The Failure of Marketing ROI

Table of Contents
IDC Opinion
In This Insight
Situation Overview
ROI Is a Reasonable Request
Marketing ROI Is a Failure
ROI Assumes That the Buying Process Is a Simple Machine
FUTURE OUTLOOK
B2B Marketing Is Complicated
Companies That Try to Use Simple ROI to Measure B2B Marketing End Up Placing Undue Value on the Wrong Things
What About Alternatives to ROI Such as ROMI?
Essential Guidance
You Can Measure B2B Marketing ROI — with a More Sophisticated Approach
Use a Model as a Proxy for the Underlying Customer Creation Process
Use Analytics to Model the Real ROI of Marketing Program Components
Steps to Building a Data-Driven, Buyer-Centric Approach to Marketing and Sales
Step 1: Implement Measurement Basics
Step 2: Make Your Pipeline "Smart" with Scoring
Step 3: Analyze the Pipeline to Start Measuring ROI or ROMI
Step 4: Optimize Customer Creation Pipeline Results ("R") by Experimenting with People and Programs "Levers" ("L")
Learn More
Related Research
Appendix: Think Like a CFO
Table: Methods of Calculating Financial Return
Figure: How to Calculate Return on Investment
Figure: 2011 Pipeline Velocity Benchmarks
Figure: IDC's Customer Creation Framework