacks – allowing you to test and measure the                                                    Almost everything can be tested, but
effectiveness of one entire lead nurturing            Can measure almost any impact on          it’s prohibitively expensive to test
                                                      almost anything with the right test       everything                                Pre-post testing can give you directional information
track versus another rather than individual
                                                                                                                                          about program effectiveness, but since it can’t
emails, etc. Should you want to test multiple         Relatively low cost if you can design a   Only works when you’ve incorporated       eliminate non-marketing factors, it’s an estimate
campaigns at one time, you can also use               decent control group                      variance to support program
                                                                                                                                          at best.
multivariate testing methodologies.                                                             measurement




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                 47
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Part 5: Program Measurement




  METHOD
   FIVE

FULL MARKET MIX MODELING                              • Search advertising gets credit
                                                        for 3x5=$15M
Market Mix Modeling (MMM) shows how
                                                      • Display advertising gets credit                    PROS AND CONS OF MARKET MIX MODELING
                                                        for 2x5=$10M
sales volume outcomes are dependent on                                                                     Pros                           Cons
                                                      • Trade shows receive credit
various independent marketing touches
                                                        for 1.5x10=$15M
and other non-marketing factors by using                                                                   Very accurate                  Needs lots of data; can
statistical techniques, such as regression. Only                                                                                          be costly to collect all the
3% of B2B marketers currently use this model
                                                      (MMM)aking it your own                               Measures the impact of all
                                                                                                                                          required historical data
                                                      As you might imagine after seeing this               programs – and all external
to measure marketing ROI.                                                                                  factors as well                Requires sophisticated
                                                      example, the selection of your independent
Here’s a sample statistical equation                  variables can be a complicated affair – and          Gives insight into program     analytical skills
(albeit an extremely simplified example):             arguably involves as much art as it does             effectiveness and efficiency   Focus on short-term
                                                      science. You’re likely to find that you’ll expend                                   sales changes can
Company X makes $165M in revenue.                     the most of your resources – both in time and
Company X spends:                                                                                                                         undervalue longer-term
                                                      money – in collecting your data, not analyzing it.                                  brand building activities
 $5M on search advertising.
 $5M on display advertising.                          Regardless, make sure you drill down to
 $10M on trade shows.                                 the science of your own MMM equation by
                                                      incorporating all factors that might impact
Company X’s marketing mix model                       your output. Possible factors include:
might have an equation like this:
Sales=125M+3.0*h+2.0*Display+1.5*Trade Show           • Pricing
                                                      • Promotion/advertising
This equation shows that, without                     • Product
Marketing, Company X would have                       • Place
made $125M in sales. And of the $40M in               • Distribution
revenue generated by marketing:                       • Sales
                                                      • Competitive moves
                                                      • The economy
                                                      • And so on…



      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                      48
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Part 5: Program Measurement




PROGRAM-SPECIFIC METRICS – WHAT                       Email Metrics
                                                        Unsubscribe rate
                                                                             Communications Metrics
                                                                               No of press releases
                                                                                                               Direct Mail
                                                                                                                 Eyes On
YOU SHOULD MEASURE AND TRACK                            Bounce rate            No of interviews                  Delivery Rate
                                                        Open rate              No of press events                Response Rate
While CMOs should be using methods                      Click-through rate     Volume of coverage                Cost Per Conversion
like attribution and market mix modeling                                       Share of voice
to determine program effectiveness and                Webinar Metrics                                          Customer Metrics
contribution, campaign- and program-specific           Attendee rate         Website Metrics                     Churn Rate
metrics should not be ignored. While less              Drop-off rate          Views/Visitors                     Customer Lifetime Value
relevant to the CEO, these will be early               Engagement rate        Unique Views                       Share of Wallet
indicators of market changes, and will help                                   Backlinks                          Customer Engagement
                                                      Event Metrics
track growth so program managers can ensure                                   Conversions
                                                        Registration
proper campaign mix.                                    Attendees            Blog Metrics
This list may represent only some of the                Satisfaction           Posts
programs you run; it’s important to capture                                    Subscribers
                                                      Social Media Metrics
information across your marketing mix. Here                                    Views/Visitors
                                                        Gross views
are a few metrics you may want to track on                                     Unique visitors
                                                        Connections
a regular basis, organized by program type:                                    Social shares
                                                        Mentions
                                                        Activity             Online Ad
                                                        Engagement             Impressions
                                                        Conversions            Cost Per Click (CPC)
                                                        Sentiment              Cost Per Thousand Views (CPM)
                                                                               Cost Per Conversion (CPC
                                                                               Cost Per Action (CPA)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                            49
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Part 5: Program Measurement




CONCLUSION: PROGRAM                                   Quality trumps quantity. You’ll benefit
                                                      your company and improve your marketing
MEASUREMENT APPLIED                                   programs more with a few fine-tuned
                                                      measurements than a handful of inaccurate,
It is no small task to maneuver through the           inconclusive metrics. Start in small, bite-sized
various program measurement models and                chunks, and go from there.
methodologies that are available to you – and
if you’re among the 20% of B2B marketers              What you put in is what you’ll get out.
who don’t yet measure the ROI of their                When you strategically invest your time and
marketing programs, then getting starting may         financial resources in developing a marketing
seem like a daunting prospect. But before you         measurement model, you position yourself
get too overwhelmed, remember that:                   for future success. You’ll optimize your
                                                      overall program mix and prune individual
You’re not alone on the learning curve.               top-performing programs to increase company
According to a recent MMA/Forrester/ANA               sales, profits and market share. Who doesn’t
study, 87% of senior marketers did not feel           want that kind of reputation?
confident in their ability to impact the sales
forecast of their programs. Said differently,
this means you have the ability to snag
a competitive advantage over 87% of
your competition!




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                          50
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Part 6: Marketing Forecasting




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       51
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 6: Marketing Forecasting




At executive staff and board meetings, the            Methodology for Marketing Forecasting
number one topic of discussion is never an            Though the details can get quite sophisticated,
upcoming marketing program or the new                 the methodology for making accurate               HIGHLY ACCOUNTABLE MARKETING
brand strategy – it’s almost always the sales         marketing forecasts is simple in concept.         FORECASTS
forecast, and there’s usually little to no input
from the CMO.                                         1. Model the stages of the revenue cycle, and     We are not discussing “traditional” marketing
                                                         then measure how each type of lead moves       forecasts, which take the form of a top-down market
It’s no wonder most executives don’t                     through the various stages (conversion         size analysis. Those kinds of forecasts can be useful
consider marketing to be an essential part               percentage and velocity). This was             for strategic planning, but do not have the sufficient
of the revenue team.                                     discussed in Part 4.                           granular and actionable data required to compliment
Long-Term Visibility                                  2. Get accurate inputs for how many new           the sales forecast.
Sales forecasts are based on what specific               leads of each type the marketing team will     Highly accountable marketing forecasts enable the
accounts will do at specific times, so they              put into the system over future periods.       CMO to make statements such as, “Next quarter,
become increasingly inaccurate the further                                                              marketing will generate an incremental 30 new
out you look. And the shorter the sales cycle,        3. Model the flow of current and new leads
                                                         through the various stages over time.          deals worth $4.0 million of bookings that are not
the worse the problem.                                                                                  currently in the sales forecast.” Done right, the
In contrast, when marketing takes                     4. Review the results and apply management        marketing forecast gives a CMO the confidence
responsibility for the early stages of the               judgment to finalize the forecast.             to stake a portion of his or her compensation on
revenue cycle, they have better visibility                                                              meeting the goal, and a CSO relies on marketing’s
into future period revenue. Marketing                                                                   input to make a valid forecast for the period.
executives can forecast how many new leads,
opportunities, and customers marketing will
yield in future periods because they know
how many prospects are in each revenue
cycle stage – and how they are likely to move
through each stage over time.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                             52
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Part 6: Marketing Forecasting




Get Accurate Inputs                                   Review Results and Apply
Marketing forecasts are subject to the rule           Management Judgment
of “garbage in, garbage out”. You will need           Of course, these numbers are just estimates
an accurate estimate of how many new leads            and assume your conversion rates will remain
will flow into the system in any given period,        steady over time. Marketing and sales can
by type, to serve as the fuel for your revenue        and will affect the conversion rates, and you
engine.                                               need to take this into account. That is why
                                                      it’s essential for marketers to apply executive
Model Flow through the                                judgment to their model projections before
Revenue Stages                                        finalizing their forecasts. For example, CMOs
Project your revenue cycle forward by                 at larger companies will need to “roll-up” the
modeling how existing and new leads will              marketing forecast from multiple divisions
convert through the various revenue stages            (product, geography, etc.) into one top-level
over time. If your understanding of conversion        forecast, sometimes lowering the forecast
rates and inputs are accurate, you will create        from divisions that habitually overestimate
a solid projection of what the revenue funnel         their results.
will deliver in future periods.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                         53
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Part 6: Marketing Forecasting




                                                        MARKETING FORECAST          -4       -3           -2           -1           CUR          +1    +2    +3
                                                        Commit                      244      254          263          263          273          282   295   302

Commit, Target, Forecast                                Target                      257      266          276          286          292          302   311   321
Any CMO making marketing forecasts should               -4                          257      266          276          286          -            -     -     -
be rigorous about the difference between
Commit, Target and Forecast.                            -3                          -        273          276          270          276          -     -     -
• Commit is the number that the CMO can                 -2                          -        -            305          276          276          289   -     -
  guarantee and should not vary frequently;
  this is the number to use as the basis for the        Previous Month              -        -            -            276          282          302   311   -
  CMO’s quota / bonus.
                                                        Current Month               -        -            -            -            294          305   315   331
• Target is a number higher than Commit
  which reflects what the team should be                                            Commit   Target       Forecast     Actual
  aiming for. The goals for individual groups         Number of New Customers by Month
  should roll-up to meet the overall Target, not
  Commit.                                             This type of presentation is useful for showing   Conclusion
                                                      actual results compared to forecast and plan,     Forecasts matter. CEOs and board members
• Forecast is the CMO’s best estimate for what        as well as how the forecast changes over          are impressed by accurate, forward-looking
  will actually happen and should be based on         time. The example shows actual results for        forecasts – especially over the long term.
  the most recent estimates and adjustments.          the current month and a forecast for the next     This is the single biggest reason why sales
CMOs that track and communicate progress              three months; it also shows the forecasts from    has more credibility (and power) than
against these three metrics are sure to build         the prior four months compared to actual          marketing at most companies.
the credibility they deserve.                         results. This presentation can also illustrate
                                                      the forecast for other revenue stages such        But when marketing teams are able to make
One way to present these metrics is                   as new prospects, marketing qualified leads,      revenue forecasts – and deliver against
via a waterfall chart. For example:                   even closed bookings.                             them – with equal or greater accuracy, they
                                                                                                        will leverage a key competitive advantage
                                                                                                        in establishing their own clout within their
                                                                                                        organizations.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                    54
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 7: Dashboards




                                                      (Source: http://pedrolaboy.com/)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                   55
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 7: Dashboards




Dashboards create a visual display of all the         Designing a Great Dashboard
relevant information you need to measure and          Your marketing campaigns and programs
refine your current effectiveness in delivering       generate a huge amount of data, most of
against your goals – and communicate your             which is not relevant. So as you design your
performance levels in a format that is intuitive      dashboards, you want to determine what
to others inside and outside your department.         is most useful to you. This will translate into
Furthermore, dashboards help you make                 just the right number of metrics – enough
more knowledgeable, sophisticated decisions           for you to understand what is really going on
about improving your metrics and your future          inside your data, but not so many that you
initiatives.                                          are overwhelmed with marginally relevant
There are many kinds of dashboards: internal          information.
marketing dashboards as well as dashboards            Focus on the five key metrics that matter
you share outside of marketing, often with            most. As Coco Chanel said, “before you
your senior management and the board. In              leave the house (or in this case, publish the
the case of external dashboards, remember to          dashboard), take one thing off.”
focus on the key financial metrics that matter
most. This will assist you and your fellow
executive leaders in focusing on what is of
ultimate importance: making better-educated
decisions to improve revenue.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                         56
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Part 7: Dashboards




An important factor here is using the right
information graphic for the data you have and
the insight you need. This sample dashboard
from Lenskold Group serves as a best practice
example of many elements that typically
appear in a great dashboard:
Few numbers. Relatively few numbers are
shown, but the select few that are featured
are key financial metrics.
Speedometers show progress versus goals.
This is an effective graphic for conveying this
information.
Line charts show trends. Line charts show
your data over time and allow you to see
trends.
KPI alerts. Simple arrows are effective to
indicate your upward, downward or flat
progress against key performance indicators.
Take the time to make your dashboards look
attractive. A visually appealing dashboard
can build your credibility.

                                                      (Source: Lenskold Group)




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                  57
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 7: Dashboards




Communication
The best dashboards don’t just serve a
reporting function. They should also guide            PHYSICAL DASHBOARDS
how people within your organization think,
acting as catalysts for effective decision            This is a seemingly minor yet critical point. In
making. This should greatly influence how you         our virtual business world, it’s easy to overlook
present your dashboards (or any metrics, for          a highly effective form of dashboard: a physical
that matter):                                         version displayed on whiteboards around your
                                                      office. People are motivated by what they can see,
Frame your destination. Start by reminding            so you build excitement around the office when
others what you collectively want to                  you give your growing success public visibility on
accomplish. When you communicate a clear              a day-to-day basis.
vision about what you are trying to achieve,
you enable others to align towards the same
objective.
Paint the bigger picture. While you do need
to present your numbers, it’s more important
to share insight into what they mean and key
takeaways.
Call to action. Spell it out: “Here is what we
need to DO as a result of these data and
insights.”
Remember, the actions you take based
on your data matter more than the actual
numbers themselves.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                            58
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 8: Implementation – People,
Process, and Technology




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       59
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 8: Implementation – People,
Process, and Technology




As with any business transformation, the              What Kinds of People?                                 Communication skills. An analyst must
success of your marketing measurement                 In a perfect world, it’s ideal to hire a              possess excellent written, oral and visual
program depends on how well you implement             full-time analyst for this job – the pace of          communication skills in order to explain
it. This requires you to set in place the right       your enterprise’s adoption of marketing               the results of a given project in ways that
people, the right process and the right               analytics will be faster if you do. However,          enable an organization to learn and improve
technology.                                           most marketers are faced with the reality of          its operations. Such capabilities begin in
                                                      embarking on their measurement journeys               effective interpersonal communication and
                                                      with only the staff they already have. If you         extend to listening and group facilitation skills
                                                      find yourself in this scenario, assign analytics      across a full platform of modalities: electronic
PEOPLE AND CULTURE                                    ownership to someone currently within your            communication, telephone and face-to-face
                                                      organization – and then make absolutely sure          conversations, group presentations, and so on.
Even the most efficient methods and latest            they have the skills, adequate support, and           Bias for experimentation. The ideal analyst
cutting-edge technology are useless if you            coverage to be successful.                            needs to possess a demonstrated willingness
don’t have the right people driving the                                                                     to problem solve with new approaches.
                                                      If you aren’t getting the metrics you need,
process, so effective executives begin by
                                                      it’s probably because you haven’t made them           Technical savvy. Your prospective analyst must
asking themselves the following questions:
                                                      a priority.                                           understand how computers, data networks,
What kinds of people do I need                        What Kinds of Skills?                                 databases, and operating systems work – and
on staff to implement marketing                       You’ll want to be intentional about the skills        work together – to be successful in the role.
measurement?                                          you search for and cultivate:                         This involves knowing each technology’s
                                                                                                            potential uses and limitations.
• Are these high performers already on                Analytical proficiency. Someone with
  my team, or do I need to look outside my            analytical skills will be able to absorb, visualize   It may go without saying, but the analyst must
  organization?                                       and articulate large amounts of data and              also understand your organization’s unique
                                                      complex concepts, and make decisions to               products, services, industry and operations.
• What kinds of skills does my current                                                                      If an analyst isn’t familiar with your business,
                                                      solve existing problems that make sense based
  employee mix need to develop?                                                                             they won’t be able to interpret your data.
                                                      on the available information.
• How can I create a culture of analytics?




