Measuring What Matters.
Why many marketing dashboards measure activity rather than growth, and the questions executives should ask before approving next year's budget. A session built for the people who sign off on marketing spend without being marketers themselves.
Most marketing dashboards are built to demonstrate activity. Impressions, clicks, engagement and platform-attributed conversions all move reliably upward without saying much about the business. Growth is a different question: what was spent, what it returned, and whether that return would survive independent checking. Many executive teams approve significant marketing budgets each year on reporting that cannot answer it.
The cause is usually structural. Ad platforms grade their own output and attribute generously. Agencies report through those same platforms, whose numbers flatter them. Conversion events get configured once, wrongly, and are never revisited. By the time the numbers reach a board pack, they describe activity in detail and say very little about growth.
This session gives executives a working method for telling the difference. It starts with the distinction between activity metrics and commercial ones. It then shows where the gap between reported and real performance usually hides: wrong conversion events, double counting, and attribution claiming credit it never earned. The last part covers the questions to ask before approving next year’s budget, and what independent verification of marketing performance looks like in practice, including how to run it without damaging the agency relationship.
The material comes from a decade of being the person accountable for the numbers. Measurement was rebuilt before any spend was touched, results were tracked through to revenue, and performance was answered for monthly. The examples are drawn from live campaign data, anonymised but real.
It is built for CEOs, CFOs and boards, the people who sign off on marketing spend without being marketers themselves. It also suits leadership offsites where marketing, finance and the executive need one shared standard of evidence. Marketers are welcome too; the criticism is aimed at the reporting.
What the room leaves knowing.
- The difference between activity metrics and growth metrics, and why most dashboards report the former.
- Where the gap between platform-reported and real performance usually hides.
- The questions executives should ask before approving next year's marketing budget.
- What independent verification of marketing performance looks like in practice.
Audience. CEOs, CFOs, boards and leadership offsites. The material is adapted to the room after a briefing call. A board session and a conference session cover the same topic differently.
Formats. The session is delivered as:
- Keynote (30–45 min)
- Executive briefing (60–90 min)
- Leadership offsite workshop
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Formats, audiences and the booking process are on the speaking page.
Let’s talk about what’s next.
For speaking enquiries about this session, include the event, the date and the audience. Enquiries are answered directly by Sam.
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