It’s not that your dashboard is wrong—it’s just too crowded.

In a world where marketers are tracking everything, leadership still struggles to get clarity. They don’t want more data. They want better decisions. And they’re relying on you to surface what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next.

Most dashboards fall flat because they’re built for reporting, not action. We’ve seen this firsthand in Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot, Salesforce, and other complex martech stacks. The result? A whole lot of charts. Not a lot of confidence.

If you want buy-in, bigger budgets, and less friction between marketing and RevOps—focus on these three metrics.

This is the one metric every CEO and CFO wants to see: how much of the company’s pipeline came from marketing efforts.

• It ties your work directly to revenue.
• It’s a clear way to show influence without inflating credit.
• It keeps the conversation strategic, not subjective.

Start with SQLs and Opportunities that originated from marketing-led programs:

• Content downloads that turned into meetings
• Paid ad leads that progressed to deals
• Events or webinars that moved buyers down the funnel

Then connect them to Opportunity stages and dollar values using your CRM. Use closed-loop reporting—no shortcuts.

“Marketing is helping build the pipeline. Here’s how much, and here’s where it’s coming from.”

Break it down by channel. Leadership doesn’t just want volume—they want focus. Show what specific marketing motions are contributing the most.

This is your most powerful efficiency metric. It shows how smart your team is with budget and where you’re overpaying for performance.

• It immediately identifies channel inefficiencies.
• It speaks to ROI in a language finance understands.
• It helps shift the conversation from spend to strategy.

Take the total spend for a campaign or channel and divide it by the number of qualified opportunities it produced. This includes:

• Paid media
• Events
• Sponsored content
• Email campaigns (yes, include ops time if possible)

“We’re not just getting leads—we’re generating qualified revenue potential at a competitive cost.”

Don’t hide expensive channels if they perform. Leadership cares more about outcome than optics.

This is the evolution of attribution—and it works.

Instead of obsessing over first-touch vs. last-touch models, focus on influence. Show where marketing efforts contributed to closed-won deals—even if it wasn’t the initiating event.

• It gives credit where it’s due—without overpromising.
• It connects long, multi-touch journeys to revenue.
• It validates cross-functional collaboration.

Use campaign tracking and engagement scoring to show:

• Which campaigns were touched by contacts tied to closed deals
• How many stages marketing supported in the buyer’s journey
• The total revenue associated with those influenced accounts

If you’re using Marketo Measure or Bizible, great. But even without those tools, simple campaign member reporting can get you started.

“Marketing isn’t just showing up—we’re moving deals forward.”

Frame this metric around alignment: “Here’s how marketing supported sales.”

It’s not that open rates, click-throughs, or engagement scores aren’t useful. They are—for channel optimization and tactical planning.

But when it comes to getting leadership buy-in, they’re noise.

These 3 metrics: Marketing-Sourced Pipeline, Cost Per Opportunity, and Revenue Influence by Channel—they’re your executive narrative. They answer the big questions:

• Is marketing driving growth?
• Are we spending efficiently?
• Are we aligned with sales?

That’s what makes them powerful.

You don’t need a new tool—you need a new lens.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Audit your current reports. Identify what you’re tracking that no one’s acting on.
2. Rebuild your executive dashboard. Focus it around the 3 metrics above.
3. Use storytelling, not just data. Each metric should have context: what changed, why it matters, what we’ll do next.

We recommend segmenting your reports like this:

• Executives: The 3 metrics that matter.
• RevOps & Marketing Leads: Add conversion rates, velocity, and campaign detail.
• Channel Owners: Go deep on tactical metrics.

This keeps everyone aligned—without drowning anyone in data.