Marketing leaders at Money 20/20 Europe urged brands to use meaningful, business-aligned metrics with context to secure internal buy-in and drive strategy.
Speaking on a panel, Soha Hohnecker, global head of B2B growth at Amazon Pay, noted that there are various output metrics that are effective for measuring success, such as payment volume, monthly active users, merchant adoption and merchant retention.
However, she cautioned delegates that while these metrics are useful indicators of whether marketing strategies are on track, they don’t always tell the full story when used in isolation.
Therefore, she encouraged marketers to dig deeper into the context behind the numbers. For example, having a large social media following but low engagement may be an indication that elements of the marketing strategy are not resonating as intended.
“On their own, some of these metrics cannot give the whole picture, but if you combine them with other things, they are worth looking at and analysing,”
While Hohnecker stressed the importance of avoiding metrics in isolation, Rory O’Neil, CMO at Checkout.com, instead emphasised the need to select the right metrics to secure internal buy-in for marketing strategies.
He advised marketers to focus on metrics that resonate with the wider business and are easily understood across the organisation.
“Before you go into your big brand presentation, before you start talking about how purpose and emotion is super important, you have the speak the language of the business,” he said.
Even though metrics like brand recognition or brand familiarity may be valuable to marketers, O’Neil noted that their significance often doesn’t resonate with others in the business. That’s why it’s crucial for marketers to adopt the organisation’s common language.
By aligning their metrics with this shared understanding, marketers are more likely to gain internal buy-in—paving the way for deeper engagement with their strategies, he added.
He said: “Once you have that currency, you have the ability to talk about brand and the importance of brand and the importance of brand of business metrics.”