Why Marketing Procurement Should Take Ownership of Marketing Data and Analytics
In today’s competitive business environment, marketing spending is facing increasing scrutiny from decision-makers. To ensure a return on investment, marketing procurement must have up-to-date data and analytics to inform their decisions.
Unfortunately, many marketing procurement teams lack the knowledge and understanding of the key business metrics they need to effectively analyze the performance of their marketing partners. This blog post will explore what data and metrics are critical to measuring marketing performance and how marketing procurement can take ownership of them.
From Lead Generation to Revenue Lift
For years, the most used methods to measure the success of campaigns have been metrics like leads generated and pipeline fulfillment. Often, it has been the marketing department that has taken ownership of these metrics, using them as a barometer to gauge the success of campaigns they've launched with the company's marketing partners.
According to Forrester, "marketing-sourced pipeline and marketing-sourced revenue metrics are featured on 47% of B2B marketing leadership dashboards, making them B2B marketing’s most commonly used performance indicators."
Although these metrics may still be relevant to the marketing department, they are not necessarily the best metrics to align marketing spending with overall business goals. As such, marketing procurement must measure metrics that justify marketing spending in terms of high-level business goals, including revenue lift and growth.
Forrester suggests that revenue lift "is calculated by looking to the combination of increases in win rates and deal sizes that are achieved when marketing interaction with a buying group reaches a set threshold." Instead of focusing on sourcing metrics, marketing procurement leaders can ensure the company's marketing spend "is producing lift in an economical way."
Speaking the Language of Marketers
Although marketing procurement must measure marketing results in terms of spending and alignment with business goals, the department must also work directly with marketing and its partners to produce results.
It is important for marketing procurement leaders to "speak the same language" as marketers in discussions over spending and strategy because it ensures that everyone involved has a shared understanding of the objectives, goals, and desired results of each campaign. By using the same terms, marketing procurement leaders can better understand the data and analytics used to measure performance and identify areas for improvement.
Additionally, marketing procurement leaders must understand the different types of data and analytics used in marketing campaigns. Knowing which metrics to measure can help ensure that the company gets the most out of its marketing investments. This can enable the procurement department to tie specific marketing metrics to overall gains by the company.
Educating Marketing Procurement on Analytics
This process can begin by educating the procurement department on the use of analytics and data management technology, as well as the terms and metrics necessary to ensure the efficacy of marketing spend.
Companies can educate their marketing procurement department on analytics and marketing data by investing in training and development courses that focus on topics such as data interpretation, data analysis, and the use of analytical tools. These courses should also cover topics related to key performance metrics, including revenue lift, customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV) of customers, and retention rates.
By understanding the language of marketing analytics and data, marketing procurement can take ownership of these metrics and ensure that spending is aligned with high-level business goals. This process can also help procurement and marketing work together more effectively.
According to AdWeek, "When procurement is actively involved, the vendor selection capabilities are more mature. These include a vendor’s industry standing, secondary features—like IT security and data privacy practices—and price competitiveness. Having these selection capabilities up front leads to a faster and smarter process, which leads to better outcomes."
Take Ownership of Your Marketing Data
Business leaders are already scrutinizing their organizations' marketing spend, and they need a shared language for aligning marketing metrics to each dollar spent and how they relate to overall business goals. Marketing procurement teams can fill this role, but they must understand marketing data and analytics to make more informed decisions about their company's investments in campaigns and marketing partners.
If you'd like to learn more about how to make your marketing procurement more data-driven, don’t miss the next ProcureCon Marketing event. It’s happening from November 6th through November 8th at the Hilton Tampa Downtown in Tampa, Florida.
Download the agenda and register for the event today.