Survey: Marketers Remain Challenged to Prove the ROI of Efforts

Although marketers are invested in showing the impact of their work, new research indicates that they are struggling to prove the ROI.

According to the 2017 Marketing Leadership Survey from TrackMaven, just 27.6 percent of marketers say they are “very effective” at demonstrating the value of their marketing efforts to their peers. The majority (69 percent) say that they are only “somewhat effective” at it.

In terms of specific struggles, most marketers (71.1 percent) claim that their top challenge for proving ROI is attributing social and content to revenue. This is followed by aligning KPIs to business goals (48.8 percent) and attributing leads to revenue (46.6 percent).

Most survey respondents (90.6 percent) claimed that they use engagement metrics, such as social media interactions and time-on-site, to gauge their overall impact.

“CEOs and CFOs want to know how marketing is moving the business forward, and how it contributes to revenue,” wrote the authors of the report. “Shift your focus away from easy-to-measure vanity metrics like consumption, to those focused on revenue so you can be ready with the numbers those executives really want to see.”

B2B Marketing and Company Objectives

Marketers may be attempting to prove the ROI of their social and content initiatives, but they are facing pressure from management to show their lead generation efforts as well.

A survey conducted by B2B Marketing and The Telemarketing Company in 2016 found that most B2B marketers (59 percent) are “significantly” pressured to generate additional leads by upper management. However, 24 percent said that they do not have a shared definition of a “lead” with their sales team.

Within the next two years, 49 percent said that an increased business focus on lead quality (rather than volume) will help them improve upon their ability to deliver on marketing objectives.