Gartner for Marketers

Reframing Multichannel
Marketing Performance
Measurement
2023 Multichannel Marketing Survey

1 © 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_2226056
 The 2023 Gartner Multichannel Marketing Survey reveals that
performance measurement is a difficult exercise for most digital
marketing leaders. Deeper analysis suggests that a less siloed
approach, supported by three or four metric types, can help
you better assess multichannel marketing’s impact.

Data Snapshot
Figure 1: Organizations Struggle to Identify Metrics That Demonstrate Multichannel
Marketing’s Effectiveness

Strongly Somewhat Neither Agree Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree

Disagree Disagree nor Disagree

3%
We struggle to identify a
common set of metrics
to successfully measure 8% 10% 50% 30%
multichannel marketing
effectiveness

80%
3%
We struggle to identify a
common set of methods
to successfully attribute 7% 10% 49% 31%
multichannel marketing
effectiveness

0% 50% 100%

n = 397 multichannel marketing leaders

Note: Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
Source: Gartner

2 © 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_2226056
Data Insights
This research is part of a series of key findings from the Gartner 2023 Multichannel
Marketing Survey.

Additional insights can be found in the following research:

• 2023 Multichannel Marketing Survey: How the Number of Marketing Channels
Impacts Success
• 2023 Multichannel Marketing Survey: How Proactive Plans Help Leaders During
Challenging Times
• 2023 Multichannel Marketing Survey: Marketing’s Role in Route-to-Market Execution

Multichannel marketing’s rapid evolution has proved to be both a source of excitement

and headache for digital marketing leaders and marketers. Excitement — because it has
provided new opportunities to reach and engage customers, through evermore channels,
and newer content formats. Headache ­— because measuring the impact of these, whether
in terms of the user experience and the commercial returns or ROI, is tough and getting
tougher. Emerging channels and evolving customer behaviors combine with older and
more persistent challenging questions such as: How do we select the most relevant
metric types? How many metrics should we use? How do we connect the dots between
all our multichannel marketing activities and business performance?

To make better sense of multichannel marketing’s effectiveness and more confidently

communicate its impact on marketing channels and content performance, factor in the
following insights from the 2023 Gartner Multichannel Marketing Survey:
• The majority of organizations struggle with multichannel performance measurement.
Eighty percent of all surveyed participants say they struggle to identify a common set of
metrics and methods to measure and attribute multichannel marketing’s effectiveness
(see Figure 1). Difficulty managing internal consensus and aligning KPIs with business
outcomes were two reasons cited for this struggle.
• Organizations applying a holistic approach to multichannel performance
measurement struggle significantly less. Eighty-six percent of organizations using a
more siloed approach to performance measurement (i.e., that measure individual channel
effectiveness), say they struggle to identify a common set of metrics to successfully
measure multichannel marketing effectiveness, compared to 67% of organizations
using a more holistic approach (i.e., organizations that measure channel effectiveness
holistically across all channels). This finding is consistent with the broader survey analysis
that reveals how organizations are adopting either a more siloed or a more holistic
strategic approach to multichannel marketing as a whole. The survey also reveals a sharp
contrast in performance between the two.

3 © 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_2226056
• Organizations prioritize transactional and competitive metric types. The two most
widely used types of metrics are transactional (these include individual KPIs such as
sales, revenue and conversion rates) and competitive ones (these include market share,
voice share and wallet share). The other types of metrics frequently used are (ranked in
order of most to least used):
– E
 ngagement/return on engagement metrics (e.g., social interactions, email open
rates and click throughs)
– P
 erceptual metrics (e.g., customer satisfaction score, customer effort score, Net
Promoter Score)
– Pipeline metrics (e.g., lead quality, time to close, cost per lead and win rate)
– Relationship metrics (e.g., customer lifetime value; LTV:CAC ratio)
– Awareness metrics (e.g., aided awareness, unaided awareness and earned reach)
• Less is more when it comes to metric types that measure multichannel marketing
impact. Deeper analysis suggests there is a “sweet spot” to the number of metric types
used to measure and understand multichannel marketing’s impact. The majority of
organizations (61%) using three to four metric types reported exceeding their marketing
performance objectives. On average, this is 24% more than organizations using five or
more metric types, and 49% more than those using fewer (two or less) metric types
(see Figure 2). This finding has two implications. First, limiting the number of metric
types used (and thus, the number of overall individual KPIs) helps marketing’s holistic
understanding and assessment of what multichannel marketing can do to meet
customer needs and ultimately satisfy business outcomes. Second, that fewer but
relevant metric types also helps teams better communicate marketing’s impact
internally — especially with stakeholders seated outside of marketing.