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                 60
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Part 8: Implementation – People,
Process, and Technology




Creating a Culture of Analytics                       Accountability. It’s pointless to set target
Hiring (or designating) the right people is only      goals if you don’t also hold people
the first step. Even at companies that already        accountable for meeting them.
have significant analytical activities underway,      Act on information instead of gut.
doing the analysis is only about a third of the       All too often, businesses suffer from the
battle. The other two-thirds involve driving it       curse of the H.I.P.P.O.: the “Highest Paid
into all current business workflows in a way          Person’s Opinion.” People may refrain from
that prompts your organization to use and act         conducting valuable analysis and simply wait
on your valuable conclusions.                         for their bosses opinion – or they might allow
Schedule some quality time. The velocities            a H.I.P.P.O. to override the analytics. Perhaps
at which most marketing teams operate                 this is the case in your organization. Or maybe
today often do not accommodate analytics,             you yourself are the H.I.P.P.O.. In either case,
nor do they allow time for reflection around          do what you can to ensure all relevant data
implementing analytical conclusions to                and insights are communicated before the
improve operational efficiency and company            H.I.P.P.O. comes out.
revenues. If you want to benefit from your            Bias toward insight, not data. It can be
marketing metrics, analytics are something            tempting to believe your success will increase
for which you need to allocate certain periods        with every additional metric you measure, but
of time.                                              this is not the case.
A facts and numbers mentality. A historical           Of course, none of this will work without
focus on “soft metrics” have caused                   buy-in and support from executive leadership,
many marketing departments to become                  especially the C-suite. When done right,
accustomed to operating outside of                    metrics can create a virtuous circle, in which
frameworks that are conducive to fact-based           the right metrics create the support for
decisions and accountability. For marketing           more useful and actionable metrics. If not,
measurement to be successful, you need                you’ll encourage a vicious cycle with the
to bias your mindset toward hard financial            opposite scenario.
metrics.



      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                          61
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 8: Implementation – People,
Process, and Technology




PROCESS                                               Build from there. As you continuously evolve       Lenskold Group reports that one of the best
                                                      and adapt your marketing measurement               techniques to drive marketing ROI adoption
                                                      system over time, you’ll refine it so it gets      is to configure pilot teams to introduce
In Part 2, we discussed the components
                                                      better and better. You may not end up where        new capabilities – preferably consisting of
of an effective ROI process – what to measure,
                                                      you thought you would when you started, but        people who demonstrate adaptability and
when to measure, how to measure. Here,
                                                      you’ll likely end up in a great place.             high interest in the changes you want to
we will discuss how you can manage and
                                                                                                         implement. Successful pilot programs will
implement the changes necessary in your               In addition to well-defined principles, you        excite others within your organization about
organization for this marketing measurement           need to formalize the methods you’ll use to        your measurement initiatives.
system to succeed.                                    implement your marketing ROI processes.
                                                      Well-defined methods (and stages) will ensure
Marketing ROI is a marathon, not a sprint.
                                                      your metrics’ efficiency and effectiveness.
To be successful, you need to take a
                                                      Examples include:
methodical approach over the long term
in several key areas:                                 • Identify who will be involved and who will
                                                        own each part of the process.
Dream big… As with many projects, you’ll
position yourself for greater success if              • Formalize training to cultivate and refine the
you begin with a grand – albeit granularly              specific skill sets your marketing team needs.
articulated – vision of what you want your
measurement end-state to resemble.                    • Set a feedback loop in place for
                                                        performance reviews.
…Then start small. Slow and steady wins the
ROI race. Proceed with manageable, digestible
steps.
Win small victories quickly. This will ensure
stakeholder buy-in across your organization
– and increase your chances for success over
the short and long term.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                         62
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 8: Implementation – People,
Process, and Technology




Whatever principles and methods
you decide to use, marketing managers                 MARKETING MEASUREMENT IN REVIEW: A CHECKLIST
should be able to answer any of the
questions below instantly:                            1. Define your data collection     3. Assign granular KPIs to            6. Produce visual reports of        9. Analyze and optimize. It’s
                                                         and storage approaches. How        your unique campaigns.                your marketing success.             time to act on the business
• What would be the expected ROI if we                   will you collect your data         Determine the impact of               Be discerning in how much           intelligence you gather with
  increased your budget by 10%? What would               across multiple channels,          individual campaigns and              data you incorporate into           the system you’ve set in
  be the impact on sales closed?                         including your customer            channels, as well as their            these scorecards. Too much          place. Which channels are
                                                         database, ad networks,             influence on other channels           information will overwhelm          performing best? Which
• What would be the impact on sales
                                                         search engines, in-house           and campaigns, and your               your ability to quantify the        campaign mix and variations?
  if we decreased the marketing budget
                                                         spreadsheets, etc.? You can        marketing measurement                 business revenue impacts of         Integrate historical data
  by 10%?
                                                         build your data warehouse          success as a whole. It’s              your individual and collective      trends with your “what
Sound familiar? It all comes back                        internally or rely on outside      helpful to integrate historical       marketing investments.              if” scenarios to adjust and
to where we started.                                     agencies or analytics              data into your metrics as well                                            improve your marketing
                                                                                                                               7. Employ your data to calculate
                                                         providers.                         to uncover historical trends.                                             investments moving forward.
                                                                                                                                  true impact. Assign values to
                                                      2. Identify your Key               4. Formalize campaign data               each channel, campaign and       10. ROI-inse and repeat.
                                                         Performance Indicators             collection and tracking. This is      attribute across all marketing       As Visual IQ says, “an
                                                         (KPIs). When you involve           where you establish business          touch points to deliver true         enterprise marketing
                                                         key stakeholders who               rules around when and how             metrics that represent how           measurement system is […]
                                                         will use your data in their        to measure what you want to           effective each source is in          not a one time, set-it-and-
                                                         daily business functions to        measure – and identify who            generating revenue.                  forget-it project.” Enable
                                                         measure how well they’re           will oversee each phase of                                                 stakeholder buy-in with
                                                                                                                               8. Where individual user data is
                                                         achieving their goals, you         the process.                                                               small victories at first, and
                                                                                                                                  unavailable, use “top down”
                                                         ensure their sponsorship of                                                                                   build your initiatives as you
                                                                                         5. Integrate sales transaction           attribution. Mathematical
                                                         the marketing measurement                                                                                     see what works and what
                                                                                            data from all sources. You’ll         algorithms exist to calculate
                                                         process.                                                                                                      doesn’t.
                                                                                            establish a virtuous cycle for        the value of individual
                                                                                            your marketing ROI when               marketing touches that you       (Source: Visual IQ, 10 Steps to Enterprise
                                                                                                                                                                   Marketing Measurement)
                                                                                            you close the loop of your            can’t access on a user level,
                                                                                            measurements.                         such as offline channels like
                                                                                                                                  TV, print and radio.

      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                                             63
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Part 8: Implementation – People,
Process, and Technology




Technology                                            Automation Must-Haves                              3. Powerful and Easy Analyzers. Very few      “The first rule of any technology
Given the importance and potential of                 A successful analytics solution requires           of the marketers who want and need to          used in a business is that
effective marketing measurement, as well as           four components:                                   consume analytics data are business analysts.  automation applied to an
the scope of the problems that companies                                                                 For such an audience, powerful analyzers and
                                                      1. Central Marketing Database. Analytics           dashboards are required, so marketers can
                                                                                                                                                        efficient operation will magnify
who don’t use such metrics experience, there                                                                                                            the efficiency. The second is
                                                      require access to highly detailed marketing        explore the data trends and gain insight into
is no lack of vendors promoting “the next best
thing” in marketing measurement technology.           data, so marketers need to begin tracking this     their programs without wasting valuable time   that automation applied to an
                                                      information now – preferably in one place.         in acquiring the expertise needed to maneuver inefficient operation will magnify
While Excel spreadsheets and other ad hoc             Required information will include historical       the technology, build custom reports, and so   the inefficiency.” Bill Gates
tools can do a lot for companies, they cannot         data around when marketing programs ran,           on. Just make sure your marketing automation
function as solutions for businesses that want        what their attributes were, who they touched,      solution offers tools that are both easy and
to implement a robust analytics process. In           how much they cost, and so on. Without             powerful!
contrast, automated measurement processes             this information, analytics are essentially
provide much more definitive, reliable and            worthless.                                         4. Ad Hoc Reporting and Dashboards. On the
timely insight.                                                                                          other hand, business analyst experts will need
                                                      2. Time Series Analytics. Unless an                complete flexibility to delve deeply into the
Automation frees up analysts’ time from               operational system stores historical data,         data and customize their own ad hoc reports.
information collection and presentation,              a marketer cannot measure or understand            In this case, table-like reports and charts are
and allows them instead to focus on gaining           marketing trends. Yet the majority of              most effective and allow analysts to “follow
valuable insight into that data and refine            marketing and sales systems are operational        the scent” of particular insights as far as they
their actions toward better results. This gets        and do not store historical information –          need to go.
the analysis completed faster and better.             requiring marketers who want to analyze
                                                      their metrics for prior time periods to            According to Gartner, companies that
                                                      manually take data “snapshots” from their          automate their lead management business
                                                      Excel spreadsheets. However, time series           processes between marketing and sales
                                                      analytics give marketers a full picture of their   before 2012 will increase their conversion
                                                      performance trends over time because the           rates by at least 50%. Many companies will
                                                      engine is powered by a historical data mart.       also see a 5% to 10% increase in revenue
                                                                                                         by 2015.




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                       64
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Conclusion




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.       65
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Conclusion




KEY LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR                           Maintain financial integrity
                                                       CEOs and CFOs care about growing
                                                                                                     Create an environment to succeed
                                                                                                       Enable access to critical marketing, sales
PERFORMANCE, PROFITABILITY,                            revenue and profits – use the hard              and finance data. Employ tools to display
AND CREDIBILITY WITH MARKETING                         financial metrics they care about to build      what’s urgent, important and relevant
METRICS AND ANALYTICS:                                 credibility
                                                                                                       Implement marketing technology to use
                                                        Be comprehensive in accounting                 staff and marketing assets more efficiently
                                                        for marketing-generated costs
                                                                                                       Enhance data analysis capabilities to
  Plan for future success                               Model the stages of your revenue               advance precision of ROI analyses
    Reporting for reporting’s sake is less              cycle and understand your lead flow,
    important than the decisions reports enable                                                        Train and hire experienced, tech savvy
                                                        conversion rates and speed of closing
    to improve profits; find not just what works,                                                      people with a bias for experimentation
                                                        sales
    but what works better. Focus on “improving                                                         Create a virtuous cycle of communication
    ROI,” rather than just “proving ROI.”             Measure strategically
                                                                                                       with your C-level suite
                                                       Identify measurement priorities
     Set goals and run scenarios for all               in advance of campaigns and plan              Cultivate a culture of continuous
     marketing programs – prior to spending            campaign-specific measurements                improvement
     money                                             concurrent with campaign planning               Establish a roadmap for increasing
     Design programs to be measurable                                                                  marketing ROI and measurement
                                                        Integrate diverse measurements to
                                                                                                       capabilities over time
     Apply the insights from prior                      determine how to best leverage the
     measurements in the current cycle                  unique strengths of each methodology           Develop a process that aligns marketing
     of planning                                        and to allow multiple measurements to          and measurements to business objectives
                                                        have a cumulative effect
                                                                                                       Run pilot initiatives to introduce new
                                                        Delve into all expenses involved in            capabilities
                                                        customer value and improve the profit
                                                        potential of each individual account – and     Build momentum by acting on insights
                                                        improve targeting for new accounts             for initial wins
                                                                                                       Continuously evolve the marketing ROI
                                                                                                       process — it is a journey, not a destination


      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                       66
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Appendix: More Resources

18 Must-Know Marketing Analytics                      Adam Greco,                                    Pat LaPointe,                              Tom Pisello,
and Metrics Experts                                   Senior Partner, Web Analytics Demystified      Managing Editor, NPV and EVP-Americas,     Chairman and Founder, Alinean
Need help getting started or advancing                Website: Web Analytics Demystified             MarketShare                                Blog: Tom Pisello, The ROI Guy
your current marketing metrics? The                   Twitter: @AdamGreco                            Book: Marketing by the Dashboard Light     Twitter: @TPisello
experts below represent the best of the                                                              Website & blog: http://marketingnpv.com/
best in marketing analytics, marketing                Leland Harden,                                 Twitter: @MeasureMan                       David Raab,
metrics, marketing forecasting, marketing             EVP, Global Marketing, Usee                                                               Owner, Raab Associates
testing, and marketing testing. Some                  Book: Marketing by the Numbers                 Jim Lenskold,                              Book: The Marketing Performance
have books, others consulting firms,                  Website: Digital Engagement                    Managing Director, The Lenskold Group      Measurement Toolkit
but all have the A+ smarts to push your               Twitter: @LelandHarden                         Book: Marketing ROI: The Path to           Website: Raab Associates Inc.
marketing to the next level.                                                                         Campaign, Customer, and Corporate          Blog: Customer Experience Matrix
                                                      Anne Holland,                                  Profitability                              Twitter: @DRaab
Amy Africa,                                           President, Anne Holland Ventures,              Website: Lenskold Group
CEO, Eight By Eight                                   Publisher, Which Test Won,                     Twitter: @JimLenskold                      Ron Shevlin,
Website: Eight by Eight                               Website: WhichTestWon                                                                     Senior Analyst, Aite Group
Blog: Amy Africa’s Blog                               Twitter: @AnneHolland55                        Rebecca Jacobs Madigan,                    eBook: Everything They’ve Told You About
Twitter: @AmyAfrica                                                                                  Executive Director, Performance            Marketing is Wrong
                                                      Mark Jeffery,                                  Marketing Association                      Blog: Ron Shevlin’s Marketing Whims
Tim Ash,                                              Managing Partner, Agile Insights + Director    Website: Performance Marketing
CEO of SiteTuners & Chair of Conversion               of Technology Initiatives, Kellogg School of   Association                                Jim Sterne,
Conference                                            Management                                     Twitter: @PMAssociation                    Chairman, Web Analytics Association,
Book: Landing Page Optimization: The                  Book: Data-Driven Marketing: The 15                                                       President, Target Marketing
Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for            Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should           Neil Patel,                                Website: Target Marketing
Conversions                                           Know                                           Co-founder, KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg      Book: Social Media Metrics: How to
Website & blog: SiteTuners                            Website: Agile Insights                        Blog: QuickSprout                          Measure and Optimize Your Marketing
Twitter: @Tim_Ash                                                                                    Twitter: @NeilPatel                        Investment
                                                      Avinash Kaushik,                                                                          Twitter: @JimSterne
Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg,                          Analytics Evangelist at Google                 Laura Patterson,
Managing Partners, Eisenberg Holdings                 Book: Web Analytics 2.0                        President, VisionEdge Marketing
Book: Always Be Testing                               Website & blog: Occam’s Razor                  Book: Marketing Metrics in Action:
Website & blog: Eisenberg & Associates                Twitter: @Avinash Kaushik                      Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing
Twitter: @TheGrok, @JeffreyGroks                                                                     Organization
                                                                                                     Website & blog: VisionEdge Marketing
                                                                                                     Twitter: @LauraVEM

      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                        67
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Appendix: More Resources


10 Steps to Enterprise Marketing                      CMO Guide to Marketing ROI
Measurement: A Marketing Executive                    from Lenksold Group
Checklist by VisualIQ                                 http://www.lenskold.com/content/landing_
http://www.visualiq.com/resources/                    marketing_roi.html
white-paper-executive-checklist-marketing-
                                                      2010 B2B Lead Generation
measurement
                                                      Marketing ROI Study – Lenskold Group
Book Excerpt: Marketing Metrics in Action:            http://www.lenskold.com/content/
Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing               LeadGenROI_2010.html
Organization by Laura Patterson
                                                      MarketingNPV:
http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-
                                                      http://marketingnpv.com/knowledge
resources/book-club/marketing-metrics-
                                                      _base/all/topics
in-action-creating-a-performance-driven-
marketing-organization.php                            Metrics that Matter for Marketing
                                                      Measurement – Webinar with David Raab
Free ROI Spreadsheet from Lenskold Group
                                                      http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-
http://www.lenskold.com/forms/default.
                                                      resources/best-practices/marketing-roi/
html?fid=18
                                                      metrics-that-matter-for-marketing-
Interactive Lead Generation ROI Tool                  measurement.php
from Lenskold Group
http://www.lenskold.com/tools/LeadGenTool.
html




      © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.                                                  68
Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics




Contact us


North America: +1.877.260.MKTO (6586)                      About Marketo                                      Written by Jon Miller
Europe: + 353 1 213 0500                                   Marketo is the global leader in Revenue            Jon is VP Marketing and co-founder at Marketo.
                                                           Performance Management. Marketo’s powerful         He explores everything from lead nurturing and
                                                           yet easy-to-use marketing automation and sales     social media to marketing ROI and revenue
Email: info@marketo.com                                    effectiveness solutions transform how marketing    performance management in Marketo’s
Visit our website: www.marketo.com                         and sales teams of all sizes work — and work       popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing, and was
                                                           together — to drive dramatically increased         named a Top 10 CMO for companies under
                                                           revenue performance and fuel business growth.      $250 million revenue by The CMO Institute. Jon
To get The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing online,      The company’s proven technology,                   graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics from
visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-lead-nurturing                  comprehensive services, and expert guidance        Harvard College and has an MBA from the
                                                           are helping corporations around the world to       Stanford Graduate School of Business.
To get The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring online,        turn marketing from a cost center to a business-
visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-lead-scoring                    building revenue driver.
To get The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media online,    Marketo has been recognized with the 2010          Designed & illustrated by Velocity Partners,
visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-b2b-social-media                CODiE award for “Best Marketing Solution,” the     the B2B marketing agency.
                                                           “Best Sales and Marketing 2.0 Solution” from
To get The Definitive Guide to Sales Lead Qualification,   SellingPower, and the “Best Marketing
visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-sales-qualification             Automation Application” by Salesforce
                                                           customers on the AppExchange. As of March
                                                           2011, more than 1000 enterprise and
Visit our blogs: blog.marketo.com                          mid-market clients globally have adopted
                                                           Marketo solutions. For more information, visit
                                                           http://www.Marketo.com, or subscribe to
                                                           Marketo’s award-winning blogs at http://blog.
                                                           marketo.com/.




