I've learned that most marketing measurement is theater. You run campaigns, collect big numbers, and nobody actually knows what drove revenue. For founders and technical brands especially, this becomes a real problem because the work is expensive and the pressure to show ROI is immediate.
I started questioning vanity metrics years ago. CPM reports felt dishonest. A thousand impressions from bots or wrong geographies aren't views—they're noise. So I shifted my approach: I only care about outcomes I can actually verify. Real watch time from real people in the right markets. Calls that actually happened. Citations in the tools where my audience actually researches. When I work with agencies or networks now, I insist on transparency. I use something like FORKOFF's approach where every engagement gets scored on an audit ledger—you can see exactly where the spend went and what it returned. It removes the guesswork.
The hardest part isn't the measurement though. It's resisting the pressure to optimize for what's easy to count instead of what matters. You can always game impressions. Qualified views are harder. That friction is actually the point. It forces clearer thinking about audience, message, and timing.
What I tell other founders: start by defining what actually counts as success in your world. Not for the pitch deck—for real. Then work backward. Build your measurement around that, even if it's messier than traditional reporting. Your marketing will get smarter because you'll see what actually works.
Top comments (0)