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🕵🏻♂️ 10 Core B2B Metrics
10 key metrics to track your marketing success
The Trenches Community
May 27, 2024
Dear Trenchers,
Having trouble measuring your marketing success?
This newsletter lifts the veil on 10 key metrics to track. Learn how to assess your pipeline, brand awareness, and, most importantly, your marketing ROI.
Category 1: Revenue metrics
1. MARKETING-SOURCED REVENUE AND ROI
Marketing-sourced revenue is a critical metric for B2B companies with high annual contract value (ACV) and extended sales cycles.
This metric tracks the revenue generated from new deals initiated through demand generation or account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns, as well as revenue from upselling or expansion efforts driven by these marketing initiatives.
And don't forget that demand or brand activity cannot be measured by sales opportunities or CAC.
That's why we recommend looking holistically at marketing revenue, sales pipeline velocity, and budget spent to calculate marketing ROI.
2. WIN RATES
Next up in our revenue metrics category is win rate. This metric measures the percentage of sales opportunities that successfully convert into closed deals.
A high win rate indicates effective targeting and high-quality opportunities, while a low win rate may suggest issues such as :
poor targeting,
low-quality leads, or
a misalignment between marketing and sales teams.
By closely monitoring win rates, companies can identify and address these underlying issues to improve overall sales effectiveness.
3. SALES CYCLE LENGTH
Sales cycle length measures the time it takes for a prospect to move from initial contact to a closed deal.
For B2B companies with high ACV and extended sales cycles, tracking this metric is essential for understanding and improving the efficiency of the sales process.
A shorter sales cycle indicates that prospects are moving through the pipeline more quickly, which can accelerate revenue generation and improve cash flow.
4. AVERAGE CONTRACT VALUE (ACV).
Average Contract Value (ACV) is a pivotal metric for B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles. It measures the average revenue generated per customer contract, providing insights into the value of each deal.
Think of it as the size of the animals your marketing efforts are attracting.
A high ACV indicates you're attracting high-value clients (antelope) with potentially more complex needs, justifying the investment in a lengthy sales cycle.
Conversely, a lower ACV might suggest you're targeting smaller clients (field mouse) with shorter sales cycles. There's no right or wrong answer here, but understanding your ACV helps you align your marketing strategy with the type of clients that are most profitable for your business.
Don't be fooled by chasing a high volume of small deals if your product or service is better suited for larger, more complex accounts.
5. SALES PIPELINE VELOCITY
Sales pipeline velocity is a powerful metric that provides a forward-looking view of your revenue trajectory. It takes into account several key factors that influence your sales cycle, including:
Sales-qualified opportunities
Average Contract Value (ACV)
Win Rate
Sales Cycle Length
By analyzing these factors together, sales pipeline velocity essentially tells you how quickly you're moving deals through the sales funnel and generating revenue. Here's what a growing sales pipeline velocity indicates:
Targeting the Right Accounts: You're attracting high-quality leads that are a good fit for your product or service.
Marketing Message-Market Fit: Your marketing efforts are resonating with your target audience, generating qualified leads.
Effective Buyer Enablement: You're providing valuable content and resources that help potential customers understand the benefits of your solution and move through the buying journey smoothly.
Frictionless Buying Process: There are no roadblocks or delays in your sales process, allowing leads to convert to customers efficiently.
By monitoring sales pipeline velocity, you can identify areas for improvement and optimize your sales and marketing efforts to accelerate revenue growth.
Category 2: Pipeline metrics
6. ACCOUNT-TO-PIPELINE RATIO
The account-to-pipeline ratio helps you determine how many of your targeted accounts have turned into sales opportunities.
This metric provides insight into the quality and relevance of the accounts being targeted, ensuring that your marketing and sales efforts are aligned.
7. ENGAGED ACCOUNTS
Not all accounts in your pipeline are created equal.
The metric of Engaged Accounts focuses on those companies within your pipeline that are actively interacting with your brand.
This engagement could take many forms, from website visits and content downloads to attending webinars or participating in social media conversations.
8. MARKETING-SOURCED PIPELINE
The marketing-sourced pipeline metric is the lifeblood of your sales funnel for a B2B company with a long sales cycle.
It represents the total value of opportunities that originated from marketing efforts, including both inbound requests (leads directly generated through your marketing channels) and opportunities created from Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and demand gen programs.
Category 3: Brand metrics
9. MEDIA INVITES
Media invites, including podcast invitations, speaking engagements, and guest post features, are strong indicators of your brand's growing recognition and influence within the industry.
For B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles, these opportunities can significantly enhance brand visibility and credibility, positioning your company as a thought leader.
It's important to not only count the number of media invites but also assess the quality of these invitations. Receiving invites from industry-leading media outlets and prestigious events signifies that your brand is highly regarded and anticipated within the market.
10. BRAND TRAFFIC AND BRAND MENTIONS
Brand traffic refers to the number of visitors who come to your website specifically looking for your brand. This targeted traffic indicates a strong level of brand recognition, where potential customers are actively seeking you out.
Brand mentions, on the other hand, encompass any online reference to your brand, including social media posts, industry articles, or online forums.
A healthy volume of positive brand mentions is a strong indicator that your brand is generating interest and sparking conversations within your target market.
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See you in Trenches 😉