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info@marketo.com
© 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.   www.marketo.com    70

Definitive guide-to-marketing-metrics-marketing-analytics

  • 1.
    Thetive i efinide D Gu Marketing Metrics & Analytics marketo.com
  • 2.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Contents Why Should I Read the Definitive Guide Part 5: Program Measurement 37 to Marketing Metrics and Analytics? 3 Why Measuring Marketing Programs is Difficult 38 Method One: Single Attribution (First Touch / Last Touch) 40 Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability 4 Method Two: Single Attribution with Why Now Is The Time For Marketing Metrics 7 Revenue Cycle Projections 41 Method Three: Attribute across Multiple Programs Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI 9 and People 44 Step One: Establish Goals and ROI Estimates Up-Front 11 Method Four: Test and Control Groups 46 Step Two: Design Programs to Be Measurable 15 Method Five: Full Market Mix Modeling 48 Step Three: Focus on the Decisions Program specific metrics – what you should that Improve Marketing 16 measure and track 49 Conclusion: Program Measurement Applied 50 Part 3: A Framework for Measurement 17 Where Metrics Go Wrong 19 Part 6: Marketing Forecasting 51 The Right Metrics 21 Part 7: Dashboards 55 Part 4: Revenue Analytics 23 Define the Revenue Cycle 24 Part 8: Implementation • People, Process, Revenue Cycle Metrics That Matter 29 and Technology 59 Revenue Performance Management Metrics 33 People and Culture 60 Process 62 Technology 64 Conclusion 65 Key Lessons to Improve your Performance, Profitability, and Credibility with Marketing Metrics and Analytics 66 © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 2
  • 3.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Why Should I Read the Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics? Do you know what profits a 10% increase This guide will help you do just that. We in your marketing budget would generate? will help you answer key questions like: According to the Lenskold Group’s 2010 B2B • What are the most important marketing 5 QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOUR Lead Generation Marketing ROI Study, the metrics for me to use? MEASUREMENT INSIGHT most common answer to this question is 1. What are your specific objectives for marketing • How can I measure my various marketing “I Don’t Know.” investment and how will you connect your programs’ impact on revenue and profit? Forty-four percent (44%) of qualified investments to incremental revenue and profit? • How can I best communicate marketing marketers have no idea what a 10% budget 2. What impact would a 10% change in your results with my executive team and board? increase could do for their companies. marketing budget (up or down) have on your • Which personnel, procedural, and profits and margins over the next year? If you fit into this 44%, you will experience cultural changes need to occur within my The next three years? Five? difficulty protecting your budget. In fact, you’ll organization so I can implement marketing likely find yourself asking the question the other 3. Compared to relevant benchmarks (historical, measurement? way around: “What will happen now that my competitive, marketplace), how effective are you budget has been decreased by 10%?” • And many more… at converting marketing investment into revenue You can’t expect your organization to place value and profit growth? The bottom line of any business is the top on something you’re unable to quantify. line: revenue and faster growth! 4. Which are appropriate targets for improving revenue leverage (defined as dollars of profit So let’s get started. over dollars of marketing and sales spend) over the next few years? Which initiatives will get you there? 5. What questions do you still need to answer with regard to your knowledge of the return on marketing investments? What are you going to do to answer them? (Source: MarketingNPV) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 3
  • 4.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 4
  • 5.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability Marketing suffers from a crisis of credibility. • How much profit was made last quarter Typically, executives outside the marketing versus this quarter? department perceive that marketing exists • How much revenue and profit do you CUT PROGRAMS TO BUILD CREDIBILITY solely to support sales, or that it is an arts and forecast for the next quarter? According to Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez, the #1 crafts function that throws parties and churns out color brochures. Either way, marketing • Why are you confident in the above answers? thing a marketer can to do to build credibility with often does not command the respect it the CEO is to offer some cuts to marketing programs. deserves. Soft metrics like brand awareness, GRP, Show that you are “de-funding” things you impressions, organic search rankings and previously did that either A) didn’t work; B) weren’t What can marketers do so they are seen reach are important – but only to the extent aligned with evolving company goals; or C) seem as part of a machine that drives revenue that they quantifiably connect to hard less important now than other initiatives. This helps and profits? How can marketers take more metrics like pipeline, revenue, and profit. demonstrate a strong sense that you are managing a control over the revenue process, build the portfolio of investments, and that you are willing to respect of their organizational peers, and Of course, marketers must track and measure the impact of all key marketing activities, make hard choices with company money. earn a seat at the revenue table? both hard and soft. But keep all but the most critical metrics internal to marketing. Use metrics that matter to By speaking the same quantitative language the CEO and CFO as the CEOs and CFOs, marketers will better It’s no secret that CEOs and boards don’t communicate marketing’s value and impact to care about the open rate of your last email the executive suite. Seventy-six percent (76%) of B2B marketing professionals agree campaign or your last press release’s number of views. See Part 4 for more on how to measure or strongly agree that their “ability to track marketing ROI gives In today’s economy, CEOs and CFOs the right revenue metrics. marketing more respect.” Source: Forrester Research care about growing revenue and profits: • How much faster are we growing now versus last quarter? Last year? © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 5
  • 6.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability Know the impact of each When you talk about marketing spending, “Marketing has always been a grueling and competitive sport – not marketing investment other executives think of costs and profit unlike running a marathon. With the changes in the buying process, If you can’t confidently identify which parts of loss. When you talk about future results, in media and technology, and managing expectations, it’s like your marketing truly deliver financial returns, they think of revenue and growth. running a marathon as the ground shifts beneath your feet. What marketing’s impact and influence will continue to be limited across your company. This will To formulate accurate forecasts, sales was already difficult is becoming increasingly difficult. If you’re and marketing must sit together at the going to do it without measurement, it’s like running a marathon, not only hurt marketing’s influence and revenue table. credibility; it can also prevent your company in an earthquake, blindfolded.” David Raab, Author, Winning the from making the right strategic investments to See Part 6 for more on Marketing Forecasting. Marketing Measurement Marathon improve results over time. See Part 5 for more on measuring the impact Make hard business cases for spending With its forecast in place, marketing must then of various marketing programs. make a hard business case for the resources it needs to deliver the results it has promised. Forecast results, not spending This requires knowing what it will take – in Forecasting is perhaps the single most money, time, and effort – to acquire new important thing marketers can do to change qualified leads and nurture those leads until the perception that marketing is a cost center. they are ready to talk with sales. In the same way that you can’t drive quickly Marketers who use this type of rigorous if you rely only on your rear-view mirror, you methodology are able to frame their budgets can’t be an effective marketer if you only in terms of investments, not costs, and are report what has happened in the past. The better able to justify and defend their budgets. best marketers forecast the results they expect in the future – and quantify their forecasts in terms of leads, pipeline, and revenue. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 6
  • 7.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability As the function that “owns” the relationship CEOs Grade Marketing WHY NOW IS THE TIME FOR with these early stage prospects, Marketing 67% of CEOs give their marketing departments a B or C MARKETING METRICS 20% now is responsible for a much greater portion of the revenue cycle than ever before. The way that prospects research and buy solutions today has been forever transformed But with great power comes great by the abundance of information available on responsibility. Not sure the marketing programs websites and social networks, and this in turn made a difference, but they probably Enter Marketing Metrics. had some impact even though fuels a significant change in the way marketing contribution wasn’t measured and sales teams must work – and work CEO ratings of marketing’s performance 47% together – to drive revenue. directly rise and fall with marketing’s ability to quantify how their campaigns and programs Because they have ready access to deliver value in line with company revenue information, buyers resist engaging with sales objectives. It is more important than ever for until much later in the buying process. marketing to link the impact of its efforts and Marketing programs made This presents an incredible opportunity financial investments to revenue and profit, a difference but contribution for marketing to reinvent itself as a core and establish a true process for marketing ROI wasn’t measured part of the company’s revenue engine. in their companies. 35% “70% of the buying process is now complete Marketing programs made an by the time a prospect is ready to engage with impact and marketing was able to sales.” SiriusDecisions, Inc. document their contribution Source: VisionEdge Marketing & Marketo 2010 Marketing Performance Measurement and Management Survey of 423 executives © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 7
  • 8.
    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 1: Measurement Builds Respect and Accountability THE 5 STAGES OF MARKETING ACCOUNTABILITY 1. Denial 3. Confusion Inevitably, this will reinforce the perception “Marketing is an art, not a science. It can’t be “I know I should measure marketing results, that marketing is a cost center, not a revenue- measured. The results will come; trust me!” but I just don’t know how.” producing asset. At first, the CMO may deny the need to be The CMO knows that marketing accountability accountable for results. Being stuck in this is inevitable, but the path to achieve it 5. Accountability stage often leads to marketing’s isolation from remains hidden. Basic metrics such as lead “Revenue starts with marketing.” other departments and executives. source tracking and cost-per-lead are put in At this stage, marketing truly finds its place place, but there is no holistic understanding in front of the revenue pipeline – where 2. Fear of how marketing activities are impacting key marketing stops being a cost center and “What if my marketing activities don’t impact bottom line metrics. starts justifying marketing expenditures as the bottom line? Will I lose my job?” investments in revenue and growth. This is Taking on accountability can be scary, 4. Self-Promotion when the CMO can act, and talk, like a true especially when you don’t yet know how “Hey, come look at all these charts C-level executive, measuring and forecasting well (or poorly) your department is doing. and graphs!” marketing’s impact on metrics that matter to Marketing accountability is a double-edged the CEO and CFO. This is when marketing truly In a desperate attempt to appear accountable, sword, shining a bright light on weak earns a seat at the revenue table. marketing measures everything that can be performance as well as good performance. (easily) measured — from website page views Getting to this final stage of marketing Some CMOs may be tempted to avoid to press release downloads to search engine accountability is difficult for any organization. accountability just to avoid facing which rankings. These CMOs proudly display their It requires top-level commitment, discipline, category they are really in. results and claim marketing accountability. and investment in the right systems and tools. However, important as these metrics may It can also require a rethinking of marketing be, they lack an explicit connection to hard incentives and compensation. The journey metrics like pipeline, revenue, and profit. The may not be easy, but the results—in terms result is a focus on soft marketing KPIs instead of peer respect and impact on profits—are of hard revenue growth, on short-term ROI clearly worth it for any marketing team. over long-term marketing accountability. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 8
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 9
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI Many marketers think of marketing ROI as The fastest-growing companies measure Marketing ROI Management Process reporting on the outcome of their programs, ROI to find not just what works, but what often in the form of a set of reports they have works better. They focus on “improving ROI,” 1 Best Assumptions to deliver monthly. But the best companies not just “proving ROI.” Process begins with ROI recognize that reporting for reporting’s sake scenarios early in the Planning for marketing ROI involves planning cycle to shape is less important than the decisions those three main activities: objectives, strategies ROI Scenarios reports enable to improve profits. and tactics. 1. Establishing targets and ROI This is the difference between backwards- estimates up-front looking measurement and decision-focused management. 2. Designing programs to be measurable 2a Objectives Strategy Tactical Plan Impact & Measurements are Contribution It’s important to plan your programs with ROI 3. Focusing on the decisions that will prioritized first and in mind from the outset. When you quantify improve marketing then planned concurrent the outcome you expect from each marketing to campaign plans, so tests Measurement Plan Only with discipline, planning, and a and variations can be Test Variations in Plan investment, you can then determine exactly incorporated to how you will measure the program against closed-loop process will you be able to improve precision. those goals and position yourself to achieve improve your marketing ROI. Measurements them. 2b Measurements capture lift, diagnose weaknesses, and generate insight to improve effectiveness. 3 ROI Measurement ROI results guide changes to strategies and tactics in the next cycle of marketing, based on which have the History to Guide higher ROI potential. Next Campaign (Source: Lenskold Group) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 10
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI STEP ONE ESTABLISH GOALS AND Benefits of ROI goals With ROI goals in place, the CFO will see not ROI ESTIMATES UP-FRONT only the cost that goes out the door, but also SHOULD MARKETING HAVE exactly what benefit is expected to come from TO JUSTIFY ITSELF? When planning any marketing investment, that cost. As a result, he or she will be much your first step is to quantify your expected more likely to support the investment. According to consultancy MarketingNPV, the two outcomes. All too often, marketers plan most common questions asked by non-marketing programs and commit their budgets without Don’t worry too much about the fact that executives are: establishing a solid set of expectations about you are making estimates. As long as they are what impact they expect the program to clearly labeled, the CFO will understand that 1. “Does our marketing generate any value for have. This is a terrible habit, and is one of any plan requires numerous assumptions. shareholders?” the underlying reasons why other executives, Just the fact that the marketer is walking 2. “How do we know that marketing really works?” especially CFOs, question marketing in the door with a spreadsheet of numbers establishes that marketing is speaking the Unfortunately, these questions immediately put investments. CFO’s language. That in itself is highly effective marketing on the defensive and inevitably cause The solution is to assign up-front goals, for building credibility. marketers to conduct time-consuming and expensive benchmarks and KPIs for each marketing analysis to justify their business function. This results program. Modeling your ROI goals will also help you to: in a significant “insight opportunity cost” since all the resources that could have been directed towards The first step of any program plan should be to • Identify the key profit drivers that most the pursuit of true insight are instead diverted to define your objectives and then pick measurable affect the model and ultimately your profits. “proving” that marketing works. metrics to support those goals. Imagine if each • Create “what if” scenarios to see how PO came with an ROI plan – with best case, worst changing parameters may vary the results Most companies will find that profits increase when case, and expected case scenario outcomes – and impact profitability. constrained analytics resources are focused on the that answered the basic (but critical) question of key decisions that will improve profits rather than “what do we expect will happen in exchange for • Establish the targets you will use to compare justifying marketing’s existence. this money we want to spend?” actual results. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 11
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI STEP ONE How to build models for ROI goals Here’s an example ROI calculation, courtesy Not every program will have a complete ROI of Lenskold Group. Note how it captures all calculation. Some programs will have softer expenses including all variable costs on the goals, such as number of attendees at an left, and focused on incremental gross margin event, but as always, the closer you can get to on the right. measuring profits and ROI, the better you will justify the investment. Basic ROI Calculation Even the simplest ROI goals should include: MARKETING EXPENSES (EXCLUDING OFFER COSTS) MARKETING IMPACT QUANTITY • How many incremental sales are generated Campaign Development $25,000 Target Reached 27,000 • How much revenue each sale produces Mass Media $100,000 % Convert to Sale 2.2% • The gross margin percentage • The total marketing and sales investment Direct Marketing $40,000 Incremental Sales 594 Total Marketing Budget $165,000 Net Present Value per New Sale $875 MARKETING STAFF EXPENSE Incremental Revenue $519,750 Number of Staff Days 6.25 Average Daily Rate $450 Average Gross Margin % 38.0% Total Staff Expense $2,813 Profit from Incremental Sales $197,505 Total Marketing Investment $167,813 Incremental Gross Margin $197,505 Gross Margin – Marketing Investment Return (i.e., Net Profit) $29,693 Return / Marketing Investment ROI 17.7% (Source: Lenskold Group) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 12
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI STEP ONE Lenskold Group provides excellent tools for managing marketing ROI, including an online Lead Generation ROI planning tool. This and other tools are available for free from the Lenskold Group website (http://www. lenskold.com/tools/LeadGenTool.html). (Source: Lenskold Group ‘CMO Guide to Marketing’) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 13
