How to prove your impact: The marketing lift breakthrough

As marketers, proving our direct impact on business success has always been a challenge. Traditional performance metrics don’t always tell the full story, and marketing’s role in revenue growth can often go undercounted. That’s why, in 2024, we took a step back and completely rethought how we measure success—making marketing lift our North Star. 

The transition wasn’t simple. It required buy-in across the organization and a shift in mindset. But the payoff? A clearer, more accurate view of how marketing contributes to revenue, guiding our strategy in a way that’s more aligned with business goals. 

Here’s how we did it—and how you can, too. 

What is marketing lift? 

Marketing lift measures the direct impact of your marketing efforts beyond standard engagement metrics. It compares the revenue impact of accounts that engaged with marketing versus those that didn’t. By analyzing deal size, win rates, and revenue influence, marketing lift gives you a data-driven way to quantify your contribution. 

Marketing lift isn’t just about proving ROI—it’s about uncovering the deeper trends that influence long-term growth. It helps marketing teams understand how different campaigns, channels, and engagement strategies impact revenue, providing a much-needed layer of transparency into marketing effectiveness.

Why measure marketing lift? 

Shifting to marketing lift may seem like a big change, but the benefits are undeniable: 

• Prove marketing’s value to leadership – Marketing lift provides concrete, data-backed proof of how marketing contributes to revenue, making it easier to justify budget allocation and strategic decisions. 

• Optimize budget allocation – By seeing which marketing efforts drive the highest lift, you can double down on what works and cut what doesn’t. This prevents wasted spend and ensures every marketing dollar is working toward revenue growth. 

• Gain a holistic view of marketing performance – Unlike traditional metrics that focus on isolated touchpoints, lift analysis evaluates the full customer journey, highlighting where marketing gains traction and where it loses momentum. 

• Find your sweet spot – Through deeper analysis, we identified the exact number of engagements needed to drive a 7x increase in account revenue, allowing us to create more purposeful engagement strategies. 

• Strengthen cross-functional collaboration – Because marketing lift demonstrates how marketing influences revenue across the entire funnel, it encourages better alignment between sales, customer success, and executive teams. 
  
  

Lessons learned from tracking marketing lift 

Shifting to marketing lift wasn’t without its challenges. Here are key lessons we learned: 

• Have an internal champion – Our CMO played a critical role in securing leadership buy-in by presenting data-driven insights that made the case for change. Having an executive advocate is essential for successfully shifting measurement strategies. 

• Change metrics if they don’t work – Traditional funnel metrics weren’t giving us the full picture. While we still use them in the background, adding marketing lift has provided the hard data we need to prove impact. 

• Align with your ICP – Every campaign we run is rooted in ideal customer profile (ICP) data, paired with a data-driven approach to account selection. This alignment has been key in driving significant marketing lift growth. 

• Understand the process before scaling – We first calculated marketing lift manually to understand its nuances before automating it within our systems. This approach prevented mistakes and ensured our reporting was accurate from the start. 

• Clean data is critical – Poorly structured data can make calculating lift unnecessarily complex. We ensured our data was well-organized and clean for accurate measurement. 

• Set realistic expectations – Marketing lift isn’t an overnight transformation. It takes time to gather enough data, analyze patterns, and refine your approach. Staying patient and committed to the process is key. 
  
  

How to start tracking marketing lift   

If you’re not tracking marketing lift yet, now is the perfect time to start. Here’s how: 

1. Analyze past performance – Compare year-over-year or campaign-to-campaign data to establish a baseline and identify trends. Look at previous marketing initiatives and assess how they influenced revenue outcomes. 
2. Set a goal – Use historical lift data to set a target for improvement in your next campaign or fiscal year. Aim for measurable, realistic improvements that align with business objectives. 
3. Invest in account-based analytics – Measuring marketing lift effectively and efficiently requires an account-based analytics platform to track engagement at the account level. Without proper data tracking, it’s nearly impossible to get accurate insights. 
4. Optimize based on insights – Continuously review lift data throughout the year. Identify accounts with the highest engagement and replicate successful strategies. Test different engagement levels and find the sweet spot that maximizes revenue impact. 
5. Educate internal stakeholders – One of the biggest barriers to adopting marketing lift is internal understanding. Make sure leadership, sales, and other key stakeholders understand how marketing lift works and why it matters. 
6. Refine your engagement strategies – The insights from lift analysis will show you which engagement tactics are most effective. Use this data to personalize outreach, adjust messaging, and optimize campaigns for better results. 

Make the shift to marketing lift 

Switching to marketing lift as our primary performance metric has been a game-changer. It’s given us a more accurate and strategic view of how marketing contributes to revenue, allowing us to refine our approach, justify investments, and align more closely with company goals. 

Unlike traditional metrics, which often undervalue marketing’s impact, lift analysis provides a true representation of how marketing influences business growth. It also allows us to pivot and optimize throughout the year, rather than waiting until the end of a campaign to assess performance. 

While the transition required effort, the results speak for themselves. If you haven’t started tracking marketing lift yet, now is the time. By implementing the right tools, setting clear goals, and continuously optimizing based on insights, you can transform your marketing strategy and prove your true impact.