From Vanity to Value: Rethinking KPIs in the Post-Impression Era
As CEOs and senior marketers, we’re long past the days of being dazzled by dashboards filled with impressions, clicks, and page views. Intellectually, we know these are vanity metrics—surface-level indicators that often have little connection to business growth. But knowing and doing are two different things.
At DAVE, we’ve seen this firsthand: teams set bold KPIs at the leadership level, but somewhere between strategy and execution, the connection breaks. Maybe the tech stack isn’t ready. Maybe reporting is fragmented. Maybe the people closest to the data don’t know how to translate it into insight. And so, the cycle continues—bright metrics, weak impact.
It’s time to break the loop.
The Problem with Vanity Metrics
Vanity metrics—like impressions, page views, or follower counts—may look impressive, but rarely drive meaningful business outcomes. They don’t measure intent. They don’t capture quality. And too often, they lead organizations into costly, misaligned strategies.
The truth is, we don’t just need new KPIs. We need a new measurement mindset—one that focuses on depth, causality, and business impact.
KPIs That Matter: The New Standard
At DAVE, we help brands move beyond impression counting and toward performance accountability. The three measurement categories below are where we focus to deliver real value:
1. Brand Lift
Best for: Awareness and non-transactional campaigns
Key Performance Indicators:
- Unaided / Aided Awareness
- Brand Favourability (vs. competitors)
- Purchase Intent
How to Measure:
Work with research partners like Nielsen or Kantar for full-scale Brand Lift studies. If budget is a concern, platform-based lift surveys from Google, Meta, LinkedIn, or Amazon offer accessible alternatives—though they only measure impact within that platform.
Watch-out:
If your campaign spans multiple platforms, these isolated studies won’t give you the whole picture. A mixed-method approach may be required.
2. Full-Funnel ROI
Best for: Transactional advertisers running campaigns across the entire customer journey
Key Performance Indicators:
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Total spend ÷ new customers
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Projected revenue from a customer over their entire relationship with your brand
- Conversion Rate by Funnel Stage: Tracks where users drop off or move forward
- Attribution-Based Revenue: Revenue assigned using multi-touch attribution
Essentials:
To do this right, your analytics, CRM, and sales data must be connected. Attribution fails without clean, aligned data—and often, we see organizations stuck with partial pictures and stitched-together reports.
3. Incrementality
Best for: Testing new channels or optimizing during flat growth periods
Focus:
Incrementality isolates the true causal impact of your marketing—what wouldn’t have happened without your efforts.
Methodologies:
- A/B Testing
- Geo-lift Studies
- Holdout Groups
Why It Matters:
It’s the difference between assuming your campaign worked and knowing it did. Incrementality gives you proof, not just performance.
Where It Breaks Down: The Execution Gap
Here’s the part we don’t talk about enough: most organizations already know they need better KPIs. But that’s not the hard part.
The hard part is implementation.
Even with executive alignment, KPI strategy often breaks down in the middle—where strategy meets execution. Common pitfalls include:
- Siloed Teams: Paid media is optimizing for CTR while leadership wants CLV
- Fragmented Tech: CRM, analytics, and ad platforms don’t speak to each other
- Lack of Ownership: No one owns the end-to-end measurement story
- Insufficient Training: The people producing the data don’t know what the numbers need to mean
These aren’t failures of intention. They’re failures of infrastructure, enablement, and integration.
The KPI Maturity Curve
At DAVE, we help our clients move from knowing to doing. That journey usually follows this path:
- Awareness – We recognize vanity metrics are outdated
- Alignment – Leadership agrees on what to measure
- Implementation – Systems and reporting begin to support those goals
- Insight – Data is contextualized and used to inform action
- Optimization – Performance loops are closed and improved in real-time
Most organizations get stuck between steps 2 and 3. That’s where we come in.
Five Key Questions Every Senior Marketer Should Ask
- Are our KPIs vanity-based or value-driven?
- Are there gaps in how we’re measuring business outcomes?
- Are all stakeholders aligned on what success looks like—and are teams trained to deliver it?
- Is any part of our marketing operating in a silo?
- Does our tech stack support the kind of measurement we need?
KPI Reference Table
| KPI Name | What It Measures | Why It Matters |
| Brand Awareness Lift | Change in brand recall or recognition | Indicates impact on visibility and mindshare |
| Purchase Intent Lift | Change in likelihood to buy | Links marketing to future conversion potential |
| Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) | Cost to acquire a new customer | Helps optimize marketing efficiency and spend |
| Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) | Total projected revenue per customer | Informs retention, upsell, and subscription strategy |
| Incremental Conversions | Additional conversions driven by marketing | Reveals the true causal impact of campaigns |
| Incremental Revenue | Additional revenue attributed to marketing | Measures actual business lift, not just engagement |
| Share of Voice (SOV) | Brand’s presence in market conversations | Benchmark awareness vs. competitors |
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | Likelihood of customers to recommend your brand | Predicts organic growth and brand advocacy |
| Brand Favorability | Change in positive sentiment toward your brand | Reflects perception shifts and competitive advantage |
| Conversion Rate by Funnel Stage | Movement through each stage of the journey | Identifies where leads drop and where to improve |
| Customer Retention Rate | Customers who continue doing business with you | Measures brand stickiness and long-term loyalty |
| Brand Elasticity | Adaptability to market changes and disruption | Ensures long-term relevance and resilience |
| Share of Search | Brand’s search volume vs. competitors | Predicts future demand and market share |
| Brand Advocacy Rate | Customers actively promoting your brand | Reflects trust and strength of organic growth channels |
The CEO’s Call to Action
We’re in the post-impression era. Awareness alone won’t cut it—and dashboards don’t equal results.
To lead with impact, we must close the gap between ambition and execution. We must equip our teams with the systems, support, and strategic clarity to move beyond the basics.
At DAVE, we help organizations do just that.
Let’s stop reporting for the sake of optics—and start measuring what actually moves the business forward.
Display. Audio. Video. Everywhere.
About This Post
Matan Ahlfeld contributed this post. Matan is a founding partner at DAVE. Outside of work, you’ll find him spending time with family, travelling, or finessing his poker game.