Surveys suggest marketers that are capable of proving the value of B2B marketing tend to focus on holistic attribution over the long run
Measuring marketing isn’t a difficult concept. There are three key areas to measure – effort, engagement and results.
Yet putting the concept into practice always seems to bring difficulty. Last week I wrote about a simple measurement framework to get started (listen to the audio version here – Episode 61).
In the post, I cite several B2B marketing measurement statistics that got me thinking about that post. Yet there were many more interesting statistics that didn’t fit – so this week I’ve gone back through those surveys to curate some of the other statistics you might find interesting. Each set of statistics is grouped under the related source report.
Forrester’s Marketing Survey, 2024 by Forrester
This survey was conducted in the spring of 2024, however, I did not see a sample size listed any where outside the firewall.
1. Marketing’s measurement isn’t trusted
“64% of B2B marketing leaders feel that their organization doesn’t trust [marketing’s] measurement for decision-making.
2. Most B2B revenue can be traced to existing customers
“Seventy-three percent (73%) of B2B revenues come from existing customers in the form of renewals, cross-sell, and upsell, and the remaining 27% comes from new business,” the analyst firm revealed in a separate post stemming from the same survey.
3. Sourced pipeline or revenue is a weak measure
Some “59% of CMO dashboards were tracking some type of sourcing metric (pipeline or revenue)” but Forrester says this is a weak measure for marketing. Why? Sourcing does not “adequately reflect what business leaders expect marketing to accomplish, don’t accurately show how demand originated, and don’t align with the realities of how B2B buying works.” In other words, marketing attribution is a team sport.
2024 Marketing Analytics Survey by Gartner
This survey polled 378 senior marketing leaders in April and May of 2024 (presumably based in the U.S. and probably subscribers to Gartner’s research).
4. Half of marketing measures successfully
A little more than half (52%) of marketing leaders told Gartner on a survey that “they were successful in proving the value of marketing and receiving credit for helping meet enterprise objectives.” The implication is that the other half is not successful.
5. CFOs are most skeptical of marketing’s value
The survey found marketing leaders rank “CFOs (40%) and CEOs (39%) as the top executives most skeptical of marketing’s value.”
6. The C-suite sees marketing as an expense
According to the survey, “47% of CMOs said marketing is viewed as an expense rather than a strategic investment.”
7. Measurement success comes in the long term
More than two-thirds of respondents said they “communicate marketing’s value through a long-term, holistic view.” This was the most successful approach. Of the respondents in this cohort, 41% said “they were able to prove marketing’s value and get credit for business contributions.”
2024 Marketing Attribution Survey Summary Report by Ascend2
This survey polled 357 marketers in September 2024 using an online panel (presumably based in the U.S.).
8. Room for marketing measurement improvement
28% of the respondents surveyed said their marketing “attribution strategies are very successful.” However, most (66%) rate their marketing attribution as “somewhat successful” and 6% say “unsuccessful”.
9. Confidence in measurement is weak
29% of those surveyed are “extremely confident” in the accuracy of their attribution method. Here again, most respondents (60%) were “somewhat confident.” Finally, the remaining were “somewhat” (8%) or “extremely unconfident” (3%).
10. Top marketing measurement challenges
More respondents cited a “lack of expertise” more than any other challenge, which is good news because that’s a solvable problem. Here is how the responses stacked up overall:
- 42% said “lack of expertise”
- 41% said “difficulty tracking customer touchpoints”
- 40% said “limited resources for analysis”
- 38% said “complexity of multi-channel attribution”
- 37% said “lack of data integration”
- 31% said “difficulty in interpreting attribution results.”
11. AI’s usefulness in marketing attribution is yet to be determined
One in four surveyed “strongly agree” that AI has helped them improve the accuracy of their marketing attribution method. Another 32% “somewhat agree.” However, 34% do not use AI in measurement at all, and 8% “somewhat disagree” while 1% “strongly disagree.”
Begin with the end in mind
One of the challenges with marketing measurement that goes unnoticed is the afterthought – measurement tends to be an afterthought. We get to the end of the month, quarter or year and wind up scrambling to prove value. This is because we are so focused and busy generating the output we’ve forgotten about measurement.
I contend we’d do a whole lot better by beginning with the end in mind. In other words, before you write your next strategy, position paper or marketing copy, take a moment to ask yourself: what do we expect this to achieve? That’s what we want to measure.
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Image credit: Pexels and related studies