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI STEP ONE Understand Best Case, Worst Case, and Risks Scenarios The best plans show a range of targets, INCORPORATE ALL including expected case, best case, and worst RELEVANT EXPENSES case scenarios. This lets you protect your credibility in case things go sour, and shows Often, marketing ROI models show ridiculously high an understanding of how changes to various returns because they don’t incorporate all relevant assumptions might impact the results. variable and semi-variable costs. Examples include: It also shows that you understand the possible • Staff costs within marketing risks that would hurt your program’s ROI. It’s • Travel expenses often a good idea to run your assumptions and • The cost of sales’ time spent following up on leads targets by the most skeptical and pessimistic member of your team. Let them find all the Take, for example, a program that generates a lot ways the program could fail – and then, where of leads but does not include the cost of the time possible, put in place contingencies to manage sales wastes on pursuing leads that don’t convert. the risks. This may include things directly It’s quite possible that a program that at first appears related to the program, but it can also include profitable will show a negative ROI once these broad changes to the business environment expenses are included. and economy. By proactively identifying and managing risks up-front, you lessen the likelihood that other executives will shoot bullets at your feet later on. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 14
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI STEP TWO DESIGN PROGRAMS TO BE Data Collection A key part of planning for measurement is MEASURABLE simply tracking the appropriate attributes MEASUREMENT COSTS MONEY – for all your marketing programs (and their SO SPEND WISELY The best marketing programs have variants). This can include target audience, intentional measurement strategies planned message, channel, offer, investment level, and Exercise discernment. in advance. So as part of planning any any other relevant attributes. While it’s possible to measure just about anything program, you need to answer these three in marketing, it is impossible (and unprofitable!) to questions: Most companies do not begin this process measure everything. early enough in their lifecycle, and they pay • What will you measure? for it later. Even if you don’t use the data Begin with the end in mind. • When will you measure? right away, it will become invaluable down As Jim Lenskold says, “Prioritize when and • How will you measure? the road when you attempt any of the more what to measure based on the answers you need sophisticated approaches towards measuring to make decisions that will improve your profits.” In almost every case, you will need to program effectiveness. These attributes can Invest in Marketing R&D. take specific steps to make your marketing be stored in anything from your marketing This is a term used by consultant Jim Sterne programs measurable. This often includes automation system to a simple spreadsheet (@jimsterne). Just like the overall corporation invests setting up test and control groups or varying hosted on a share drive – what matters the in R&D to generate future profits, marketing should your spending levels across markets to most is that you start to build the history as do the same to generate similar insights to optimize measure relative impact. Without variance early as possible. future profits. In other words, sometimes it is OK to in your marketing, you may not be able to run a marketing program where the primary goal is use modeling to tease apart the incremental to learn whether something works, or how to make impact of your marketing programs and it work better. A good rule of thumb is that allocating improve your marketing precision and mix. “ It is more important to periodically capture 10% of your budget to testing and experimentation See Section 5 for more on measuring ROI potentially high-impact insights than to frequently is usually a wise investment. using test and control groups. measure less important outcomes simply for reporting purposes.” Jim Lenskold, Lenskold Group © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 15
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 2: Planning for Marketing ROI STEP THREE FOCUS ON THE DECISIONS Your highest-ROI decisions will often flow from strategic questions about offers, THAT IMPROVE MARKETING messages, target segments and geographies – MARKETING REPORTING: JUST BECAUSE You’ll deliver the best ROI and reap the not simply “pass/fail” assessments of specific YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD programs or tactics. You can always evolve highest corollary benefits when you move past your mix of tactics, but even the best tactics backward-looking measurement to forward- Perhaps you’ve heard the adage that you can applied across the wrong strategies won’t looking decisions. torture the data until it confesses? What this means produce a fraction of your desired results. is it’s important not to measure just what you can, This is the difference between marketing In other words, marketers should focus but what you can ACT on. Think about where you measurement and marketing management. beyond “what is” and start measuring want to end up before you begin, and strategize from It is the difference between data, intelligence, “what if.” there. Ask yourself, “What question am I trying to and knowledge. answer, and what would I do if the answer were Each measurement should seek to augment X or Y?” An integral part of your planning process your understanding of how to make the is identifying up-front what decisions you program better and align it with your need to make to drive company profits, and company’s strategic objectives. This way, then building your measurements to capture even if you don’t meet all of your program information that facilitates these decisions. goals, you can still figure out why and how to This means you must measure things not just improve the program. This is almost always because they are measurable – but because better than launching a new program you they will guide you towards the decisions don’t yet know anything about. you need to make to improve company profitability. Isn’t it time to swap your over-the-shoulder stance, which prevents you from moving forward efficiently, for strategic, objective- driven momentum? © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 16
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 3: A Framework for Measurement © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 17
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 3: A Framework for Measurement CEOs and boards don’t care about 99% of There are many other areas of marketing the metrics that marketers track – but they metrics that are not addressed directly in this do care about revenue and profit growth. Guide. These include: CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND NET PROMOTER SCORES There are two primary categories of financial Customer Profitability: Lifetime value of an For many companies, a key metric is their Net Promoter Score (NPS), metrics that directly affect revenue and profits: incremental customer a customer loyalty metric based on customer answers to the question, • Revenue Metrics: Marketing’s aggregate Web Analytics: Measures Web visibility to “how likely are you to refer us to friend or colleague?” According to impact on company revenue target audiences against potential audiences, answers on a 0-to-10 rating scale, customers are grouped into three and compares against industry and competitor categories: • Marketing Program Performance Metrics: benchmarks Promoters (9-10) The incremental contribution of individual marketing programs Public Relations: Measures views and impact Enthusiastic customers who will fuel growth with repeat and referral of corporate communications initiatives business. Passives (7-8) Product Performance: Comparatively Current customers susceptible to competitor offerings and thus have a measures the total sales and margins of neutral brand impact. individual products Detractors (0-6) Brand Preference and Health: Assesses Customers who voiced dissatisfaction and harm brand preference in relation to preference for the brand. competing brands To calculate a brand’s NPS, use the following equation: Sales Tool Usage: Measures which product NPS = [% of Promoters] – [% of Detractors] marketing materials are being used the most A company’s Net Promoter Score has been shown to have positive And many other areas… correlations with faster growth and profits. Marketo’s own research This is not to imply that these metrics are not provides support for measuring customer satisfaction: high-growth important for marketers to track – just that companies are more likely than low-growth companies to incorporate they are likely to be less relevant to financially- customer satisfaction into their marketing executives’ compensation. focused executives outside of marketing. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 18
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 3: A Framework for Measurement WHERE METRICS GO WRONG Measuring what is easy Activity, not results When it is difficult to measure revenue and Marketing activity is easy to see and measure There are literally hundreds of marketing profit, marketers often end up using metrics (costs going out the door), but marketing metrics to choose from, and almost all that stand in for those numbers. This can results are hard to measure. In contrast, sales of them measure something of value. The be OK in some situations, but it raises the activity is hard to measure, but sales results problem is that most of them relate very little question in the mind of fellow executives (revenue coming in) are easy to measure. Is it to the metrics that concern a CFO, CEO and whether those metrics accurately reflect the any wonder, then, that sales tends to get the board member. financial metrics they really want to know credit for revenue, but marketing is perceived about. This forces the marketer to justify as a cost center? Of course, it’s okay to track some of these the relationship and can put a strain on metrics internally within your department marketing’s credibility. Efficiency instead of effectiveness if they will help you make better marketing In a related point, Kathryn Roy of Precision decisions. But it’s best to avoid sharing them Focusing on quantity, not quality Thinking suggests paying attention to the with other executives unless you’ve previously According to a 2010 Lenskold Group / emedia difference between effectiveness metrics established why they matter. Lead Generation Marketing ROI Study, the (doing the right things) and efficiency metrics number one metric used by lead generation (doing – possibly the wrong – things well). Vanity metrics marketers is lead quantity, whereas barely half For example, having a packed event is no Too often, marketers rely on “feel good” of marketers measure lead quality. Focusing good if it’s full of all the wrong people. measurements to justify their marketing on quantity without also measuring quality Effectiveness convinces sales, finance and spend. Instead of pursuing metrics that can lead to programs that look good initially senior management that marketing delivers measure business outcomes and improve but don’t deliver profits. (To take this idea to quantifiable value. Efficiency metrics are likely marketing performance and profitability, they the extreme, the phone book is an abundant to produce questions from the CFO and other opt for metrics that sound good and impress source of “leads” if you only measure quantity, financially-oriented executives; they will be no people. Some common examples include not quality.) defense against efforts to prune your budget press release impressions, Facebook “Likes”, in difficult times. and names gathered at trade shows. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 19
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 3: A Framework for Measurement Cost metrics What went wrong here? The marketer The worst kinds of metrics to use are “cost performed well, but he made the mistake metrics” because they frame marketing as of not connecting his marketing results to FINANCIAL OUTCOMES OVER ACTIVITY a cost center. If you only talk about cost and bottom-line metrics that mattered to the CEO. budgets, then no doubt others will associate Look at the following (sanitized) letter from a CFO to a CMO for an By framing his results in terms of costs, he illustration of why financial outcomes are more important than activity, your activities with cost, too. perpetuated the perception that marketing cost and quantity. Let’s take a look at a real-life example: is a cost center. Within this context, it’s only natural that the CEO would reduce costs and “We seem to be purchasing GRPs and click-thrus at a lower cost than Recently, a marketer improved his lead most other companies, but what value is a GRP to us? How do we reallocate the extra budget to a “revenue quality and simultaneously reduced his know that GRPs have any value at all for us, separate from what others cost-per-lead to $10. Thrilled with his generating” department such as sales. are willing to pay for them? How much more/less would we sell if we results, he went to the CEO to ask for purchased several hundred more/less GRPs? more money to spend on this highly I think we need to look beyond these efficiency metrics and find a successful program. way to compare all these options on the basis of effectiveness. We Did the marketer get his budget? need a way to reasonably relate our expenses to the actual impact No. The CEO decided the reduced lead cost MARKETING CHAMPIONS they have on the business, not just on the reach and frequency we create amongst prospective customers. Until we can do this, I’m not meant marketing could deliver the same “Marketers have to be clear about what marketing comfortable supporting further purchases of advertising exposure results with fewer dollars – and so she cut produces. Sales sells, but what does marketing either online or offline… the marketing budget and used the extra produce? You might answer brand awareness, funds to hire new sales people. It seems to me that, if we put some of our best minds on the challenge, leads, and sales tools. But these answers we could create a series of test markets using different levels of disempower the marketing function. The best advertising exposure (including none) in different markets which might answer is that marketing generates cash flow in actually give us some better sense of the payback on our marketing the short term and identifies sources for future expenditures. cash flow in the long term.” My experience tells me that we are not approaching our marketing Roy Young and Allen Weiss, MarketingProfs programs with enough emphasis on learning how to increase the payback, and are at best just getting better at spending less to achieve the same results.“ (Source: MarketingNPV) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 20
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 3: A Framework for Measurement THE RIGHT METRICS The Time Dimension Set Goals Lenskold Group points out that there are As discussed in Section 3, make sure you set If activity, cost, and quantity aren’t the also different types of metrics in each goals for each of the key metrics you choose right metrics to use, what are? Anything category, based on time: to track. Your goals will put your performance that speaks to the CFO’s areas of primary Past: How did we do? into context, and help you and your fellow concern: revenue, margin, profit, cash flow, Present: How are we doing? executives see if your results are on par with ROI, shareholder value – in other words, your Future: How will we do? what’s expected – or better, or worse. company’s ability to generate more profits and faster growth than your competitors. These questions break into three corresponding metric categories: This is what Roy Young and Allen Weiss of MarketingProfs call “speaking the financial Business Performance These are the most common reporting metrics that language of business.” Metrics & KPIs you share with fellow executives, often on a dashboard. Financial Metrics How did we do last week? Last month? They are mostly BACKWARDS looking metrics. Most B2B marketers should focus on two Last quarter? categories of financial metrics: Diagnostic Metrics These metrics deliver insight into your CURRENT What is working, and what can work better? performance, often by comparing against historical data Revenue Metrics Marketing’s aggregate trends and competitor and marketplace benchmarks. impact on company revenue Leading Indicators These metrics help you look FORWARD and forecast Marketing Program The incremental How will we be doing in the future? future results. (See Section 6, Forecasting.) Performance Metrics contribution of individual marketing programs © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 21
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 3: A Framework for Measurement The Right Metrics: Summary BUSINESS PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTIC METRICS LEADING INDICATORS PAUL ALBRIGHT, MARKETO’S CHIEF REVENUE METRICS & KPIS PRESENT: WHAT FUTURE: HOW WILL OFFICER, SHARES HIS SECRETS FOR PAST: HOW DID WE DO? IS WORKING? WE BE DOING? MEASUREMENT SUCCESS: Revenue Metrics Aggregate impact • Lead generation • Conversion rate • Size of prospect 1. Choose no more five key metrics. It’s hard to on company revenue versus targets versus trend or database size put organizational focus on more than that, so • Cycle time benchmark • Marketing choose wisely. contribution forecast 2. Measure success versus goals for those metrics for every campaign, every channel, every sales Marketing Program Incremental • Investment • Response rates • Expected rep/region, every product, etc. Performance Metrics contribution of • Pipeline contribution • Lift over control contribution forecast individual marketing • Program ROI group 3. Show trends for those metrics over time – that programs way you can immediately see where you are improving and where you are not. Profit Per Customer Lifetime value of an • Average selling price • Investment to • Retention rates 4. Put on a dashboard for everyone to see so there incremental customer acquire • Products per is always a succinct view of what marketing is a customer customer trying to achieve, and where you stand. • Marginal cost to • Net promoter scores serve 5. Have recognition systems tied to goals. Make sure top contributors get recognition – give them badges they can put on the desks or cube. 6. Rinse and repeat. The best performing companies track results weekly, monthly, and quarterly – so they can improve just as often. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 22
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 23
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Perhaps the most important metrics for a prospect’s movement from one stage to building marketing’s credibility are the the next, they create the foundation for a metrics that show marketing’s aggregate comprehensive set of robust revenue metrics. A NEW BREED: REVENUE MARKETERS™ impact on revenue. Methodology To thrive in today’s changing marketplace, marketing Some old-fashioned marketers say that Defining the stages of the revenue cycle must begin to operate and sound more like sales. marketing isn’t responsible for revenue. We requires a new revenue methodology. As demand generation agency The Pedowitz Group disagree. In today’s online and social world, says, marketers must “manage a predictable, reliable Traditional sales methodologies such as SPIN marketing is responsible for up to 70% of funnel with a plan that ultimately produces higher Selling and Miller Heiman provide standard the entire buying process – which means value leads and maximizes revenue.” benchmarks and best practices for the sales marketing and sales need to rethink how function, and these sales methodologies form Today’s successful marketer has evolved beyond they work (and work together) to generate the basis for the best sales analytics. At their the language of traditional marketing. The Pedowitz revenue. This new way of working requires core, these methodologies break the sales cycle Group coined the term “Revenue Marketer™” new metrics and analytics. into stages and allow the sales executive to in 2007 to describe this new breed of marketer. We call this new measurement process track movement through the stages – which in Debbie Qaqish, Chief Revenue Marketing Officer ‘Revenue Cycle Analytics’, and this new turn lets them answer key questions such as of The Pedowitz Group, says that these Revenue way of working ‘Revenue Performance “how long is the sales cycle?” and “how much Marketers™ use the language of business to describe Management’. pipeline coverage will help me hit my targets their contributions with metrics that measure for this quarter?” pipeline, opportunities, and revenue. They measure Traditionally, marketers have not applied what matters to a CxO – and talk about these metrics DEFINE THE REVENUE CYCLE the same level of rigor to their portions of in terms their executive leadership can understand and evaluate. the revenue cycle. This is unfortunate, since The first step in Revenue Cycle Analytics is it is the only way marketers will be able At any given moment, a Revenue Marketer™ knows to define the stages of the revenue cycle, to understand how their activities move how their key metrics stack up against their targets, starting with potential buyer awareness and prospects forward. and what they plan to do to improve their results. moving through marketing and sales to closed That is why the foundation of Revenue Cycle business and beyond. When marketing and Analytics rests in clearly defined stages and sales collaborate to formally define each stage, clear rules for how prospects move through as well as the business rules that determine the stages over time. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 24
