“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
We’ve all heard it. It’s the kind of saying that gets tossed into board meetings and planning sessions like a mic drop of wisdom — a reminder that data equals discipline. And sure, it’s true. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
But here’s the problem: most organizations are measuring the wrong things. They’re chasing dashboards instead of direction. Reporting activity instead of progress. Optimizing for clicks when they should be optimizing for outcomes. At some point, marketing became an arms race for metrics — and somewhere along the way, the meaning got lost.
When Measurement Misses the Point
Most agencies (and internal teams) default to tracking what’s easiest: engagement rates, impressions, email opens, website sessions, followers. The numbers look good in a deck. They show “momentum.”
But ask the hard question — did it work? — and suddenly the data gets quiet.
Because impressions don’t pay the bills. Engagement doesn’t always equal conversion. And a 40-page performance report doesn’t mean much if the business itself isn’t growing. Marketing measurement has to evolve past the “look busy” phase. It’s not just about what happened; it’s about what changed because of it.
That’s why at Good Decisions, we believe every agency — including ours — should be measured across three dimensions:
1. Agency Performance
Are you asking the right questions?
This one gets overlooked all the time. But partnership is performance.
Are we making your life easier? Are we showing up with ideas before you have to ask? Are we clear, responsive, honest, and proactive when things shift?
Because even the best campaign can fall apart under poor collaboration. Great agencies don’t just take orders — they create clarity. They anticipate problems before they exist. They act like an extension of your team, not a vendor in your inbox.
When you measure an agency, measure the relationship first. It’s the foundation that determines everything else.
2. Tactical Campaign Performance
This is where most agencies live: ads, analytics, and optimization. The tangible stuff.
Good campaigns should do more than “run.” They should connect. The copy should make people feel something. The visuals should make them stop scrolling. The data should show that it’s working.
Here’s where we geek out: engagement rates, conversion metrics, return on ad spend. These matter — but they’re only meaningful in context.
Tactical success is proof that the work is sharp and the strategy is sound. But it’s not the final destination. Because you can have a perfectly optimized campaign that performs beautifully on paper — and still doesn’t change the business.
3. Strategic Performance
This is the big one. The part most dashboards ignore. Didmarketing actually help the organization hit its goals? Did we grow revenue, increase retention, expand reach, build membership, or strengthen reputation? That’s the measure that matters. It’s easy to manage marketing activity. It’s harder to measure business impact.
But that’s where the real value lives — at the intersection of creative thinking, executional excellence, and organizational growth. An agency that can’t connect its work to the business strategy isn’t a growth partner. It’s a production shop.
4. Measuring What Actually Matters
When we measure ourselves, we don’t just ask how many leads we generated or how many impressions we drove. We ask bigger questions:
- Did we make our client’s business stronger?
- Did we bring structure and clarity where things felt scattered?
- Did we create momentum that lasts beyond a single campaign?
- Did we help the internal team look smarter, faster, and more strategic?
If the answer is yes, the rest of the numbers tend to take care of themselves.
Because at the end of the day, measurement isn’t about metrics — it’s about meaning. It’s about understanding which levers actually move your organization forward and which ones just make noise.
The Bottom Line
You really can’t manage what you don’t measure. But if you’re not measuring the right things — the relationship, the work, and the results — you’re not managing much at all.
Marketing should be accountable, but it should also be directional. The goal isn’t just to prove value; it’s to create it.
That’s how we measure ourselves at Good Decisions. Not by how much we do, but by how much it matters.
