FORBES, FEATURED
This article was originally published on Forbes.com on March 21, 2025
In the world of B2B marketing, measuring the success of a campaign can often feel like a complex puzzle. Especially in industries where buying cycles are long and impact is hard to track, marketers face unique challenges when assessing the effectiveness of their efforts.
Thankfully, there are still ways to check whether you’re getting the results you want. From analyzing lead engagement metrics to looking at short-term performance indicators, the experts of Forbes Communications Council offer up 14 effective ways you can measure the success of a B2B marketing campaign.
OUR TAKE:
7. Consider The Value Of Anecdotal Evidence
Don’t underestimate the value of anecdotal evidence. Get the executive leadership team engaged in using marketing content as a sales asset. Further, integrate marketing with earned media and communications to ensure cohesion across the entire media ecosystem. Media coverage excites executives and, when merchandised across digital marketing channels, has tremendous reach and impact. - Rachel Kule, Pursuit PR
FULL ARTICLE:
In the world of B2B marketing, measuring the success of a campaign can often feel like a complex puzzle. Especially in industries where buying cycles are long and impact is hard to track, marketers face unique challenges when assessing the effectiveness of their efforts.
Thankfully, there are still ways to check whether you’re getting the results you want. From analyzing lead engagement metrics to looking at short-term performance indicators, the experts of Forbes Communications Council offer up 14 effective ways you can measure the success of a B2B marketing campaign.
1. Consider Both The Top Of The Funnel And The Bottom
We bifurcate into top of the funnel versus bottom, but both are key. The top offers real-time measures around engagement, while the bottom tracks the conversion of interest to real buying intent across the buyer center. We focus on pipeline acceleration, considering how we can expand the deal values as it progresses down the funnel (versus the other way around) to measure the impact of our sales plays. - Sandy Ono, OpenText
2. Differentiate The Micro-Conversions You Target From Competitors'
Tracking micro-conversions works, but we've seen big success by differentiating the micro-conversions we target from competitors. It's often clear which metrics they optimize for (especially via paid or social platforms). By finding the micro-moments competitors aren’t optimizing for, we uncover marketing strategies that help brands stand out while being more effective and cheaper. - Liam Wade, Impression
3. Analyze Lead Engagement Metrics
Analyzing lead engagement metrics is critical when measuring B2B marketing campaign success. Businesses can gauge interest and move potential clients through the sales funnel by tracking how prospects interact with content, webinars or email campaigns over time. Tools like CRM systems and marketing automation platforms allow deeper insights into how leads evolve. - Sara Griggs, Brightcove
4. Track The Buyer Journey
One way to measure a B2B campaign during long buying cycles is tracking the buyer journey—from awareness and lead generation to opportunities and win or loss—using metrics like impressions, engagement, lead quality and conversion rates. This approach directly ties marketing spend to sales progress, enabling continuous optimization and clear ROI analysis. - Eileen Canady, BST Global
5. Leverage Lead Scoring
In industries with long buying cycles, lead scoring can measure B2B campaign success effectively. By assigning values to leads based on their engagement levels and behaviors, you can gauge interest and intent more accurately. This method helps prioritize follow-up efforts and fine-tune your strategies to ensure you're focused on the most promising prospects. - Heather Stickler, Tidal Basin Group
6. Track Revenue Influence And Deal Closure
To gauge the success of a B2B marketing campaign with extended buying cycles, prioritize tracking revenue influence and deal closure. Keep a close eye on all efforts, given the challenges of attribution. Strategically plan campaigns to effectively sway decision-makers. This strategy links marketing efforts to real outcomes, offering insights into campaign effectiveness and lasting impact. - Arnav Sharma, Tech Mahindra
7. Consider The Value Of Anecdotal Evidence
Don’t underestimate the value of anecdotal evidence. Get the executive leadership team engaged in using marketing content as a sales asset. Further, integrate marketing with earned media and communications to ensure cohesion across the entire media ecosystem. Media coverage excites executives and, when merchandised across digital marketing channels, has tremendous reach and impact. - Rachel Kule, Pursuit PR
8. Track Who's Moving Toward A Purchase
B2B needs to think like B2C. Consumer brands build equity and demand before buyers are ready, then make checkout frictionless. It's not just about who sees the ad (attraction) but who buys faster (acceleration). It’s the same in B2B: Lead tracking isn't enough. Marketing must track who's moving toward a purchase and speed deals up (shrink sales cycles, secure stakeholder buy-in, drive high-intent actions). - Toby Wong, Toby Wong Consulting
9. Maintain A Holistic View Of Conversion Attribution
Track every prospect touch point, no matter how minor. Don't worry so much about what percentage of credit each contact point should receive. Look at them all as part of the process. Then, look for touch points that appear consistently in your conversions. Over time, you can focus on efforts that correlate with more closed deals. - Tom Wozniak, OPTIZMO Technologies, LLC
10. Monitor Intent Signals
Success in B2B marketing isn’t just about conversions—it’s about momentum. In long buying cycles, I focus on engagement quality over vanity metrics. Tracking intent signals like repeat site visits, content downloads and sales interactions helps gauge if we’re moving buyers closer to a decision. The key? Aligning marketing and sales to measure impact beyond just the first or last touch. - Trish Nettleship, NCR Voyix
11. Use Multi-Touch Attribution
Using multi-touch attribution, we analyze how different marketing efforts contribute to closed deals. This helps us identify which campaigns are driving real revenue, even if the impact isn’t immediate. - Bradley Keenan, DSMN8
12. Think Lead Quality Over Quantity
Track metrics like pipeline velocity, deal size and conversion rates to sales-qualified leads (SQLs). For me, focusing on account engagement scores—measuring how deeply target accounts interact with your content—works best. It’s a leading indicator of intent and aligns marketing efforts with revenue impact, even when the sales cycle stretches months or years. - Patrick Ward, NanoGlobals
13. Focus On Short-Term Performance Indicators
Focus on short-term performance indicators like channel and engagement metrics. These insights identify areas for campaign optimization and can also serve as powerful tools for internal storytelling of impact. Don’t let time hinder progress—can you share key learnings with colleagues to guide next steps? Marketing holds valuable intelligence that can help organizations adapt and innovate forward. - Alyssa Kopelman, Otsuka Precision Health
14. Keep An Eye On Pipeline Velocity
Pipeline velocity is one way to measure how a campaign influences deal progression. Pipeline velocity is your opportunities times your win rate times average deal size, all divided by sales cycle length. A successful campaign should drive more opportunities, higher win rates, bigger deal sizes and/or faster sales cycles. If pipeline velocity is greater in the post-campaign period, it's validation that it worked. - Rekha Thomas, Path Forward Marketing