Metric Monday: 2024 Update on Marketing-Sourced and Influenced Metrics

Last year, we shared a Metric Monday post about what B2B marketers told us in 2023 regarding their use of marketing-sourced versus marketing-influenced metrics.

• Marketing-Sourced Metrics: Aims to identify which deals and their associated revenue were first uncovered or engaged through marketing activities.
• Marketing-Influenced Metrics: Attempts to measure which deals that are not claimed as sourced by marketing were nonetheless touched at some point by marketing tactics.

Both approaches come with their challenges. They’re often plagued by subjectivity and questionable claims, with marketing-influenced metrics especially prone to irrelevant assertions about when a deal was identified, activated, or influenced by marketing.

Last year’s findings showed: 

• 68% of measurements (such as pipeline opportunities and early-stage opportunities) were reported as sourced, while 50% were reported as influenced.
• Among those utilizing marketing-sourced metrics, first-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch approaches were equally popular, with statistically-determined lagging well behind.

While this year:

• 57% of marketers reported using both types of metrics, followed by 22% that use only Sourced and 21% that use only Influence. 
• Marketers are now more likely to employ a multi-touch approach over first- or last-touch, which remain roughly equal in usage. 

While it's encouraging to see a shift beyond first- and last-touch models, most multi-touch approaches still credit only a limited number of touches with influencing deals.

For more insights on marketing attribution and measurement, see our 2024 and 2023 benchmark reports.

@Kerry