7 reasons your conversion metrics look great — but your sales don’t

Marketers often celebrate a “successful” campaign when click-through rates soar and cost-per-click drops. But then comes the fundamental question: What’s the actual return on ad spend? Do we know the true cost-per-lead? More importantly, did those clicks turn into paying customers?

The marketing report looks impressive, but the sales report tells a different story. This creates division between teams, with each blaming the other for poor performance. In reality, while sales must focus on closing deals, marketing must provide qualified leads. Where is the disconnect?

Misalignment between conversion event tracking and actual revenue generation leads to wasted resources and poor marketing ROI. Too often, we optimize for top-of-funnel events that ultimately lead nowhere. Let’s break down the common mistakes marketers make when boosting campaign performance. 

1. You’re optimizing for attention, not intention

Marketers spend too much on poorly optimized campaigns. About 40%-60% of digital ad budgets are wasted on bots and low-impact placements. While brand awareness is the essential first step for users on their path to purchase, considering top-of-funnel behavior as conversions is a flawed practice.

It makes the cost-per-conversion metric look good but doesn’t tell the whole story. Users may click on the ad, visit the website or like a social media post, but that doesn’t mean they’ll become paying customers. 

When setting up brand awareness campaigns, clearly define your messaging and targeting. While the CEO’s grandmother will always like and comment on social media posts, she’s not the target audience. Ensure you’re getting the attention of people who want to buy. It’s better to talk to a small, fully invested audience than to a stadium of people who do not need what you sell.

Dig deeper: Why full-funnel marketing is key to profitability

2. Your attribution model is stuck in 2010

Still using first-touch, last-touch and linear attribution? You’re only getting a snippet of your customer’s journey. The marketing funnel’s simplicity misses the nuances affecting modern consumers. Many marketers have transitioned to thinking about the buying journey as a spider web rather than a funnel. The web framework accounts for how users consume media and interact with brands on their path to purchase. 

This approach also encourages alternative approaches to attribution modeling. By better understanding the true nature of your ideal customer’s journey, you can build a model that gives appropriate weight to the touchpoints that drive sales. 

3. Vanity metrics are inflating your marketing ego

We all want to share the report with high CTRs and low CPCs, but those metrics could hide many sins, like high cost per acquisition, low sales volume and poor lead quality. If you’ve set your conversion events as higher funnel actions, you’ll get a low conversion cost. It looks great in the report, but it’s doing a lot of harm to your campaigns. The ad platform system has learned to optimize and spend money on goals with little ROI.

Instead, focus on the metrics that affect your bottom line. Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a great way to assess marketing effectiveness. I prefer applying this metric to all marketing channels and individual campaigns. This allows for a better understanding of marketing efforts in sales, mainly when using the web framework for your customer journey. 

Dig deeper: KPIs that connect — 5 metrics for marketing, sales and product alignment

4. Your optimization algorithms are chasing the wrong signals

The almighty algorithm strikes again with recommendations to “improve” your campaign performance. But after applying them, your campaign plummets. While the guidance isn’t inherently bad, it’s important to remember that the goals of the ad platform may not align with your campaign goals. The algorithm may also be unaware of quirks in your target audience or brand. In some cases, they may even conflict with known best practices.

When applying system-recommended suggestions, use a strategic approach. Assess items individually to see what should be applied. If you’re unsure, set up a new campaign that implements one of the changes to A/B test the effectiveness. AI recommendations can sometimes catch something you missed, so don’t avoid them altogether. Just proceed with caution.

5. You’re training audiences to take actions that don’t matter

Everyone wants something for free, but “free” downloads cost your business time and money to produce and follow up with leads, only to discover they’re not qualified. If the conversion event requires little commitment from the user, it is likely they won’t invest anything more. They can be a great strategy to expand your email marketing list, but that list is only as good as the buyers on it. 

Shift to quality over quantity. Consider value-based conversions that require a more significant commitment from the user. Try assessments and interactive content to get more active engagement. Webinars and workshops can also result in higher-quality leads.

With each option, the user must give up time and effort to get what you’re offering. Those unwilling to do so will disqualify themselves, saving your team the hassle of following up with someone who ultimately won’t buy from you.

Dig deeper: 4 tips for increasing conversions along the buyer’s journey

6. Your tech stack is built for conversion volume, not value

Too often, our martech stacks chase vanity metrics like site traffic, social media followers and free downloads when they need to focus on generating revenue. Updating metrics to look at engagement, lead quality and sales will go a long way toward better utilizing your tech. You can also use your CRM and marketing automation to follow up with leads and qualify them efficiently by offering value-based content. 

With your updated metrics and goals in mind, reassess your tech stack and determine which tools will get you revenue and which won’t. Your operations and finance directors will thank you.

7. You’ve forgotten what business you’re in

With marketing tools, tech and trends constantly changing, it’s easy to lose focus and forget what you’re here to do: Marketing that’s focused on metrics and not results wastes time, money and resources.

Misalignment with marketing goals and the business’s fundamentals widens the gap between sales and marketing. It threatens our existence as marketers. If we cannot prove ROI, we are a cost — not an investment or revenue generator. Marketing is often one of the first things to go for businesses forced to tighten their budgets. 

Dig deeper: How to align sales and marketing for revenue growth

Maximize your marketing budget by fixing these conversion pitfalls

It is essential we re-establish marketing as a revenue-generating function. By robustly tracking KPIs like cost per acquisition, lifetime customer value and return on ad spend, you’ll be better able to prove the effectiveness of your marketing. 

Remember that you and the sales team are all part of the same company with the same overall goal. Collaborate instead of antagonizing each other. Look at the entire customer journey and find ways marketing can improve retention and lifetime value. 

It’s a jungle out there, but if you’re focused on the trees, you’ll never see the quicksand that’s about to pull you under. In other words, focus on the results for your business growth and don’t get distracted by metrics that look good but don’t help the bottom line.