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Example: Marketo’s Revenue Cycle Different companies will make different decisions about what AWARENESS definitions best suit their revenue cycles, but as a case study example, here are Marketo’s definitions. The methodology behind these definitions is in part responsible for Marketo’s highly efficient revenue engine and fast growth. All Names Marketing STAGE DEFINITION Engaged All Names This is the entry point for everyone. We have purposely called this stage “Names” because these individuals are not leads when they first enter the funnel. Prospect & Engaged This definition applies to those who show real engagement, such as attending Recycled a webinar, downloading content from our website, or clicking an email that we send. At this stage, we filter out the names that haven’t engaged with us as a brand, such as those who simply threw business cards into our bowl at Nurturing a trade show. Database MQL Lead SDR Prospect This stage refers to qualified prospects that could buy one day, but aren’t yet ready for engagement with sales. “Qualified” denotes the right kind of person at the right kind of company, as determined by our “fit” scoring rules. This is Sales SAL Lead the first metric that we report to fellow executives and the board. Opportunity Customer Lead These marketing-qualified leads are prospects that show enough behavioral Sales engagement or buying intent that we want to call them. SQL Sales Lead These leads have been qualified as “sales-ready” by a sales qualification rep. Opportunity The sales team has accepted these leads and added them to the pipeline as a deal they are actively working. Customer We have closed these deals and won new customer business. (These customers are then passed on to a new revenue cycle for upsell and retention.) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 25
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Three Categories of Stages Your company may use only a few revenue stages, or you may model something more sophisticated like Marketo’s model – but no matter which specific stages you choose, there are only three categories of stages: CATEGORY DEFINITION / TIMELINE EXAMPLE Inventory Stages An inventory stage is a “holding pool” where leads and Common examples of inventory stages include the prospect accounts can sit for an unlimited amount of time until they’re pool, where leads are nurtured until they are sales-ready; ready to move to another stage. active opportunities are not yet committed to a certain timeline. Gate Stages A gate stage is a simple qualification check with no time Assume your company only wants leads from companies of dimension. $100+ million in revenue. In the gate stage, a lead will move forward if his/her company has more than $100 million in revenue. If not, the lead is disqualified. SLA Stages SLA stands for “service level agreement”. These stages denote When a lead is deemed “sales-ready,” it can become a defined time period in which a lead must be evaluated a “marketing-qualified lead.” The appropriate sales before moving forward or be eliminated from the process. representative has 14 days to contact the lead and choose to accept the lead, disqualify it, or recycle it back for further nurturing. If a lead stays in this stage for over 14 days, it becomes “stale,” which can trigger a process that alerts sales management or even reassigns the lead to a different sales rep. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 26
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Revenue Stage Model Best Practices Detours DETOUR DISQUALIFIED INACTIVE RECYCLED LOST A best-practice revenue stage model is based Of course, not all leads follow a linear STAGES on three fundamental principles: success path, so make sure your model also defines “detour stages” to capture Sales resources are relatively expensive. To Definition Names Prospects Qualified Lost or leads that are not qualified, or that require provide the highest value, sales should not marked as who are non- leads in deferred a few rounds of nurturing before they’re engage with prospects until prospects are not-in-profile responsive need of more opportunities sales-ready. ready to engage with sales. Sales interactions over the last nurturing (ongoing should start relatively late in the pipeline, Transition Rules 6 months nurturing) once leads are well qualified, and use lower As the final step in formulating your revenue cost channels such as marketing to develop stage model, you need to define the business relationships with everyone else. rules that govern how and when your prospects move from one stage to another. No lead left behind. Don’t let potential This includes how your leads move from the customers end up in “lead purgatory.” traditional success path to various detour Implement SLA stages wherever possible stages and back again. For example: to ensure your leads either flow forward or are recycled back to marketing. Keep your 1. A person may move from Engaged to inventory stages to a minimum – perhaps just Prospect if their company reports annual one in marketing – so prospective customers revenue above $10 million and belongs to don’t sit idle. one of your target industries. A prospect’s journey from initial awareness 2. A Prospect may become a Lead when his/ to customer is often non-linear. Sometimes her Lead Score exceeds 100 points. leads originally deemed “sales-ready” are not. 3. A Prospect may become Inactive Because no lead should ever remain stagnant if they don’t respond to a campaign or visit in the system, these leads should be recycled your website in more than six months. back to marketing for nurturing. 4. An Inactive Lead may move back to Prospect status if they respond to a new program. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 27
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Example: Marketo’s Complete Revenue Cycle Below is Marketo’s final revenue cycle as BENEFITS BEYOND ANALYTICS shown in the Revenue Cycle Modeler. You’ll note that it includes the success path stage, A revenue cycle model creates a common language the entire as well as detours and transition rules. organization can use to measure results, understand the status of any prospective customer, and define the actions required from each department. Based on this, Sales and Marketing can better coordinate their activities and ensure alignment throughout the revenue cycle. A revenue stage model also provides operational benefits that improve lead management processes. A revenue stage model can help you: Customize lead nurturing based on each prospect’s location in the cycle and automatically move prospects between nurturing tracks as they move through the funnel. Adjust lead scoring rules and sales alerts by stage. For example, you might be interested if an early-stage prospect visits your pricing page, but expect it from a late stage opportunity. Trigger campaigns and sales actions as prospects transition from stage to stage. Define service level agreements for how long a lead can stay in certain stages, and automatically send alerts and trigger campaigns when leads go stale. For example, you can reassign a lead if no sales action is taken within a specific time. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 28
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics REVENUE CYCLE METRICS METRIC QUESTIONS IT WILL ANSWER EXAMPLES THAT MATTER Flow (Lead How many people entered each stage How many new prospects were created With the model in place, marketers can begin Generation) in a given period? last month, and how many marketing qualified to explore the four key “metrics that matter”: Are these trending up or down? leads did we pass last week? Flow, Balance, Conversion and Velocity. This is where critical insight can be gained Balance (Lead How many people are in each How many active prospects do I have – in measuring and optimizing marketing’s Counts) pipeline stage? since the size of my target prospect database aggregate impact on revenue. How many accounts? is a key leading indicator of future success? How does that vary by lead type? Are the balances going up or down over time? Conversion What is the conversion ratio Which (if any) of my conversion rates from stage to stage? are trending up or down? Which types of leads have the best conversion rate? Velocity What is the average “revenue cycle” time? Do certain types of leads move faster through How does it break down by stage? the pipeline? How is their speed changing over time? © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 29
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics The larger your flow in any given stage, the more meaningful these metrics become. QUESTION: SHOULD METRICS COUNT PEOPLE, Companies that sell a lot of deals at lower ACCOUNTS OR DOLLARS? price points will find more significance in their conversion metrics and flow than companies People are the easiest variables to track across the that sell fewer deals of greater size. But even entire revenue cycle, but the value of these metrics companies in the latter scenario will find is limited because revenue usually comes from meaningful flow and results data at the early accounts, not individuals. stages of their funnel. In this case, digging into Accounts are relatively easy to track for later-stage your earlier stages can serve as a valid proxy deals, but CRM systems such as salesforce.com make for marketing ROI. it hard to track accounts for early-stage leads. For example, a company that closes only Dollars are what we want, but it is difficult to several deals per quarter may find it more accurately track revenue until the sales cycle. Also, meaningful than a company closing many if your deal amounts are highly variable (or just deals to measure marketing’s results on large), some of your marketing activities will show qualified leads generated rather than wild profits while others will not, based simply on measuring closed business – especially the whether a deal has closed. It’s a bit like playing ROI of specific programs. roulette. Given these pros and cons, most companies (including Marketo) find that a mix of these three approaches is best. Here is a screenshot of Marketo’s Revenue Cycle Analytics Dashboard. Note the ability to see the metrics that matter: balance, flow, conversion, and velocity. The ability to track how all those metrics are trending over time gives critical insight into trends versus historical benchmarks, and drilling down into performance by lead source, business unit, geography, etc. helps to understand the aggregate revenue impact of each lead type. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 30
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Example: Marketo’s Metrics Opportunities. As discussed above, our Understanding the conversion rates and SDRs apply a very strict filter to what they velocities of each stage in your revenue qualify and pass onto the sales team. Our LEAD DEFINITIONS & CONVERSION RATES: cycle will help you better understand – and SDRs only pass 7% of all Leads to our AEs AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP communicate – your revenue cycle economics. as Sales Leads – but a full 80% of what they pass gets converted to an Opportunity. There will always be a trade-off between how strictly Let’s use Marketo’s actual revenue cycle It’s typical for more than one lead to be you define your leads and the conversion rates you metrics to illustrate: attached to each Opportunity, so the resulting see as a result. At Marketo, we use behavioral lead Paid Names. As of early 2011, Marketo spends combined conversion between number of scoring to determine when a Prospect becomes a ~$275,000 a month on various demand leads and number of opportunities is 4%. This Lead that one of our Sales Development Representa- generation programs to produce 9,500 new means an incremental opportunity is worth tives (SDRs) should contact. paid Names each month. about $2,000 in terms of variable demand For Marketo, it is relatively inexpensive for an SDR generation investment. to call an incremental lead, but relatively expensive Prospects. About 40% of paid Names ultimately become Prospects, generating ¾ New Customers. Finally, Marketo wins about in opportunity cost if we miss out on a potential of all our Prospects; inbound programs 35% of all opportunities (the vast majority of deal. For this reason, Marketo is relatively loose generate the remaining ¼. Our average the others are deferred or no decision), so an in what we call a Lead. At the same time, we don’t investment per paid Prospect is $73, and the incremental customer is worth about $5,800 want to annoy potential customers by calling them average for all Prospects is $55. of marginal demand generation investment. too early in the buying cycle. So we’ve set our scoring thresholds such that about 20% of all new Conversion of Prospects to Leads. Typically, This information is invaluable when it comes Prospects become Leads within a short timeframe, 20% of our new Prospects become Leads in the time to set and defend the marketing budget. and about 4% of the active Prospect database first month, and the rest enter our nurturing At Marketo, we set the demand generation becomes a Lead every month. database. Slightly less than half of our Leads budget by working backwards from how many customers we want to close in future months. But while we incur a relatively low cost on SDRs, it’s come from new Prospects, and the rest come It also allows us to answer precisely how much more expensive when our Account Executives from the nurture database. On average, and when more (or less) budget will impact (AEs) call Sales Leads. That’s why Marketo’s SDRs 4% of the nurture database becomes a Lead revenue. apply a very strict filter to which Leads they qualify each month, and about 10% goes “inactive,” and pass on to the Sales Team. In fact, our SDRs pass meaning they haven’t done anything in six only 7% of their Leads to Sales – but a full 80% of months. About 40% of Prospects will become those Sales Leads convert to Opportunities. Leads over a two-year period. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 31
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Drilling in by Lead Type Other examples might include industry, LEAD SOURCE CONVERSION RATIO AVG TRANSITION FLOW Different types of leads will move through product line, or channel source. Drilling in (ALL TYPES) TIME (DAYS) the revenue stages differently; some will by lead type is a great way to make better have better conversion rates than others, marketing investment and mix decisions. Not Website 47.77% 14 2465 some will convert faster than others. That’s only can you parse the differences between your conversion rates, velocities, and your Online Ad 13.87% 29 1736 why Revenue Cycle Analytics become even more powerful when you can drill into the investments required for each lead type; Trade Show – Virtual 11.67% 54 1362 metrics that matter (balance, flow, conversion, you’ll also be able to track what is trending Trade Show 14.49% 37 946 velocity) by lead type. up and down. AppExchange 50.88% 15 464 For example, if your leads for a certain source Important Lead Type Variables or product are converting faster than others, Webinar 17.03% 38 418 A Lead Type is any specific category of it may be a sign to invest more in that area. leads that may move through the revenue Alliance 36.95% 37 313 cycle differently. Examples include: PPC_GS_US 43.48% 13 260 Lead source: Leads generated from Not Available 26.32% 4 234 pay-per-click will usually convert faster than leads from purchased lists. Sponsorship 5.44% 70 229 Partner 8.82% 55 164 Company size: Leads from large enterprises may convert more slowly than SMB leads. Content Syndication 10.04% 37 133 Division: Whether your divisions are Web Direct 30.83% 44 115 by geography, business unit or both, Organic – Google 44.84% 24 113 the leads from each division will likely behave differently. Web Referral 51.63% 40 111 Example of revenue cycle metrics by Lead Source. Here, we see Marketo’s Prospect to Lead conversion rates, flows, and velocities by lead source. This shows that Prospects from the AppExchange and Website are the highest quality and are most likely to convert to Leads; Prospects from PPC tend to convert the fastest; and Prospects from Sponsorships, Partners, Virtual Trade Shows, and Content Syndication convert at the slowest rate. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 32
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics REVENUE PERFORMANCE With an RPM mindset in place, companies With this in mind, here are some additional begin to realize that the most important metrics that effective RPM marketers can add MANAGEMENT METRICS marketing metrics are really about sales to their own dashboards: effectiveness. In other words, the most Revenue Performance Management (RPM) - Average selling price important questions you can answer about is a strategy to optimize interactions with - Sales cycle times marketing’s results are: buyers across the revenue cycle to accelerate - Sales productivity predictable revenue growth. Because RPM 1. What effects are marketing’s investments - Win rates is about transforming how marketing and having on sales’ effectiveness and - Time to ramp a new sales rep sales work – and work together – it requires productivity? a new set of metrics that focus not on how 2. How are marketing’s activities lowering marketing or sales is performing, but on the the total expense-to-revenue ratio for overall effectiveness and efficiency of the sales and marketing combined (e.g. how is end-to-end revenue engine. marketing improving the net revenue engine The best way to measure the overall effectiveness)? effectiveness of your revenue engine is to When you no longer focus on marketing measure total revenue (or bookings, or gross in isolation, but rather on how marketing margin) generated divided by the total spend impacts sales productivity, you will gain on marketing and sales. This metric, more a much more comprehensive view of your than any other, provides an accurate measure activities’ true ROI. of your revenue engine’s efficiency. (Total Revenue or Bookings) Revenue Engine Effectiveness = (Total Marketing and Sales Investment) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 33
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics The Big List of Revenue Metrics Incorporating all these together, here’s a broad list of metrics you can choose from to measure your impact on revenue. FLOW CONVERSION IMPACT INVESTMENT SALES AND RPM OTHER # of New Names % Name to Prospect % of Pipeline Contributed Investment per New Average Selling Price Balance of Active Prospects by Marketing Names in key inventory stages # Prospects % Prospect to Marketing- Value of Pipeline Investment per Prospect Sales Cycle Times Balance of Open Qualified Lead Contributed by Marketing Opportunities # Marketing Qualified % Marketing-Qualified % of Wins Contributed by Investment per Marketing % Reps Making Quota Velocity / Cycle Time for Leads Lead to Sales-Accepted Marketing Qualified Lead New Name to Lead Lead # Sales Accepted Leads % Sales-Accepted Lead to Value of Revenue Investment per Sales Time To Ramp a New Sales Velocity / Cycle Time for Opportunity Contributed by Marketing Accepted Lead Rep Opportunity to Win # Opportunities % Opportunity to Win Investment per RPM Efficiency = (Total Key “Awareness” Metrics: Opportunity Revenue) / (Total web traffic, direct/branded Marketing + Sales traffic, social followers, etc. Investment) # Wins Investment per Win Total Period Revenue vs Quota # Lost Discounts # Churn Pipeline Renewals / Retention © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 34
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Variants of Each Metric TRACKING METHOD BENEFIT Each metric on the previous table will have multiple variants depending on how you slice By week, month and quarter A regular cadence helps keep and dice them, each of which will frame your operational focus. metrics in a different context to help you make better decisions. Trends over time Looking at your data over time For example, you may look at the number helps you see if you’re improving. of Marketing-Qualified Leads and conversion rate from Prospect to Lead over time versus Versus goals The best marketers set goals (weekly, monthly, goals for each geographic region. and/or quarterly) for all key metrics, and always track results AND results versus goals. It can be costly and unwieldy to look at too many variants too frequently, so pick the Versus benchmarks Compare results (e.g. conversion rates) versus number of metrics to track in keeping with similar companies, as well as versus your own your organization’s needs. company’s historical results. By source Many companies look at lead flow and opportunity creation by source (e.g. sales created vs. marketing created). By channel, product, region, etc. The more complex your business, the more important it is to track your key metrics on a more granular level. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 35
