We’ve all been guilty of tracking metrics that are somewhat meaningless if you scratch a little bit below the surface. These are often referred to as “vanity metrics” - measurements that may appear impressive or promising (and therefore great to report on) but do not provide meaningful insights into marketing efforts' actual success and impact on revenue generation.

How do you categorize something as a vanity metric?

Well, you might notice that…

• It doesn’t relate to business goals
• It doesn’t influence revenue
• It can be easily manipulated

Some examples would be:

1. Social media followers/post engagement
   A high follower count doesn’t necessarily translate into engagement and conversions on social media. Impressions and page views can be an indicator of successful content but the intentions of your followers can be very different. Some may be customers already, some may want a job from you, and some may be competitors scoping out your brand.
   
   
2. Website traffic/page views
   A high-traffic website or page is great but quite useless if it’s not converting. Your content might rank well in SEO terms, but if all it’s getting is traffic and no conversion, it might even raise another question - are you reaching the right audience?
   
   
3. Email open rates
   Having a high open rate really only means that your subject line was compelling enough to open the entire email. In some cases, perhaps this may even be an overtly positive take. Many email services automatically scan emails for viruses and suspicious links and “open” the email without the recipient actually doing that.
   
   
4. Ad impressions
   200,000 impressions may look good on paper, but it doesn’t indicate if your audience engaged with the ad or took any action. Impressions mean little without the right strategy and targeting to connect with active audiences.
   
   
5. Leads generated
   Lead volume can be easily influenced by an increase in ad spend. The sheer number of leads generated is not a valuable metric on its own. It’s relatively easy to generate 100 leads a month, but they’re useless if they’re not your target audience or have no intention of buying from you (ever).

It’s easy to get caught up in these numbers. They get a bad rep because they’re easy to track, and they just… look good. In reality, they’re not inherently bad - they can very well be helpful in determining the success of non-commercial marketing goals.

Vanity metrics are just a small part of the bigger story.

They do not necessarily reflect marketing strategies' actual value or effectiveness in driving growth, but they can give you a sense of whether or not you’re on the right track and even gauge brand awareness, for example.

EXAMPLE: You attributed 100 MQLs to your gated content lead generation campaign. By tracking a vanity metric like the amount of website traffic on blog pages where people signed up to download gated content can give you an idea of which blog post was the most read and where people came from. Think of vanity metrics as background information to understand what happened behind the scenes.

Here are some actionable metrics to consider:

1. Conversion Rate: Rather than just racking up leads that may never convert, focus on finding the right leads. Conversion rate and lead-to-customer ratio can give you an idea of campaign success and make it easy to attribute revenue to (and repeat) different activities.
   
   
2. Click-through Rate: When it comes to emails or ads, CTR is a far more actionable metric that can give you a sense of how well campaigns are performing. While it’s not a 100% reliable indicator of success (since a click doesn’t always translate into a conversion), it’s a much better number to track than the open rate (emails) or impressions (ads).
   
   
3. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): CAC is calculated by dividing total marketing and sales spend by number of clients acquired over a set period of time. This metric helps determine the efficiency of your marketing and sales efforts and make informed decisions about resource allocation.
   
   
4. Average Sales Cycle Length: This metric defines the average time a visitor/prospect takes to become a customer. Take the number of days from the first lead touchpoint until the day of the sale for each deal closed and divide that by the number of deals closed. This can help anticipate and predict revenue generation based on your past pipeline.
   
   
5. ROI: Ultimately, the holy grail of B2B metrics: return on investment. The calculation of the revenue you generated from marketing efforts divided by what you spent on marketing over a period of time. Tracking revenue growth and ROI can determine the overall impact of your marketing strategies on the bottom line.

Focus on these key numbers to gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and drive sustainable business growth. When you do your reporting, include vanity metrics as background information.