How to Know if Your Marketing Strategy is Working

In a digital landscape saturated with messages and channels, accurately measuring performance is what separates profitable campaigns from resource-sapping ones. If your goal is to optimize budget and impact, you need to master a few crucial marketing KPIs and choose reliable tools to measure marketing results throughout the entire customer journey. If you don't have in-house data governance expertise, immediately consider seeking support from marketing agencies specializing in analytics and growth : they often quickly identify inefficiencies that hinder ROI.

From vanity metrics to numbers that matter

Likes and followers may be flattering, but they don't pay the bills . The true indicators of success are KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), metrics capable of connecting user behavior to the bottom line. Defining them in advance allows you to set SMART goals and react quickly when the data signals deviations from the intended path.

Clear objectives, targeted indicators

Before clicking "launch campaign," ask yourself and your team: why are we investing? An initial discussion with a digital marketing firm can help you focus on priorities and metrics.

• Brand awareness – aim for visibility and reach. Suggested KPIs: viewable CPM, branded search variation, engagement rate.
• Lead generation – fueling the sales pipeline. KPIs: cost per lead, form and call conversion rate, CPL/CLTV ratio.
• Ecommerce Sales – Drive Online Revenue. KPIs : ROAS, Cart Abandonment Rate, Revenue Per Session.

Associating each KPI with a business objective avoids wasting time and money on numbers that don't move the profit needle.

Essential tools for collecting and reading data

• GA4 – collects first-party, event-based data and offers modern attribution models.
• Looker Studio – connects GA4, paid media, and CRM, creating dashboards that make KPIs understandable at a glance.
• HubSpot – Integrate marketing, sales, and service: connect your CRM to campaigns to get granular reports on CLTV and revenue pipeline.
• Platforms like sortlist also provide case studies and industry benchmarks that are useful for quickly comparing your numbers with the market average, providing concrete insights for improving key KPIs like ROAS or CLTV.

The four essential KPIs for 2025

1. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) It's the compass that indicates how much revenue you generate for every euro invested. A ROAS above 4 is often a good sign, but the optimal threshold depends on margins and acquisition costs.
2. Conversion rate Measure the percentage of users who complete the desired action. Even changes of 0.3-0.5 percentage points can dramatically impact the overall ROI of an entire quarter.
3. Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) Calculate the expected profit across the entire customer lifecycle. Comparing it to the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the most reliable method for assessing the sustainability of a strategy.
4. Engagement rate In social media and content marketing, it indicates the level of actual interaction. More than a final goal, it's a warning sign: if it drops sharply, your offering is losing relevance.

From data to action: a four-step process

1. Collection: Automate tracking and ensure key events are recorded seamlessly, ideally on a daily basis.
2. Analysis – Each week, compare current KPIs against industry targets and benchmarks.
3. Insight – Monthly, identify causes and opportunities behind variances: unprofitable segments, creatives that need updating, landing pages that need optimizing.
4. Optimize – Run A/B tests, recalibrate budget allocation, and repeat the cycle: iteration speed is your competitive advantage .

When external guidance is needed

Many companies are discovering that the real bottleneck isn't a lack of data, but the ability to transform it into timely decisions . Collaborating with a digital marketing firm specializing in performance can accelerate the evolution of the internal team, bringing proven methodologies and a well-established technology stack. External consultancy, in addition to bridging the analytical skills gap, offers an impartial perspective that helps identify patterns and inefficiencies that are often invisible from within . Professionals accustomed to working with heterogeneous datasets can transfer attribution models and forecasting techniques already validated in other sectors, reducing time to insight and making the entire decision-making process more robust.

First source of inspiration: studies, benchmarks and community

Staying up-to-date on trends, regulations, and best practices is crucial. Sortlist , for example, publishes case studies and market research that help compare its numbers with those of the industry, providing concrete insights for improving key KPIs like ROAS or CLTV . Thanks to its Data Hub— powered by data from over 50,000 agencies across more than 50 industries —the platform releases regular reports that offer reliable benchmarks on digital performance globally.

A well-built KPI framework transforms marketing from a perceived cost to a measurable driver of growth . When ROAS, conversion rate, CLTV, and engagement are monitored in real time and linked to rapid decisions, every dollar invested works to push the business in the right direction . Set clear goals today, integrate suitable tools, and maintain a steady pace of optimization: because true success, in 2025, is expressed in clear numbers and concrete actions.

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