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 4: Revenue Analytics Example: Marketo’s Key Revenue Here are some of the key metrics we track on Lead to Opp % Metrics a monthly basis. We track Actual, Target, and Size of Target Prospect Database At Marketo, we track five key metrics versus Actual / Target %. We also track the 12-month goals on a weekly basis, and 30 key metrics trend for all these variants over time. Size of Open Opportunity Pipeline versus goals on a monthly/quarterly basis. All Website Traffic Deferred or Lost Opps Branded Traffic Net-Add Opps Here are the key metrics Marketo tracks on (Direct + “Marketo” Keyword) Won Opps a weekly basis, as well as the key variants: Blog Subscribers Dollar Value 1. New Prospects: New Since Last Week, New Facebook Monthly Users Total Demand Generation Month-To-Date, % On-Target Total New Prospects Programs Investment 2. New Leads: New Since Last Week, Demand Gen Investment Per Prospect New Month-To-Date, % On-Target Total New Leads Demand Gen Investment Per Opportunity New Target Active Leads 3. New Opportunities: New Since Last Week, Target Latent Leads Total Marketing Investment New Month-To-Date, % On-Target Inbound Leads (All Programs + All Headcount) SMB Leads • West Total Marketing Investment 4. Size of Target Prospect Database: Per Opportunity Size today plus trend over 12 months SMB Leads • East Enterprise Leads Total Bookings 5. Size of Open Opportunity Pipeline: International Leads SMB Size today plus trend over 12 months Enterprise Total New Opportunities 6. New Business Closed: Month-To-Date, Marketing/SDR Opps Channel vs Quota, % On-Target Sales Outbound Opps International Referral Opps Install Base 7. Upsell Business Closed: Month-To-Date, vs Quota, % On-Target SMB Opps • West Average Selling Price SMB Opps • East 8. Renewals Business Closed: Month-To-Date, Enterprise Opps Average Discount vs Quota, % On-Target International Opps Retention / Churn © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 36
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 37
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement WHY MEASURING MARKETING larger companies or more complex purchases, such a committee can involve 21 or more PROGRAMS IS DIFFICULT influencers. Different marketing programs affect DON’T GO OVERBOARD ON PROGRAM each individual differently, so it is a challenge to MEASUREMENT It’s easy to ask the question, “What kind of know which programs have the most impact. results do my programs deliver?” However, Marketing measurement should not be about determining the answer can be very difficult. Extraneous variables. In many cases, factors proving ROI, but improving ROI. Jim Lenskold points Some of the key challenges to marketing outside marketing’s control can significantly out that marketers tend to overemphasize their program measurement are: impact program results – from macro-economic assessments of media and marketing channels, since trends to the weather to the quality of the these align to the budget allocation process and tend Knowing when to measure. The money you sales reps. If revenues increased because the to be visible to the CFO and other executives. invest today will have an uncertain impact at an economy improved, can marketers claim their uncertain point in the future. Last month’s trade programs delivered better ROI? In the end, the revenue metrics in Part 4 are show may deliver results next month or perhaps usually more important than program effectiveness Measuring the contribution that a given measurement. not for two years, but marketers need to decide marketing program has on revenue and where to invest their budgets today. profits has been the holy grail of marketing measurement ever since John Wanamaker Multiple touches. Conventional marketing famously remarked, “Half of the money wisdom says at least seven touches are needed I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble in order to convert a cold lead into a sale. is, I don’t know which half.” Whether or not this is the correct number every marketer knows it takes multiple touches to Perhaps the most common question marketers create a customer. This fact makes it difficult to ask is, “Did this program (trade show, email blast) allocate revenue to any specific touch. deliver results?” Multiple influencers. According to This section is all about how marketers can MarketingSherpa, the average buying committee answer this challenging question – and build for a five-figure purchase at a mid-sized a sensible framework for measuring the company comprises six people. In the case of effectiveness of their decisions. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 38
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement Methods to Measure Marketing Program ROI Each sequential method on this list will give How lead generation marketers Just because measuring marketing ROI is hard you a more accurate view into your customer measure marketing programs: doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Fortunately, value data – but this additional insight comes various methods exist to give companies with a corollary rise in cost and complexity. As a insight into their various programs’ levels of result, most organizations begin the process of effectiveness: marketing program measurement with the first and second methods and begin to experiment 45% with more approaches as they move up the Single Attribution maturity curve. LESS ACCURATE LESS COST 20% No tracking 1. Single Attribution (First Touch / Last Touch) 2. Single Attribution with Revenue Cycle Projection 21% Attribute Across 3. Attribute across Multiple Programs and People Multiple Programs and People 11% 4. Test and Control Groups Test and Control 5. Full Market Mix Modeling Groups INCREASED INCREASED 3% INSIGHT COMPLEXITY Market Mix Modeling (Source: The Lenskold Group / eMedia Lead Generation Marketing ROI study) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 39
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement PROS AND CONS OF SINGLE ATTRIBUTION (FIRST TOUCH / LAST TOUCH) Pros Cons METHOD ONE Relatively easy implementation and low cost Doesn’t account for the influence of subsequent touches– so insights are directional at best Provides good insight into the early SINGLE ATTRIBUTION The most common methodology for tracking the stages of the revenue cycle Attributes too much credit to lead results of marketing programs is to assign all the (FIRST TOUCH / LAST TOUCH) value to the first (or last) program that touched Works well when the majority generation programs and not enough to nurturing touches or contributions the deal. This usually means allocating the of investments are made in lead from sales generation instead of lead nurturing deal to the source of the first person from that Hard to account for quality until the deal company, or to the key person. Gives straightforward insight into closes; can be skewed by a particularly “investment per” lead metrics large deal or long sales cycle Program Analyzer SINGLE DEFINITION EXAMPLE New Analyzer Settings Print PDF ATTRIBUTION Default First Touch First touch attribution If a company held Program Analyzer Standard Reports New Analyzer Settings Filter: Driver: Chris, Shonal | Location: San Francisco, New York Print PDF Default Lead Reports Filter: Driver: Chris, Shonal | Location: San Francisco, New York Settings allocates all the value a webinar and to the FIRST program generated a Lead that Standard Reports X Axis Lead Reports Leads by Campaign Settings 2,000,00,000 X Axis that touched the closed a deal one year Leads by Campaign G"4.$ 2,000,00,000 Leads by Month Leads by Month G"4.$ deal. Typically this is later, that company Email Reports Email Reports Campaign Reports From: 2500 To: 8000 From: 2500 To: 8000 the Lead Source. would give revenue Company Reports Program: Webinar Y Axis Campaign Reports Cost $53,000 Pipeline Dollars Web Page Reports Pipeline Contribution: $10,000 S'2)6'*)$T"66%#4$ Program: Webinar Y Axis Company Reports credit to the initial Revenue Cycle Analytics Contributing Leads: 45 Tags From: 1000 To: 4500 Example Reports Location: San Francisco Cost $53,000 Pipeline Dollars Web Page Reports S'2)6'*)$T"66%#4$ Pipeline Contribution: $10,000 webinar. My Models Program: Webinar Bubble Size Analyzers Cost $53,000 M)37)#4$ Revenue Cycle Analytics Pipeline Contribution: $500,000 Contributing Leads: 45 Success Path Analyzer Contributing Leads: 45 Comparison Analyzer Tags From: 400 Tags To: 600 From: 1000 To: 4500 Example Reports Last touch attribution If a Lead becomes Driver: Chris Location: San Francisco Opportunity Analyzer Program Analyzer Location: New York Color Last Touch My Models Program: Webinar Bubble Size gives revenue credit a Prospect after N-,,)44$M)37)#4$ 0 Contribution Analyzer Analyzers Batting Average Analyz 0 Cost $53,000 200,000 M)37)#4$ 20,3)$ to the LAST program watching a product From: 400 To: 6000 Pipeline Contribution: $500,000 Success Path Analyzer Contributing Leads: 45 Comparison Analyzer Tags Driver: Chris From: 400 To: 600 that touched the lead demo, that demo Opportunity Analyzer Location: New York Color before the key action would receive revenue Program Analyzer N-,,)44$M)37)#4$ was taken. credit, even though a 0 Contribution Analyzer 0 200,000 sales rep had nurtured Batting Average Analyz 20,3)$ From: 400 To: 6000 the Lead in several other ways. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 40
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD TWO SINGLE ATTRIBUTION WITH Solution: revenue cycle projections By adding revenue cycle projections to REVENUE CYCLE PROJECTIONS a first touch single attribution, you can gain PROS AND CONS OF SINGLE ATTRIBUTION An obvious disadvantage of first and last deeper insight into the long-term impacts WITH REVENUE CYCLE PROJECTION of your programs. For example, instead of touch attribution is that today’s marketing waiting to see the actual results of a trade Pros Cons investments may not pay off for quite some show, this approach looks at what impact time, so the ROI of your current marketing the trade show had at the top of the revenue Focuses on revenue impact Attributes value to lead programs remains in limbo. of programs, not just top sources without accounting cycle and embellishes that view by estimating for the influence of other of the funnel Approaches to marketing ROI measurements the trade show’s long-term impact based on marketing touches that do not properly account for the time-to- historical conversion metrics. Uses estimates to quantify the future value of today’s Uses past performance to investment payoff can lead to decisions that In the example model on the next page, Trade estimate future results, investments bias towards short-term gains over building Show 1 occurred a year ago and shows a so cannot incorporate true long-term value. This applies across all Uses lead quality, not fairly good picture of its returns. In contrast, underlying changes industries, but its impact is especially acute in just quantity, to evaluate Trade Show 2 just happened last week. With programs Requires that estimates companies with considered-purchase products the basic first touch single attribution model, must eventually be backed and long revenue cycles. Trade Show 2 looks as if it has delivered very up with actual results poor results. But this is not an apples-to- apples comparison. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 41
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD TWO PROGRAM INVESTMENT DATE ALL TOUCHED PROSPECTS LEADS OPPS WINS PIPELINE REVENUE Trade Show 1 $18,000 Last Year 901 560 207 17 5 $421,082 $117,903 Trade Show 2 $12,000 Last Week 1,012 517 21 1 0 $15,946 $– However, when we apply revenue cycle understanding of how leads from similar trade shows have converted over time to the above model, we are able to estimate what the total future impact of the trade show will be. PROGRAM INVESTMENT DATE ALL TOUCHED PROSPECTS EST. LEADS EST. OPPS EST. WINS EST. PIPELINE EST. REVENUE Trade Show 1 $18,000 Last Year 901 560 209 21 7 $590,510 $161,214 Trade Show 2 $12,000 Last Week 1,012 517 221 18 7 $663,221 $258,656 Think of it this way. When discussing a recent marketing program, would you rather say, “The event was great; 500 people stopped by the booth,” or “The event was great; 500 people stopped by the booth, and we expect to add an incremental $600,000 to pipeline over the next 12 months as a result?” © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 42
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD TWO Marketo Case Study Example Marketo relies mostly on Single Attribution with Revenue Cycle Projection to internally assess its KEY INSIGHTS: COLUMN DEFINITIONS: program results. Below is a summary of some of our recent program results: Inbound leads are by far the highest quality, fastest Sources above the line are programs with variable moving, and most likely to convert to opportunities. demand generation program investments. Those SOURCE PROSPECTS INVESTMENT % LEAD VELOCITY LEAD TO This reflects the fact that our website does not below the line are Sources with fixed investments PER PROSPECT (DAYS) OPP INDEX require registration for early-stage content but does only. for buying-oriented content, so any Prospect who Prospects show the total flow (number) of new Trade Show – Virtual 3,793 $25.44 17% 81 1.0 actually does register on the website is likely to be Prospects from each Source. later in their buying process. 3rd Party Email to Investment per Prospect lists the average variable On the other hand, we meet prospects at every Promote Content 3,302 $34.65 18% 43 0.5 investment per Prospect from that Source. stage in the buying process with paid programs. % Lead shows the likelihood that a Prospect from Trade Show 2,703 $221.30 23% 61 1.9 Taking all the costs and conversion rates into that Source will convert to a lead over a 12-month account, virtual trade shows are the best performing time period. Paid Webinar 1,760 $68.50 21% 60 1.0 source; followed by PPC, paid webinars, and using third-party email lists to promote our content. Velocity shows the average time it takes a Prospect Pay per Click Search 990 $158.10 45% 42 1.4 from that Source to convert to a Lead. In-person trade shows are not a cost-effective way to generate new Leads (though they can be useful to Lead to Opp Index shows the relative likelihood Content Syndication 536 $82.84 12% 59 0.3 accelerate movement from existing leads). that a Lead from that Source will convert to an Opportunity. (For example, Leads from the website Other Paid 208 $187.50 13% 93 1.3 Content syndication tends to generate very early are 2.6 times more likely to turn into Opportunities stage Prospects that do not convert. than leads from a virtual trade show.) Website 2,871 58% 27 2.6 Sales Prospecting 1,888 26% 46 2.2 Partner Co-Marketing 903 17% 102 1.1 Other Inbound 370 100% 19 9.0 © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 43
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD THREE ATTRIBUTE ACROSS MULTIPLE By Time: You may want to weight some touches over others based on when they occurred in PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE relation to the action that delivered value. This EXAMPLE OF ATTRIBUTING ACROSS assumption is especially true for programs that MULTIPLE PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE This approach recognizes that it takes multiple happen immediately before the key behavior. touches from multiple people to close a deal, For example, the fact the prospect attended last Assume a deal worth $100,000 recently closed. and attempts to measure the contribution of week’s webinar may have more to do with them Three people were involved in the deal: each individual touch. becoming a lead than the white paper they Person A attended Trade Show 1 and Seminar 2. How to Track and Analyze Allocations downloaded and trade show they attended 12 months ago. Person B attended Trade Show 1 only. First things first. Start with the action you are analyzing (pipeline creation, closed revenue, By Role: You may give more weight to programs Person C was sent Direct Mail 1 and clicked to etc.) and work backwards to identify each that touched the key decision maker than those the website. significant touch that affected all of the contacts affecting other influencers. Just be sure your In this scenario, you might give $50K credit to Trade associated with that particular deal – but make weighting matches your business realities – a Show 1, $25K to Seminar 2, and $25K to Direct Mail 1. sure you account for only the touches that CEO shouldn’t be weighted more heavily than occurred before the action was taken. You will a Manager if he or she has little impact on the track each touch and contact person from here. deal. Once you compile a comprehensive list, you By Program Type: Some marketers will choose need to allocate portions of the resulting deal to weight certain types of touches more heavily PROS AND CONS OF ATTRIBUTION ACROSS MULTIPLE PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE to each one – including count, pipeline, revenue, than others, based on the level of engagement. Pros Cons profit, and so on. This is where things can get For example, attending a two-hour seminar may tricky, so refer to our best practice guidelines: Incorporates nurturing touches as well as lead Requires assumptions that can add bias to the have more impact than a simple website visit. generation analysis Allocation Methodologies However, be careful not to give more weight to more expensive programs just because they cost Especially useful for long revenue cycles with Important to find any possible “hidden” Before you allocate your revenues across many touches contributors, including online and sales activity multiple programs and people, you need to more – that opens you up to other executives decide how to weight each touch point – if at all. questioning your assumptions. Focuses on all contacts associated with a deal, Lacks insight into synergy of tactics, no not just the first correlations or connections Risk of over-crediting low impact touch points, especially if you weight all touches equally © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 44
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD THREE The first step in attribution across multiple all the relevant contacts associated with an programs and people is to track all the opportunity. Once you have that, you need to significant touches – including programs, allocate the value of the opportunity to each WHEN YOU ASSUME YOU MAKE AN ASS OUT online activity, sales activity, etc. – that affect of the touches. OF U AND ME Assumptions may be necessary when using multi-touch attribution, but they inherently add a subjective element to any ROI analysis. So no Account Analyzer Publish Settings Add more people matter what allocation assumptions you make, be New Analyzer Actions Print PDF to this opportunity sure you can defend them in front of your executive Against Score or Against the like a consultant Default leadership and board – otherwise you risk hurting Model as the LINE dimension View: Score Mode Account: Acme Inc Standard Reports Star = Role in Opty Acme Inc the credibility of the entire analysis. Lead Reports Account Analyzer Activity Interesting Leads by Campaign Edit me and clone me Logged Joe Smith (8) Moment Nancy Jones (12) Leads by Month 80 Phil McCloud (4) Email Reports Frank Johnston (3) Campaign Reports 70 Freddie Rainbow (1) Company Reports Harold Scotsman (0) Web Page Reports 60 Jamal Tucker (0) Revenue Cycle Analytics Example Reports 50 My Models Checking box includes Analyzers 40 Opty their history – these Success Path Analyzer Created are people attached Comparison Analyzer 30 to the account but not Program : Webinar Opportunity Analyzer Cost per Lead: $21 the opty 20 Success: ? Program Analyzer Contribution Analyzer Ability to right click on 10 Web Activity a name and add a role Batting Average Analyz to an opty right here Time Axis (By first touch for any lead “checked” to last) This is a screenshot of the Marketo Influencer Analyzer. You can see every time an opportunity touches a contact. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 45
