There are so many things to measure, more and more marketers are getting wrapped around the axle of measurement -- and wasting time, energy, and money chasing insight into the wrong things. Occasionally this is the result of prioritizing metrics based on what is easy to measure in an altruistic but misguided attempt to just "start somewhere." But most often it is the challenge of being able to even identify what the most important metrics are. So here's a way to isolate those factors that are really critical -- and, thereby, the most critical metrics.

We have a tendency on the Internet to believe that -- because we are, after all, the most measurable medium -- things can and should be measured and automated, made as efficient as possible. But too often, we tend to accept measurement at face value, without questioning the underlying imprecision (of, for example, cookies) and the implications that arise therein. We think, for example, that click-throughs are a good measure of ad campaign effectiveness, because a click is such a hard, tangible metric -- despite the fact that 8% of Internet users account for 85% of the clicks (and chances …

If conversations with clients are a good indication of the future, then 2010 will be the Year of the Dashboard. Based on my company's survey of senior marketing executives, it's clear that the use of dashboards to measure and manage marketing is going mainstream. Fully 60 % of the marketers we polled currently use three or more dashboards to track outcomes like advertising effectiveness, Web site activity and sales/sales leads (in order of importance).

More than ever before, the approval of any significant marketing initiative is dependent upon a compelling business case. A business case is meant to function as a logical framework for the organization of all of the benefit and cost information about a given project or investment. Working with this definition, one might conclude that a "good" marketing business case is one that increases the quality of decision-making. Yet many of us in marketing have come to believe that a good business case is one that predicts a significantly positive ROI, IRR, and/or NPV for a given investment. Have you ever …