We see this all too often.
Rankings are up, Impressions have skyrocketed, even clicks are going through the roof. Everyone is giving themselves a pat on the back, while the finance team is confused as to why the dollars coming in don’t match the excitement. A meeting is held with all departments and company revenue is brought to the table. Suddenly, those inflated metrics don’t look so good and the room is a bit tense.
This is vanity metrics. Quick, easy and instant gratification numbers that make you feel all warm and fuzzy but don’t necessarily hit the mark.
Look, the number isn’t useless - truly. It’s just not necessarily got a job within your metric ranks and that’s a problem we need to fix. Every metric or data point you actively measure or take time out of your day to assess should be tied to a wider goal or objective within your campaigns, marketing and wider business itself.
When you first enter the realms of digital, impressions, reach followers, page views - these are all beautiful and shiny measures that make you feel great. Reality is? They don’t normally tie to anything meaningful. More times than not, you’re wasting time reporting on them and bringing them to the table.
When you bring too many disconnected or less meaningful numbers to the table you dilute your primary message or story that you’re trying to convey to your wider audience. Too much of one thing is never good.
The rule of thumb here is; If you can’t say what you’d do differently if this metric went up or down, it doesn’t deserve a spot in your reporting.
When operating in marketing, numbers are inevitable. You don’t have to be a numbers person to be good with them, you just have to understand what you’re looking at and why it’s important. This is where the Data Pyramid comes in.
In the Data Basics course we introduce the Data Pyramid which explores a hierarchical approach to your metrics. It reflects that every number needs a job and where the job should be within the structure of your business. Picture this; business outcomes at the top, channel metrics in the middle and platform metrics at the bottom.
You always read the chart upwards - a number at the bottom only matters if it can directly tie to something in the middle and the middle only matters if it moves to the top. Most marketers tend to live at the bottom of the pyramid as this is a place where it makes sense to them and what they are executing. However, the real power is when you can translate those measures upwards in the pyramid to link to real business outcomes and performance.
If you’re struggling to audit your metrics and find that they all have a job, they all tie to a bigger goal and they’re all equally important - we can help with that! Simply, take each measure and ask yourself:
“If this number dropped by 30% tomorrow, would you know what to do?”
If the answer is no, it’s simple. It doesn’t deserve a spot in your reporting and you’re likely wasting time actively reporting on it. Now don’t get confused, it doesn’t mean it’s useless and it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be tracked. It just means it may not play as large of a role as you’re expecting at that point in your reporting.
Let’s do a quick example. Let’s say Impressions drop by 20%. You need to investigate and form a plan, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a bad result. Your conversions could have increased regardless of the drop meaning a more engaged audience is engaging with you.
This article has been insulting impressions and reach a lot. Let’s take a step back. These so called “vanity” metrics are indicators of success for brand awareness campaigns - that’s the ultimate goal of them.
The problem most marketers face is that they treat them as a gold standard when your goal is more often than not, conversions. You have to understand what you’re optimising towards and what value it has in the Data Pyramid.
The shift here is from reporting to diagnosing. A junior marketer reports what happened. An operator asks what it means and what to do next. That’s the difference and it starts with the metrics you choose to centre your story around.
Actionable metrics are data points that are directly tied to a business outcome and give you a clear signal for your next decision. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Conversion rate: the percentage of people who actually did the thing you wanted them to do. Not who saw your ad. Not who clicked. Who converted. This is the number that tells you whether your marketing is working, not just running.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA): how much it cost you to win one customer or lead. This one cuts through the noise immediately. You can have a campaign with beautiful engagement metrics and a CPA that makes the CFO wince. Know your number, know your ceiling.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS): for every dollar you put in, how much came back? This sits squarely in the middle of your data pyramid, connecting your platform activity directly to revenue. If your ROAS is trending down, you have a real problem to solve. If it’s trending up, you have a real case for more budget.
- Revenue attributed to campaign: this is the top of the pyramid. It’s not always clean to calculate, attribution is genuinely messy, but even an approximate revenue figure is more powerful in a stakeholder conversation than a precise impression count. One is business language. The other is platform language. Know which room you’re in.
Vanity metrics are easy to chase because they’re easy to win. Big numbers, fast feedback, good vibes in the Slack channel. But marketing that actually performs is marketing that reads upward through the data not just to what happened, but to what it moved.
Next time someone drops a report full of impressive-looking numbers, ask one question: what did it move at the top of the pyramid? If nobody can answer that, the report isn’t finished. It’s just decorated.
