The ROI Illusion – Why Most B2B CMOs Are Measuring the Wrong Things
Everyone’s chasing leads. The smartest CMOs are chasing proof.
There’s a quiet panic running through B2B marketing right now.
Every CMO you speak to is under pressure to “show results” — to prove that marketing isn’t just an expensive creative exercise, but a direct driver of growth.
The issue isn’t that marketing can’t prove ROI.
It’s that too many teams are measuring the wrong things.
They’re obsessed with dashboards that count clicks, impressions, and MQLs — none of which mean much when the CFO asks: “How did this move the business forward?”
Short-termism has hijacked strategy
We’ve spent years optimising for performance marketing — the stuff you can measure instantly. And in the process, we’ve starved brand building, which compounds slowly but drives the majority of long-term growth.
Binet & Field’s research proved it: around 60 % of marketing investment should build brand and 40 % should drive short-term activation.
Yet most B2B brands have flipped that ratio.
When you over-index on short-term tactics, you end up shouting louder for smaller gains.
When you build brand, you make every future activation cheaper, easier, and more effective.
The smartest CMOs are reframing ROI
They’re not arguing for budget — they’re demonstrating value.
They connect the dots between brand strength, pipeline velocity, and revenue growth.
They understand that while attribution models can’t perfectly capture emotional influence, boardrooms can feel the difference when marketing starts shaping commercial outcomes.
At Brandtale, we work with CMOs to build measurement frameworks that connect creativity with business reality.
We link storytelling to conversion, reputation to retention, and brand health to sales performance.
ROI isn’t a spreadsheet — it’s a system
The ability to prove marketing’s worth doesn’t come from one perfect metric. It comes from building a system where:
Creative quality correlates with commercial outcomes
Brand recall turns into buyer intent
Storytelling drives measurable behaviour change
If you want marketing to get the credit it deserves, it has to earn its seat at the revenue table — not with vanity metrics, but with undeniable impact.
Because you can’t prove ROI on a brand you’ve never built.
If you’re ready to build a marketing system that proves its own value, let’s talk.
👉 Book a strategy call with Brandtale
