Two Different Questions

Campaign metrics and business outcomes measure different things:

Campaign metrics answer: "Is this marketing effective at its job?"

• Click-through rate: Are people interested enough to click?
• Conversion rate: Are people taking the action we asked them to take?
• Cost per lead: Are we acquiring attention efficiently?

Business outcomes answer: "Is this creating revenue?"

• Pipeline value: How much potential revenue is in our sales funnel?
• Close rate: What percentage of leads become customers?
• Customer lifetime value: How much revenue does each customer generate?

Why They Operate on Different Timelines

It's natural to want immediate ROI validation. You're investing money, and you want to know it's working.

But campaign metrics and business outcomes operate on different timelines:

• Campaign metrics: Validated in days or weeks
• Business outcomes: Validated in months or quarters (sometimes years)

The Timeline Problem

Example: B2B SaaS with a 6-Month Sales Cycle

Month 1-2: Campaign launches. Strong metrics:

• 8% click-through rate (3x industry average)
• 25% conversion rate (5x average)