Measure return on marketing

Who this is for

Founder led lower-middle market companies with 5 to 50 million in annual revenue that need simple, trusted reporting.

The quick answer

Track sourced pipeline, influenced pipeline, win rate by channel, and time to close. Use first touch and last touch for a simple view and add multi touch when cycles are very long. Meet with sales each month to compare data to what reps see and to shift budget.

The method in seven steps

Define sourced and influenced
Sourced means first touch came from marketing. Influenced means marketing touched the deal at some point. Write the rules.
Set the data fields
Channel, campaign, first touch date, last touch date, and primary segment. Keep the list short so data stays clean.
Build the core views
Pipeline by channel, win rate by channel, and time to close by channel. Add cost to show return.
Run a monthly revenue meeting
Marketing and sales review the same dashboards. Decide what to stop, start, or scale.
Use lead to meeting to opportunity to win
Track each conversion step. Fix the stage that drags.
Control tests
Change one thing at a time in a channel and measure the effect for four weeks.
Share wins and lessons
Publish a short monthly note so the whole company sees what is working.

Example

After adopting channel level reporting and a monthly review, a firm shifted budget from broad paid social to partner events and targeted outbound. Meetings and pipeline rose without extra spend.

Pitfalls and fixes

Vanity metrics. Focus on meetings, pipeline, and wins.
Too many fields. Keep only what you use.
Marketing and sales out of sync. Review together.

Checklist

Definitions written for sourced and influenced
Short list of required fields
Three core dashboards live
Monthly review booked
Test plan with four week windows