Measuring marketing impact in the B2B world isn’t as simple as counting leads anymore. With evolving buyer journeys, account-based marketing (ABM) strategies, and the need for tighter sales and marketing alignment, traditional lead metrics just don’t cut it.
Today, the true measure of marketing success lies in engagement, pipeline contribution, and revenue impact. In this blog, we’ll explore how B2B organizations can shift from lead-based reporting to engagement-focused metrics and how RevOps plays a key role in building a reporting framework that drives growth.
The Shift from Lead Metrics to Engagement Metrics
Traditional marketing relied on volume-based metrics—lead counts, MQLs, and conversion rates. While those numbers looked good on paper, they often created a disconnect between marketing and sales because they didn’t reflect lead quality or engagement.
Modern B2B teams are focusing on engagement and account-based insights over raw lead numbers to get a clearer picture of marketing’s true contribution.
Key Engagement Metrics to Track:
- Account Engagement: Track how engaged target accounts are across multiple touchpoints.
- Sales-Qualified Opportunities (SQOs): Measure how many high-intent opportunities marketing has influenced.
- Pipeline Velocity: The speed at which deals progress through the sales cycle.
- Contribution to Closed Revenue: How much revenue marketing-sourced or influenced leads generate.
Aligning Sales & Marketing for Revenue-Based Reporting
69% of the purchase process happens before B2B buyers engage with sellers. (6sense 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report) This means buyers are engaging with your content, attending webinars, and reading case studies long before they ever speak with a sales rep. Tracking these early engagement touchpoints is critical for understanding marketing’s true impact.
The Power of Alignment
Misalignment between sales and marketing is one of the biggest obstacles to accurate reporting and business growth. Marketing cares about engagement and leads; sales cares about opportunities and revenue. Revenue Operations (RevOps) is the glue that aligns these teams, creating shared goals and consistent data processes.
Revenue-Based KPIs to Focus On:
- Pipeline Influence: How much marketing contributes to sales opportunities.
- Engagement by Account: Track engagement with high-value accounts in your ABM strategy.
- Revenue Attribution: Leverage first-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch models to measure how marketing activities impact deals.
The Role of ABM in Measuring Marketing Impact
Account-based marketing shifts the focus from individual leads to target accounts, prioritizing deep engagement and long-term relationships. This strategy isn’t about volume; it’s about meaningful engagement with key accounts that drive real revenue.
According to the 2024 ABM Survey Report, companies that align ABM with Account-Based Advertising see 60% higher win rates.
How to Measure ABM Success:
- Percentage of Target Accounts Engaged: How many of your high-priority accounts show meaningful activity.
- Influence on Closed-Won Deals: How ABM efforts contribute to revenue.
- Account Penetration: Track the number of key contacts engaged per account to measure how well you’re reaching decision-makers.
Best Practices for Tracking ABM Metrics:
Ensure your tech stack is fully integrated to track engagement and revenue impact seamlessly. HubSpot and Marketo (for marketing automation) paired with RollWorks or Demandbase (for ABM insights) can provide a full picture of your efforts.
Building a Revenue-Based Reporting Framework
A solid reporting framework ties all your engagement and revenue metrics into a single source of truth. Here’s how to build one:
- Define Shared KPIs: Focus on metrics that matter to both marketing and sales—like pipeline contribution, revenue impact, and deal acceleration.
- Automate Reporting: Use RevOps to manage the tech stack and automate data aggregation. Create real-time dashboards that give teams immediate insights.
- Visualize Engagement: Dashboards showing real-time engagement across accounts and channels help teams make data-driven decisions and identify what’s working.
The Tech Stack That Makes It Possible
Building a revenue-based reporting framework requires the right tools. Here’s the stack you need:
- CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot): The central hub for tracking engagement and pipeline.
- Marketing Automation (HubSpot, Marketo): Drives lead nurturing, engagement, and campaign execution.
- ABM Platforms (RollWorks, Demandbase, 6sense): Provides deeper account-level insights for target account engagement.
- Revenue Intelligence Tools (Gong, Clari): Tracks pipeline health and deal progression.
Turning Metrics into Growth
Measuring marketing impact is no longer about how many leads you generate. It’s about engagement, alignment, and how those efforts contribute to revenue. By adopting a revenue-based reporting framework and aligning sales and marketing through RevOps, your team can unlock real insights and drive predictable growth.
At RenderTribe, we specialize in helping B2B companies implement RevOps strategies, align sales and marketing teams, and build reporting frameworks that focus on what really matters—revenue.
Ready to shift from leads to engagement? Let’s chat.