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD FOUR TEST AND CONTROL GROUPS Putting it to practice 2500 With test and control groups, you need to A great way to measure the true impact apply the program or treatment that you 2000 of a particular marketing program is to test want to measure to one component of your target buyer group, and not to another Outcome Units the effectiveness of that initiative against a 1500 well-formed control group by comparing the homogeneous part of that group. All other Control group adjusted two groups’ results. Of course, this means you factors being equal, you’ll be able to attribute to treatment group size need to plan your programs to be testable any difference in buyer behavior between the 1000 Baseline includes from the get-go. two groups to the particular program. all other marketing and non-marketing Almost anything can be measured using Say, for example, that you want to measure 500 proper test design, but it’s prohibitively the impact of one of your brand advertising expensive to test everything. campaigns on target awareness. One potential 0 approach would be to split your market into 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 two equal geographic parts, and spend twice Time Period as much on one group than the other. You can compare the behaviors of these two Baseline Campaign market segments to analyze your campaigns effectiveness – did you experience more Source: Lenskold Group growth in direct and branded search from the geography with more spending? Assuming all other marketing and sales influencers on these two groups were the same, you can credit any difference in traffic growth to your brand advertising spend. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 46
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD FOUR Test design The importance of statistical The outcome metric (what you measure) can significance be anything: revenue, profit, leads, search You don’t need to go overboard, but ANOTHER OPTION: PRE-POST TESTING traffic, conversion rates, average selling price, you do need to make sure the difference etc. – or all of them. This is good in situations between your control and test groups is A common, much less rigorous form of testing is where it may be hard to see the impact of the statistically significant in comparison with to compare your results before your marketing program on things like revenue. average standard deviations. Eighty percent program to your results after – or to project what confidence should be good enough – we’re not the outcomes WOULD have looked like without the You can also test almost anything, including: touch, based on historical trends. talking about drug testing or other things that Programs and tactics. Did that particular require 99% confidence. webinar have an impact? Pro: This approach doesn’t give all the credit to the For more on testing statistics, see Marketo’s marketing touch since it assumes you would have Messages. Which message and/or copy The Ultimate Guide to Test Statistics. some existing sales without it. No one wants to be resonated the most with you target audience? the brunt of the joke that says, “If results are up, marketing gets credit. If results are down, it must Contact frequency. How often should we be something else.” send an email? Spending levels. What happens if we double PROS AND CONS OF TEST AND CONTROL GROUPS Cons: It’s difficult to account for seasonal or cyclical investment in display advertising? Pros Cons effects. Pre-Post testing doesn’t have a rigorous control group in which all other factors are the same. It’s also possible to measure combinations More sophisticated and analytical – Focused on specific tactics – can’t Other factors – such as the economy, sales initiatives, of touches rather than just single touches. reveals the true impact of a marketing report on effectiveness of all programs and other marketing programs – can still influence This is a great way to test lead nurturing program the results. tacks – allowing you to test and measure the Almost everything can be tested, but effectiveness of one entire lead nurturing Can measure almost any impact on it’s prohibitively expensive to test almost anything with the right test everything Pre-post testing can give you directional information track versus another rather than individual about program effectiveness, but since it can’t emails, etc. Should you want to test multiple Relatively low cost if you can design a Only works when you’ve incorporated eliminate non-marketing factors, it’s an estimate campaigns at one time, you can also use decent control group variance to support program at best. multivariate testing methodologies. measurement © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 47
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement METHOD FIVE FULL MARKET MIX MODELING • Search advertising gets credit for 3x5=$15M Market Mix Modeling (MMM) shows how • Display advertising gets credit PROS AND CONS OF MARKET MIX MODELING for 2x5=$10M sales volume outcomes are dependent on Pros Cons • Trade shows receive credit various independent marketing touches for 1.5x10=$15M and other non-marketing factors by using Very accurate Needs lots of data; can statistical techniques, such as regression. Only be costly to collect all the 3% of B2B marketers currently use this model (MMM)aking it your own Measures the impact of all required historical data As you might imagine after seeing this programs – and all external to measure marketing ROI. factors as well Requires sophisticated example, the selection of your independent Here’s a sample statistical equation variables can be a complicated affair – and Gives insight into program analytical skills (albeit an extremely simplified example): arguably involves as much art as it does effectiveness and efficiency Focus on short-term science. You’re likely to find that you’ll expend sales changes can Company X makes $165M in revenue. the most of your resources – both in time and Company X spends: undervalue longer-term money – in collecting your data, not analyzing it. brand building activities $5M on search advertising. $5M on display advertising. Regardless, make sure you drill down to $10M on trade shows. the science of your own MMM equation by incorporating all factors that might impact Company X’s marketing mix model your output. Possible factors include: might have an equation like this: Sales=125M+3.0*h+2.0*Display+1.5*Trade Show • Pricing • Promotion/advertising This equation shows that, without • Product Marketing, Company X would have • Place made $125M in sales. And of the $40M in • Distribution revenue generated by marketing: • Sales • Competitive moves • The economy • And so on… © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 48
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement PROGRAM-SPECIFIC METRICS – WHAT Email Metrics Unsubscribe rate Communications Metrics No of press releases Direct Mail Eyes On YOU SHOULD MEASURE AND TRACK Bounce rate No of interviews Delivery Rate Open rate No of press events Response Rate While CMOs should be using methods Click-through rate Volume of coverage Cost Per Conversion like attribution and market mix modeling Share of voice to determine program effectiveness and Webinar Metrics Customer Metrics contribution, campaign- and program-specific Attendee rate Website Metrics Churn Rate metrics should not be ignored. While less Drop-off rate Views/Visitors Customer Lifetime Value relevant to the CEO, these will be early Engagement rate Unique Views Share of Wallet indicators of market changes, and will help Backlinks Customer Engagement Event Metrics track growth so program managers can ensure Conversions Registration proper campaign mix. Attendees Blog Metrics This list may represent only some of the Satisfaction Posts programs you run; it’s important to capture Subscribers Social Media Metrics information across your marketing mix. Here Views/Visitors Gross views are a few metrics you may want to track on Unique visitors Connections a regular basis, organized by program type: Social shares Mentions Activity Online Ad Engagement Impressions Conversions Cost Per Click (CPC) Sentiment Cost Per Thousand Views (CPM) Cost Per Conversion (CPC Cost Per Action (CPA) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 49
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 5: Program Measurement CONCLUSION: PROGRAM Quality trumps quantity. You’ll benefit your company and improve your marketing MEASUREMENT APPLIED programs more with a few fine-tuned measurements than a handful of inaccurate, It is no small task to maneuver through the inconclusive metrics. Start in small, bite-sized various program measurement models and chunks, and go from there. methodologies that are available to you – and if you’re among the 20% of B2B marketers What you put in is what you’ll get out. who don’t yet measure the ROI of their When you strategically invest your time and marketing programs, then getting starting may financial resources in developing a marketing seem like a daunting prospect. But before you measurement model, you position yourself get too overwhelmed, remember that: for future success. You’ll optimize your overall program mix and prune individual You’re not alone on the learning curve. top-performing programs to increase company According to a recent MMA/Forrester/ANA sales, profits and market share. Who doesn’t study, 87% of senior marketers did not feel want that kind of reputation? confident in their ability to impact the sales forecast of their programs. Said differently, this means you have the ability to snag a competitive advantage over 87% of your competition! © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 50
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 6: Marketing Forecasting © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 51
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 6: Marketing Forecasting At executive staff and board meetings, the Methodology for Marketing Forecasting number one topic of discussion is never an Though the details can get quite sophisticated, upcoming marketing program or the new the methodology for making accurate HIGHLY ACCOUNTABLE MARKETING brand strategy – it’s almost always the sales marketing forecasts is simple in concept. FORECASTS forecast, and there’s usually little to no input from the CMO. 1. Model the stages of the revenue cycle, and We are not discussing “traditional” marketing then measure how each type of lead moves forecasts, which take the form of a top-down market It’s no wonder most executives don’t through the various stages (conversion size analysis. Those kinds of forecasts can be useful consider marketing to be an essential part percentage and velocity). This was for strategic planning, but do not have the sufficient of the revenue team. discussed in Part 4. granular and actionable data required to compliment Long-Term Visibility 2. Get accurate inputs for how many new the sales forecast. Sales forecasts are based on what specific leads of each type the marketing team will Highly accountable marketing forecasts enable the accounts will do at specific times, so they put into the system over future periods. CMO to make statements such as, “Next quarter, become increasingly inaccurate the further marketing will generate an incremental 30 new out you look. And the shorter the sales cycle, 3. Model the flow of current and new leads through the various stages over time. deals worth $4.0 million of bookings that are not the worse the problem. currently in the sales forecast.” Done right, the In contrast, when marketing takes 4. Review the results and apply management marketing forecast gives a CMO the confidence responsibility for the early stages of the judgment to finalize the forecast. to stake a portion of his or her compensation on revenue cycle, they have better visibility meeting the goal, and a CSO relies on marketing’s into future period revenue. Marketing input to make a valid forecast for the period. executives can forecast how many new leads, opportunities, and customers marketing will yield in future periods because they know how many prospects are in each revenue cycle stage – and how they are likely to move through each stage over time. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 52
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 6: Marketing Forecasting Get Accurate Inputs Review Results and Apply Marketing forecasts are subject to the rule Management Judgment of “garbage in, garbage out”. You will need Of course, these numbers are just estimates an accurate estimate of how many new leads and assume your conversion rates will remain will flow into the system in any given period, steady over time. Marketing and sales can by type, to serve as the fuel for your revenue and will affect the conversion rates, and you engine. need to take this into account. That is why it’s essential for marketers to apply executive Model Flow through the judgment to their model projections before Revenue Stages finalizing their forecasts. For example, CMOs Project your revenue cycle forward by at larger companies will need to “roll-up” the modeling how existing and new leads will marketing forecast from multiple divisions convert through the various revenue stages (product, geography, etc.) into one top-level over time. If your understanding of conversion forecast, sometimes lowering the forecast rates and inputs are accurate, you will create from divisions that habitually overestimate a solid projection of what the revenue funnel their results. will deliver in future periods. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 53
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 6: Marketing Forecasting MARKETING FORECAST -4 -3 -2 -1 CUR +1 +2 +3 Commit 244 254 263 263 273 282 295 302 Commit, Target, Forecast Target 257 266 276 286 292 302 311 321 Any CMO making marketing forecasts should -4 257 266 276 286 - - - - be rigorous about the difference between Commit, Target and Forecast. -3 - 273 276 270 276 - - - • Commit is the number that the CMO can -2 - - 305 276 276 289 - - guarantee and should not vary frequently; this is the number to use as the basis for the Previous Month - - - 276 282 302 311 - CMO’s quota / bonus. Current Month - - - - 294 305 315 331 • Target is a number higher than Commit which reflects what the team should be Commit Target Forecast Actual aiming for. The goals for individual groups Number of New Customers by Month should roll-up to meet the overall Target, not Commit. This type of presentation is useful for showing Conclusion actual results compared to forecast and plan, Forecasts matter. CEOs and board members • Forecast is the CMO’s best estimate for what as well as how the forecast changes over are impressed by accurate, forward-looking will actually happen and should be based on time. The example shows actual results for forecasts – especially over the long term. the most recent estimates and adjustments. the current month and a forecast for the next This is the single biggest reason why sales CMOs that track and communicate progress three months; it also shows the forecasts from has more credibility (and power) than against these three metrics are sure to build the prior four months compared to actual marketing at most companies. the credibility they deserve. results. This presentation can also illustrate the forecast for other revenue stages such But when marketing teams are able to make One way to present these metrics is as new prospects, marketing qualified leads, revenue forecasts – and deliver against via a waterfall chart. For example: even closed bookings. them – with equal or greater accuracy, they will leverage a key competitive advantage in establishing their own clout within their organizations. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 54
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 7: Dashboards (Source: http://pedrolaboy.com/) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 55
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 7: Dashboards Dashboards create a visual display of all the Designing a Great Dashboard relevant information you need to measure and Your marketing campaigns and programs refine your current effectiveness in delivering generate a huge amount of data, most of against your goals – and communicate your which is not relevant. So as you design your performance levels in a format that is intuitive dashboards, you want to determine what to others inside and outside your department. is most useful to you. This will translate into Furthermore, dashboards help you make just the right number of metrics – enough more knowledgeable, sophisticated decisions for you to understand what is really going on about improving your metrics and your future inside your data, but not so many that you initiatives. are overwhelmed with marginally relevant There are many kinds of dashboards: internal information. marketing dashboards as well as dashboards Focus on the five key metrics that matter you share outside of marketing, often with most. As Coco Chanel said, “before you your senior management and the board. In leave the house (or in this case, publish the the case of external dashboards, remember to dashboard), take one thing off.” focus on the key financial metrics that matter most. This will assist you and your fellow executive leaders in focusing on what is of ultimate importance: making better-educated decisions to improve revenue. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 56
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 7: Dashboards An important factor here is using the right information graphic for the data you have and the insight you need. This sample dashboard from Lenskold Group serves as a best practice example of many elements that typically appear in a great dashboard: Few numbers. Relatively few numbers are shown, but the select few that are featured are key financial metrics. Speedometers show progress versus goals. This is an effective graphic for conveying this information. Line charts show trends. Line charts show your data over time and allow you to see trends. KPI alerts. Simple arrows are effective to indicate your upward, downward or flat progress against key performance indicators. Take the time to make your dashboards look attractive. A visually appealing dashboard can build your credibility. (Source: Lenskold Group) © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 57
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 7: Dashboards Communication The best dashboards don’t just serve a reporting function. They should also guide PHYSICAL DASHBOARDS how people within your organization think, acting as catalysts for effective decision This is a seemingly minor yet critical point. In making. This should greatly influence how you our virtual business world, it’s easy to overlook present your dashboards (or any metrics, for a highly effective form of dashboard: a physical that matter): version displayed on whiteboards around your office. People are motivated by what they can see, Frame your destination. Start by reminding so you build excitement around the office when others what you collectively want to you give your growing success public visibility on accomplish. When you communicate a clear a day-to-day basis. vision about what you are trying to achieve, you enable others to align towards the same objective. Paint the bigger picture. While you do need to present your numbers, it’s more important to share insight into what they mean and key takeaways. Call to action. Spell it out: “Here is what we need to DO as a result of these data and insights.” Remember, the actions you take based on your data matter more than the actual numbers themselves. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 58
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 8: Implementation – People, Process, and Technology © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 59
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 8: Implementation – People, Process, and Technology As with any business transformation, the What Kinds of People? Communication skills. An analyst must success of your marketing measurement In a perfect world, it’s ideal to hire a possess excellent written, oral and visual program depends on how well you implement full-time analyst for this job – the pace of communication skills in order to explain it. This requires you to set in place the right your enterprise’s adoption of marketing the results of a given project in ways that people, the right process and the right analytics will be faster if you do. However, enable an organization to learn and improve technology. most marketers are faced with the reality of its operations. Such capabilities begin in embarking on their measurement journeys effective interpersonal communication and with only the staff they already have. If you extend to listening and group facilitation skills find yourself in this scenario, assign analytics across a full platform of modalities: electronic PEOPLE AND CULTURE ownership to someone currently within your communication, telephone and face-to-face organization – and then make absolutely sure conversations, group presentations, and so on. Even the most efficient methods and latest they have the skills, adequate support, and Bias for experimentation. The ideal analyst cutting-edge technology are useless if you coverage to be successful. needs to possess a demonstrated willingness don’t have the right people driving the to problem solve with new approaches. If you aren’t getting the metrics you need, process, so effective executives begin by it’s probably because you haven’t made them Technical savvy. Your prospective analyst must asking themselves the following questions: a priority. understand how computers, data networks, What kinds of people do I need What Kinds of Skills? databases, and operating systems work – and on staff to implement marketing You’ll want to be intentional about the skills work together – to be successful in the role. measurement? you search for and cultivate: This involves knowing each technology’s potential uses and limitations. • Are these high performers already on Analytical proficiency. Someone with my team, or do I need to look outside my analytical skills will be able to absorb, visualize It may go without saying, but the analyst must organization? and articulate large amounts of data and also understand your organization’s unique complex concepts, and make decisions to products, services, industry and operations. • What kinds of skills does my current If an analyst isn’t familiar with your business, solve existing problems that make sense based employee mix need to develop? they won’t be able to interpret your data. on the available information. • How can I create a culture of analytics? © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 60
