Webinar recap: How to prove your marketing works (and why it matters)

Hosted by analytics expert Gavin Llewellyn, August’s member exclusive webinar examined how to align marketing metrics with business objectives to prove the true value of marketing. Llewellyn introduced practical frameworks to measure effectiveness and demonstrated how to communicate this effectively to stakeholders. 

Gavin Llewellyn is a CIM course director and a Chartered Marketer with over 20 years of experience in marketing strategy and performance across a wide range of sectors.  He began the webinar by explaining the importance of proving marketing effectiveness, measurement, and return on investment (ROI). He emphasised how critical it is to align marketing metrics with business outcomes and discussed the challenges of demonstrating ROI. 

Defining marketing effectiveness

Marketing effectiveness can look different to different members of a business and during the session, Llewellyn introduced the three-truth problem; where different stakeholders including marketers, finance, and CEOs, have conflicting views on campaign success. With different departments using distinct measurements for success, marketing’s value is not always conveyed in a straightforward manner. And while ROI is important, looking at a single metric isn’t the best way to assess the impact of a campaign. 
Research has shown that only 35% of marketers can demonstrate commercial impact to senior management, and only 39% of marketers are actually measuring whether their work is delivering business outcomes. This data shows how urgent it is for marketing to move away from the competing ‘three truths’ and towards something that is closer to shared value, particularly at a time where marketing budgets are under increased scrutiny. 

The metrics pyramid 

The metrics pyramid starts off with vanity metrics, including activities like impressions and clicks, moving to efficiency metrics like cost per acquisition and click through rates, and finally to value metrics like incremental value and profit growth. While many marketers focus too hard on tracking vanity metrics, moving the conversation up the pyramid can help to prove long-term value. 

 Effectiveness is about linking activity to commercial outcomes and connecting marketing to business results; rather than measuring what happened, we need to measure what matters. 
Many of the measurement challenges we face are because we have too much data that can sound impressive but doesn’t actually provide any insight on whether a campaign has made a meaningful impact on the bottom line.

Frameworks for long-term impact 

The webinar emphasised the need to connect different data channels and methods to prove long-term value without losing short-term battles. Llewellyn introduced the concept of triangulation, combining different methodologies like attribution, incrementality, and econometrics to reduce bias and improve insight.
He went on to explain how using measurements fit for each channel can avoid any potential false insights. and the importance of decision-first measurement, starting with the decision to be made and then choosing the appropriate methodology. This shifts the focus from measuring everything possible to measuring what matters for the decisions at hand, making your marketing analytics more strategic and effective.

Communication strategies 

The webinar session introduced the "See, Think, Do, Care" framework, which breaks down marketing metrics into different stages of the customer journey. This framework is especially useful when KPIs and metrics are overwhelming, as it helps clarify where each activity sits in the journey and what success should look like at each stage.
Llewellyn showcased the "Answer First" storytelling approach, which starts with the key message and supports it with evidence, making it easier to communicate with different audiences rather than confusing them with unnecessary details. He discussed the role dashboards can have in communicating decisions and simplifying data for stakeholders, presented in a clear format that is easy to understand campaign impact.

Final thoughts 

In his concluding thought, Llewellyn shared three key takeaways from his webinar with our audience:

• Measure what matters
• Blend measurement methods
• Tell the story of the data 

Measuring metrics directly linked to business outcomes, rather than just activities that have happened, will help focus your data to prove how your marketing works, and not using just one single truth, but triangulating will help build confidence. And finally, the frameworks mentioned help you simplify your measurements to align with business goals and convince stakeholders of your value. Measurement isn’t about counting, it’s about convincing. 

To learn more about aligning marketing metrics with business outcomes, sign up for the CIM Data and Marketing Analytics training course for a practical workshop focusing on using KPIs and analytical tools to enhance marketing effectiveness and maximise Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI).