Marketers need to move away from a reliance on “vanity metrics” and instead show business leaders that digital content can deliver return on investment and lasting value, a new study by Viant has found.
The consulting firm surveyed 50 CFOs in the US in March for their thoughts on digital marketing and just over a third said that their major concerns are centred on the fact that marketers only focus on metrics or “vanity” data that makes them look good, such as click-through rates and video views.
It appears that those in charge of finance are seeing through some of the flimsier metrics that don’t really drive engagement or any tangible business value, and marketers would be best served by presenting information that is capable of showing that it can achieve these aims. This can then unlock higher budgets for content and other marketing endeavours.
“Marketers who can prove the value of digital marketing campaigns are in a better position to secure increased marketing investment than those who rely on proxies or vanity metrics and hope for arbitrary increases,” Viant researchers noted. “Simply put, the ability to tie advertising investment to actual purchase and prove return will unlock more budget.”
In addition to vanity metrics, CFOs are also concerned that digital marketing is more of a “cost centre” than a “profit centre”. They also want marketers to be more transparent as 16% do not currently trust them to provide a complete picture of successes and failures for their activities.