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 8: Implementation – People, Process, and Technology Creating a Culture of Analytics Accountability. It’s pointless to set target Hiring (or designating) the right people is only goals if you don’t also hold people the first step. Even at companies that already accountable for meeting them. have significant analytical activities underway, Act on information instead of gut. doing the analysis is only about a third of the All too often, businesses suffer from the battle. The other two-thirds involve driving it curse of the H.I.P.P.O.: the “Highest Paid into all current business workflows in a way Person’s Opinion.” People may refrain from that prompts your organization to use and act conducting valuable analysis and simply wait on your valuable conclusions. for their bosses opinion – or they might allow Schedule some quality time. The velocities a H.I.P.P.O. to override the analytics. Perhaps at which most marketing teams operate this is the case in your organization. Or maybe today often do not accommodate analytics, you yourself are the H.I.P.P.O.. In either case, nor do they allow time for reflection around do what you can to ensure all relevant data implementing analytical conclusions to and insights are communicated before the improve operational efficiency and company H.I.P.P.O. comes out. revenues. If you want to benefit from your Bias toward insight, not data. It can be marketing metrics, analytics are something tempting to believe your success will increase for which you need to allocate certain periods with every additional metric you measure, but of time. this is not the case. A facts and numbers mentality. A historical Of course, none of this will work without focus on “soft metrics” have caused buy-in and support from executive leadership, many marketing departments to become especially the C-suite. When done right, accustomed to operating outside of metrics can create a virtuous circle, in which frameworks that are conducive to fact-based the right metrics create the support for decisions and accountability. For marketing more useful and actionable metrics. If not, measurement to be successful, you need you’ll encourage a vicious cycle with the to bias your mindset toward hard financial opposite scenario. metrics. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 61
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 8: Implementation – People, Process, and Technology PROCESS Build from there. As you continuously evolve Lenskold Group reports that one of the best and adapt your marketing measurement techniques to drive marketing ROI adoption system over time, you’ll refine it so it gets is to configure pilot teams to introduce In Part 2, we discussed the components better and better. You may not end up where new capabilities – preferably consisting of of an effective ROI process – what to measure, you thought you would when you started, but people who demonstrate adaptability and when to measure, how to measure. Here, you’ll likely end up in a great place. high interest in the changes you want to we will discuss how you can manage and implement. Successful pilot programs will implement the changes necessary in your In addition to well-defined principles, you excite others within your organization about organization for this marketing measurement need to formalize the methods you’ll use to your measurement initiatives. system to succeed. implement your marketing ROI processes. Well-defined methods (and stages) will ensure Marketing ROI is a marathon, not a sprint. your metrics’ efficiency and effectiveness. To be successful, you need to take a Examples include: methodical approach over the long term in several key areas: • Identify who will be involved and who will own each part of the process. Dream big… As with many projects, you’ll position yourself for greater success if • Formalize training to cultivate and refine the you begin with a grand – albeit granularly specific skill sets your marketing team needs. articulated – vision of what you want your measurement end-state to resemble. • Set a feedback loop in place for performance reviews. …Then start small. Slow and steady wins the ROI race. Proceed with manageable, digestible steps. Win small victories quickly. This will ensure stakeholder buy-in across your organization – and increase your chances for success over the short and long term. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 62
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 8: Implementation – People, Process, and Technology Whatever principles and methods you decide to use, marketing managers MARKETING MEASUREMENT IN REVIEW: A CHECKLIST should be able to answer any of the questions below instantly: 1. Define your data collection 3. Assign granular KPIs to 6. Produce visual reports of 9. Analyze and optimize. It’s and storage approaches. How your unique campaigns. your marketing success. time to act on the business • What would be the expected ROI if we will you collect your data Determine the impact of Be discerning in how much intelligence you gather with increased your budget by 10%? What would across multiple channels, individual campaigns and data you incorporate into the system you’ve set in be the impact on sales closed? including your customer channels, as well as their these scorecards. Too much place. Which channels are database, ad networks, influence on other channels information will overwhelm performing best? Which • What would be the impact on sales search engines, in-house and campaigns, and your your ability to quantify the campaign mix and variations? if we decreased the marketing budget spreadsheets, etc.? You can marketing measurement business revenue impacts of Integrate historical data by 10%? build your data warehouse success as a whole. It’s your individual and collective trends with your “what Sound familiar? It all comes back internally or rely on outside helpful to integrate historical marketing investments. if” scenarios to adjust and to where we started. agencies or analytics data into your metrics as well improve your marketing 7. Employ your data to calculate providers. to uncover historical trends. investments moving forward. true impact. Assign values to 2. Identify your Key 4. Formalize campaign data each channel, campaign and 10. ROI-inse and repeat. Performance Indicators collection and tracking. This is attribute across all marketing As Visual IQ says, “an (KPIs). When you involve where you establish business touch points to deliver true enterprise marketing key stakeholders who rules around when and how metrics that represent how measurement system is […] will use your data in their to measure what you want to effective each source is in not a one time, set-it-and- daily business functions to measure – and identify who generating revenue. forget-it project.” Enable measure how well they’re will oversee each phase of stakeholder buy-in with 8. Where individual user data is achieving their goals, you the process. small victories at first, and unavailable, use “top down” ensure their sponsorship of build your initiatives as you 5. Integrate sales transaction attribution. Mathematical the marketing measurement see what works and what data from all sources. You’ll algorithms exist to calculate process. doesn’t. establish a virtuous cycle for the value of individual your marketing ROI when marketing touches that you (Source: Visual IQ, 10 Steps to Enterprise Marketing Measurement) you close the loop of your can’t access on a user level, measurements. such as offline channels like TV, print and radio. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 63
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Part 8: Implementation – People, Process, and Technology Technology Automation Must-Haves 3. Powerful and Easy Analyzers. Very few “The first rule of any technology Given the importance and potential of A successful analytics solution requires of the marketers who want and need to used in a business is that effective marketing measurement, as well as four components: consume analytics data are business analysts. automation applied to an the scope of the problems that companies For such an audience, powerful analyzers and 1. Central Marketing Database. Analytics dashboards are required, so marketers can efficient operation will magnify who don’t use such metrics experience, there the efficiency. The second is require access to highly detailed marketing explore the data trends and gain insight into is no lack of vendors promoting “the next best thing” in marketing measurement technology. data, so marketers need to begin tracking this their programs without wasting valuable time that automation applied to an information now – preferably in one place. in acquiring the expertise needed to maneuver inefficient operation will magnify While Excel spreadsheets and other ad hoc Required information will include historical the technology, build custom reports, and so the inefficiency.” Bill Gates tools can do a lot for companies, they cannot data around when marketing programs ran, on. Just make sure your marketing automation function as solutions for businesses that want what their attributes were, who they touched, solution offers tools that are both easy and to implement a robust analytics process. In how much they cost, and so on. Without powerful! contrast, automated measurement processes this information, analytics are essentially provide much more definitive, reliable and worthless. 4. Ad Hoc Reporting and Dashboards. On the timely insight. other hand, business analyst experts will need 2. Time Series Analytics. Unless an complete flexibility to delve deeply into the Automation frees up analysts’ time from operational system stores historical data, data and customize their own ad hoc reports. information collection and presentation, a marketer cannot measure or understand In this case, table-like reports and charts are and allows them instead to focus on gaining marketing trends. Yet the majority of most effective and allow analysts to “follow valuable insight into that data and refine marketing and sales systems are operational the scent” of particular insights as far as they their actions toward better results. This gets and do not store historical information – need to go. the analysis completed faster and better. requiring marketers who want to analyze their metrics for prior time periods to According to Gartner, companies that manually take data “snapshots” from their automate their lead management business Excel spreadsheets. However, time series processes between marketing and sales analytics give marketers a full picture of their before 2012 will increase their conversion performance trends over time because the rates by at least 50%. Many companies will engine is powered by a historical data mart. also see a 5% to 10% increase in revenue by 2015. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 64
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Conclusion © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 65
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Conclusion KEY LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR Maintain financial integrity CEOs and CFOs care about growing Create an environment to succeed Enable access to critical marketing, sales PERFORMANCE, PROFITABILITY, revenue and profits – use the hard and finance data. Employ tools to display AND CREDIBILITY WITH MARKETING financial metrics they care about to build what’s urgent, important and relevant METRICS AND ANALYTICS: credibility Implement marketing technology to use Be comprehensive in accounting staff and marketing assets more efficiently for marketing-generated costs Enhance data analysis capabilities to Plan for future success Model the stages of your revenue advance precision of ROI analyses Reporting for reporting’s sake is less cycle and understand your lead flow, important than the decisions reports enable Train and hire experienced, tech savvy conversion rates and speed of closing to improve profits; find not just what works, people with a bias for experimentation sales but what works better. Focus on “improving Create a virtuous cycle of communication ROI,” rather than just “proving ROI.” Measure strategically with your C-level suite Identify measurement priorities Set goals and run scenarios for all in advance of campaigns and plan Cultivate a culture of continuous marketing programs – prior to spending campaign-specific measurements improvement money concurrent with campaign planning Establish a roadmap for increasing Design programs to be measurable marketing ROI and measurement Integrate diverse measurements to capabilities over time Apply the insights from prior determine how to best leverage the measurements in the current cycle unique strengths of each methodology Develop a process that aligns marketing of planning and to allow multiple measurements to and measurements to business objectives have a cumulative effect Run pilot initiatives to introduce new Delve into all expenses involved in capabilities customer value and improve the profit potential of each individual account – and Build momentum by acting on insights improve targeting for new accounts for initial wins Continuously evolve the marketing ROI process — it is a journey, not a destination © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 66
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Appendix: More Resources 18 Must-Know Marketing Analytics Adam Greco, Pat LaPointe, Tom Pisello, and Metrics Experts Senior Partner, Web Analytics Demystified Managing Editor, NPV and EVP-Americas, Chairman and Founder, Alinean Need help getting started or advancing Website: Web Analytics Demystified MarketShare Blog: Tom Pisello, The ROI Guy your current marketing metrics? The Twitter: @AdamGreco Book: Marketing by the Dashboard Light Twitter: @TPisello experts below represent the best of the Website & blog: http://marketingnpv.com/ best in marketing analytics, marketing Leland Harden, Twitter: @MeasureMan David Raab, metrics, marketing forecasting, marketing EVP, Global Marketing, Usee Owner, Raab Associates testing, and marketing testing. Some Book: Marketing by the Numbers Jim Lenskold, Book: The Marketing Performance have books, others consulting firms, Website: Digital Engagement Managing Director, The Lenskold Group Measurement Toolkit but all have the A+ smarts to push your Twitter: @LelandHarden Book: Marketing ROI: The Path to Website: Raab Associates Inc. marketing to the next level. Campaign, Customer, and Corporate Blog: Customer Experience Matrix Anne Holland, Profitability Twitter: @DRaab Amy Africa, President, Anne Holland Ventures, Website: Lenskold Group CEO, Eight By Eight Publisher, Which Test Won, Twitter: @JimLenskold Ron Shevlin, Website: Eight by Eight Website: WhichTestWon Senior Analyst, Aite Group Blog: Amy Africa’s Blog Twitter: @AnneHolland55 Rebecca Jacobs Madigan, eBook: Everything They’ve Told You About Twitter: @AmyAfrica Executive Director, Performance Marketing is Wrong Mark Jeffery, Marketing Association Blog: Ron Shevlin’s Marketing Whims Tim Ash, Managing Partner, Agile Insights + Director Website: Performance Marketing CEO of SiteTuners & Chair of Conversion of Technology Initiatives, Kellogg School of Association Jim Sterne, Conference Management Twitter: @PMAssociation Chairman, Web Analytics Association, Book: Landing Page Optimization: The Book: Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 President, Target Marketing Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Neil Patel, Website: Target Marketing Conversions Know Co-founder, KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg Book: Social Media Metrics: How to Website & blog: SiteTuners Website: Agile Insights Blog: QuickSprout Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Twitter: @Tim_Ash Twitter: @NeilPatel Investment Avinash Kaushik, Twitter: @JimSterne Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg, Analytics Evangelist at Google Laura Patterson, Managing Partners, Eisenberg Holdings Book: Web Analytics 2.0 President, VisionEdge Marketing Book: Always Be Testing Website & blog: Occam’s Razor Book: Marketing Metrics in Action: Website & blog: Eisenberg & Associates Twitter: @Avinash Kaushik Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing Twitter: @TheGrok, @JeffreyGroks Organization Website & blog: VisionEdge Marketing Twitter: @LauraVEM © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 67
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Appendix: More Resources 10 Steps to Enterprise Marketing CMO Guide to Marketing ROI Measurement: A Marketing Executive from Lenksold Group Checklist by VisualIQ http://www.lenskold.com/content/landing_ http://www.visualiq.com/resources/ marketing_roi.html white-paper-executive-checklist-marketing- 2010 B2B Lead Generation measurement Marketing ROI Study – Lenskold Group Book Excerpt: Marketing Metrics in Action: http://www.lenskold.com/content/ Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing LeadGenROI_2010.html Organization by Laura Patterson MarketingNPV: http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing- http://marketingnpv.com/knowledge resources/book-club/marketing-metrics- _base/all/topics in-action-creating-a-performance-driven- marketing-organization.php Metrics that Matter for Marketing Measurement – Webinar with David Raab Free ROI Spreadsheet from Lenskold Group http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing- http://www.lenskold.com/forms/default. resources/best-practices/marketing-roi/ html?fid=18 metrics-that-matter-for-marketing- Interactive Lead Generation ROI Tool measurement.php from Lenskold Group http://www.lenskold.com/tools/LeadGenTool. html © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 68
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    Definitive Guide toMarketing Metrics and Analytics Contact us North America: +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) About Marketo Written by Jon Miller Europe: + 353 1 213 0500 Marketo is the global leader in Revenue Jon is VP Marketing and co-founder at Marketo. Performance Management. Marketo’s powerful He explores everything from lead nurturing and yet easy-to-use marketing automation and sales social media to marketing ROI and revenue Email: info@marketo.com effectiveness solutions transform how marketing performance management in Marketo’s Visit our website: www.marketo.com and sales teams of all sizes work — and work popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing, and was together — to drive dramatically increased named a Top 10 CMO for companies under revenue performance and fuel business growth. $250 million revenue by The CMO Institute. Jon To get The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing online, The company’s proven technology, graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics from visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-lead-nurturing comprehensive services, and expert guidance Harvard College and has an MBA from the are helping corporations around the world to Stanford Graduate School of Business. To get The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring online, turn marketing from a cost center to a business- visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-lead-scoring building revenue driver. To get The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media online, Marketo has been recognized with the 2010 Designed & illustrated by Velocity Partners, visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-b2b-social-media CODiE award for “Best Marketing Solution,” the the B2B marketing agency. “Best Sales and Marketing 2.0 Solution” from To get The Definitive Guide to Sales Lead Qualification, SellingPower, and the “Best Marketing visit: www.marketo.com/dg2-sales-qualification Automation Application” by Salesforce customers on the AppExchange. As of March 2011, more than 1000 enterprise and Visit our blogs: blog.marketo.com mid-market clients globally have adopted Marketo solutions. For more information, visit http://www.Marketo.com, or subscribe to Marketo’s award-winning blogs at http://blog. marketo.com/. © 2011 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 69
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