Marketing effectiveness is notoriously slippery. Budgets get allocated to TV spots, social ads, and display campaigns, and the reporting comes back full of metrics: impressions, clicks, likes, shares.

But here’s the issue: those numbers don’t mean the same thing for every business. They’re easy to track, but they’re not tied to your unique economics. They measure activity, not impact.

Marketing’s Real Job

At its core, marketing isn’t about accumulating clicks or views. It’s about helping the business achieve its goals by deploying creativity in the most effective way possible.

And rarely is a company’s true goal “getting the most eyeballs.” More often, it’s increasing revenue, raising order size, or acquiring a set number of new customers. That’s where leading indicators come in.

Align Strategy with Leading Indicators

A leading indicator is a measurable piece of data that helps forecast future economic activity. Smart marketers align their strategies to these signals—and then design tactics that ladder directly up to them.

Here’s how it works.

• Annual revenue goal: increase by $1M (5%).

• Average customer value: $25K.

• Customers needed: 40 ($25K x 40).

• Sales team close rate: 85% when delivering an in-person presentation.

This tells you that to land 40 customers, you need 47 in-person sales presentations (because 40 ÷ 0.85 ≈ 47). That number—47 presentations—is your leading indicator.

Work Backwards to the Tactic

Marketing’s role in this scenario is crystal clear: generate 47 qualified presentations. Everything else is secondary.

That could mean building content for prospects deeper in the funnel, designing an incentive campaign, or refreshing customer personas to uncover new segments. The tactic doesn’t matter nearly as much as the alignment.

The Framework to Remember

Smart marketing practitioners know this:

Start with the goal. Find the leading indicator. Work backwards to the tactic.

Even if you miss the goal, your strategy will be sharper, your tactics will be more focused, and your results will show it.