Setting Marketing Goals: What Actually Works
Defining what marketing is trying to achieve in a period, and how success will be judged.
Samir Haddad
The key figures
- Business alignment
- marketing goals should map to business outcomes
- Leading indicators
- show progress before results arrive
- Timeframes
- channels deliver on different horizons
- Constraints
- budget and capacity bound what is possible
Why this is worth getting right
Without agreed goals, marketing is judged by whoever is speaking, against whatever they care about.
Do this, not that
Do
- Agree goals with the business before the period starts
- Set leading indicators as well as outcome measures
- Match timeframes to channel realities
- State the constraints assumed
- Review goals quarterly
Don’t
- Goals set by marketing alone
- Only lagging metrics tracked
- Annual goals never revisited
- Targets set without capacity checks
When to bring in help
Our advice Bring in help when marketing performance is judged inconsistently.
Where this comes from
- U.S. Small Business Administration — Marketing and sales
- Google Analytics Help — Key events
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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Where to go next
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