The KPI Reset: Why Traditional Marketing Metrics No Longer Tell the Full Story

CTR is steady. Engagement is up. Impressions are growing.

Sounds great, right? Seems like your marketing dashboard is healthy.

And yet, revenue impact feels harder to explain than ever.

So perhaps performance isn’t the problem.

Maybe the real problem is what we’re measuring.

The metrics we’ve relied on for the last decade were designed for a different internet:
linear funnels, clear attribution, and predictable user behavior.

That world is gone.

Today’s buyers move across feeds, sessions, devices, creators, and algorithms. And the old KPIs can’t keep up.

It’s time for a reset.

Former Head of Growth at Uber, Andrew Chen, breaks down modern retention metrics in this post:

Why KPIs Fell Behind Reality

1. CTR and Impressions Measure Exposure, but Not Influence

Clicks tell you someone noticed something, but they don’t tell you if it mattered.

In algorithmic environments, users often don’t click at all.

They watch. They save. They remember. Then they convert later, and usually somewhere else.

Why it matters:
If you optimize for clicks, you’ll underinvest in the content that actually shapes demand.

What to do:
Treat CTR as a diagnostic signal, not a success metric. Exposure without downstream impact isn’t helpful for conversions.

2. Engagement Metrics Ignore Session Context

A like or comment looks good in isolation, but it tells you nothing about what role that interaction played.

Did the content:

• Extend the session?

• Increase brand recall?

• Reduce friction before conversion?

Most dashboards can’t answer that.

Why it matters:
Algorithms reward content that increases session length.
Businesses benefit from content that contributes to eventual conversion.

Those are related, but not identical.

What to do:
Start measuring session contribution:

• Did this content keep users in the experience longer?

• Did it lead to deeper exploration?

• Did it precede a later action?

3. Incrementality Outlasted Attribution

Last-click attribution struggles in a world where discovery and decision are separated by time.

❌ “Did this ad get the click?”

✅ “Did this exposure change what would have happened anyway?”

Why it matters:
Without incremental thinking, marketing over-credits easy wins and under-credits real influence.

What to do:
Introduce incremental lift measurement:

• Holdout tests

• Geo experiments

• Controlled audience splits

Not everywhere. Not all at once.

Just enough to see what’s actually moving outcomes.

4. Attention Is the Scarce Resource, But We Don’t Measure It Well

Platforms optimize for time spent. Most brands don’t.

A 30-second watch is more valuable than a 1-second impression, but they’re often reported the same way.

Why it matters:
Attention is the bridge between exposure and intent.

What to do:
Move toward attention-weighted metrics:

• Watch time

• Completion rate

• Saves and replays

• Session depth

These are closer proxies for influence than clicks ever were.

What You Can Do Today

The good news is, you don’t need a full measurement overhaul to start thinking differently.

How Measurement Is Shifting

This week:

• Pick one campaign and ask: what happens after exposure?

• Track session depth alongside engagement.

• Run one simple holdout (even a small one) to test lift.

• Reframe one report around contribution, not activity.

Small changes in measurement unlock big changes in decision-making.

Measured is purpose-built for the exact problem we’ve address: understanding what actually drives incremental business impact when attribution falls apart.

Instead of relying on last-click or channel-level credit, Measured helps teams:

• Run incrementality tests across channels to see what truly moves outcomes

• Measure lift, not just activity

• Model real contribution across complex, multi-touch journeys

• Make budget decisions based on causal impact, not proxy metrics

Why it matters for CMOs:
Measured shifts the conversation from “Which channel got credit?” to “What changed behavior?” That’s the KPI reset in practice.

In a world where discovery, consideration, and conversion happen across sessions and surfaces, tools like Measured give leaders confidence in directional truth, and not just false precision.

If attribution tells you what happened, incrementality tells you what mattered.

Think with Google: Rethinking Measurement in a Fragmented Journey

Recent research from Think with Google highlights how fragmented consumer journeys have outpaced traditional attribution models, pushing leading brands toward incrementality, experimentation, and blended measurement frameworks.

👉 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/data-and-measurement/measurement-in-a-fragmented-consumer-journey/

What’s notable is that Google doesn’t frame this as a tooling problem. The emphasis is on decision confidence, not perfect attribution. Leading brands are combining experimentation, modeled insights, and attention signals to understand directional impact instead of chasing false precision.

The shift is clear: measurement is moving from “who gets credit” to “what actually changed behavior,” which aligns directly with how modern journeys unfold across sessions, platforms, and time.

Key takeaway:
The best marketers are building confidence in directionally correct decisions.

Better Questions Beat Better Dashboards

The problem isn’t that marketers don’t have enough data. We usually have more than we can handle.

The problem is we keep asking it the wrong questions.

Instead of:

• “What got the click?”

• “What had the highest CTR?”

Start asking:

• “What shaped the decision?”

• “What moved someone closer to action?”

• “What would’ve happened if this didn’t exist?”

That’s the KPI reset.

Not fewer metrics, but better ones.

Try This Week

Pick one active campaign and measure it without looking at clicks. Track watch time, session depth, or post-exposure behavior instead. You’ll learn more about what actually influenced decisions than any CTR report could show.

Until next time,

— Mac

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