Move beyond a singular focus on "source pipeline." Instead, measure marketing's holistic impact by asking three distinct questions: 1) Did buyers know us beforehand (Preference)? 2) Did we accelerate the deal (Influence)? and 3) Did we originate the demand (Sourced)?

Metrics like "Marketing Qualified Lead" are meaningless to the customer. Instead, define key performance indicators around the value a customer receives. A good KPI answers the question: "Have we delivered enough value to convince them to keep going to the next stage?"

Instead of guessing at metrics, insert placeholders like "[Current Cart Abandonment Rate]" into your business case. This acts as a prompt, inviting the buying team to fill in the blanks, which builds ownership and surfaces crucial data you need to quantify value.

Instead of marketing and sales running separate races with siloed KPIs, a modern GTM model measures the entire journey like a relay. Both teams are measured on how efficiently accounts move through the funnel, focusing on the quality of handoffs and collaborative impact on velocity.

Directly trying to change a North Star metric like MAU is ineffective. Instead, product leaders must identify and focus on 'driver metrics'—the specific, controllable inputs like organic traffic sources or keyword performance—that collectively influence the ultimate KPI.

The expectation of one-to-one attribution, conditioned by digital metrics like ROAS, is ill-suited for the complex, "messy" physical store environment. This approach oversimplifies shopper behavior and ignores numerous contributing factors like price, placement, and promotion, leading to flawed analysis.

The test for a valuable KPI is its connection to action. If a metric like 'follower count' drops, there's no clear, immediate action that directly ties back to revenue. A useful metric, like 'webinar show-up rate,' immediately tells you which system to investigate.

Product performance isn't one metric; it's the sum of all touchpoints, from support tickets to app reviews. These disparate inputs all roll up into the ultimate North Star metric: user engagement.

The primary obstacle to scaling in-store media isn't a lack of measurement technology, but a fundamental disagreement between brands, retailers, and agencies on what success looks like. Different teams use separate scorecards and KPIs, creating friction and preventing a unified investment strategy.