Figure 2: The Sweet Spot ­­— Three to Four Metric Types

70%
61%

49%

41%

35%

0%
0-2 Types Utilized 3-4 Types Utilized 5 or More Types Utilized
n = 397 multichannel marketing leaders, bases vary by segement
Source: Gartner

4 © 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_2226056
What You Need to Know
The findings and analysis of the 2023 Gartner Multichannel Marketing Survey combine
into one fundamental insight: A more holistic approach (i.e., measuring channel
effectiveness holistically across all channels) supported by a measurement strategy
focused on just three to four metric types will help organizations make better sense
of multichannel’s impact.

As a result, take the following steps to apply this and help make the necessary shift:
• Simplify your approach to identifying the most relevant multichannel KPIs that
clearly connect to business outcomes. Applying a return on objectives approach to
performance measurement is a quick but effective method of identifying metrics that
clearly connect to broader business goals (see The Financial Services CMO’s Guide to
Building Strategic Plans That Prove Marketing’s Impact). However, it is also possible to
apply a more advanced method, but this depends on the organizations’ go-to-market
model (see What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Attribution, Measurement and
Testing for further guidance).
• Limit your mix of metric types. Use of metric types should strictly be limited to a
maximum of four so that marketing teams can take action from the data. Although
transactional metrics are necessary to demonstrate performance, other metrics types
are needed to provide a more holistic view of marketing’s impact (see Tool: Prioritize
Marketing Metrics for Your Dashboard).
• Plan to build consensus on metrics incrementally, starting with other functions
directly involved in multichannel marketing and moving quickly to include finance for the
attribution to revenue. Consensus-building takes time, collaboration and socialization.
Use a “think big, start small and learn fast” approach by engaging only one or two
additional groups at each step, and adjusting your approach to engagement and
communication throughout the process. In some cases, it will be more useful to solicit
input (i.e., start by asking what the stakeholder thinks is important; don’t start by showing
the list of recommended metrics). In other cases, it will be more successful by asking for
feedback after explaining the recommendations and approach. Expect this process to
occur over months, not weeks, in most organizations.

5 © 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_2226056
Evidence
2023 Gartner Multichannel Marketing Survey: This study was conducted to understand
best practices to maximize multichannel marketing investments in response to evolving
customer journeys in a fluid marketing environment. The research was conducted online
from November through December 2022. In total, 397 respondents were surveyed in their
native languages across North America (n = 201), Western Europe (n = 161) and the Nordics
(n = 35). Qualifying organizations reported enterprisewide annual revenue for fiscal 2021
of at least $100 million, with 83% of the respondents coming from organizations with
$1 billion or more in annual revenue. The respondents came from a variety of industries:
financial services (n = 61), manufacturing (n = 58), consumer products (n = 46), media (n =
33), retail (n = 45), healthcare (n = 44), pharmaceuticals (n=35), IT and business services (n =
30), and travel and hospitality (n = 45).

All respondents were senior leaders that manage multiple marketing channels, and/or
were responsible for the execution of their organization’s multichannel marketing strategy.
Eighty-five percent of respondents were aligned to the marketing function, 9% to brand
management, 7% to sales or other business units.

Disclaimer: The results of this survey do not represent global findings or the market as a
whole, but reflect the sentiments of the respondents and companies surveyed.

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