Batting Averages and Clickthrough Rates

by Sean Whiteley

John Gartner is obviously a fan of the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, as am I. Moneyball is a book by Michael M. Lewis released in 2003 about the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane, and his team's approach to running the organization. One of the central tenants of Moneyball, is that in the game of baseball, real statistical analysis has shown that on base percentage and slugging percentage are better indicators of offensive success, and that avoiding an out is more important than getting a hit. In his article, Do Your Metrics Measure Up, John analogizes a batting average in baseball, to a clickthrough ratio for marketers. This begs the question, which metrics are most important to your marketing organization?

The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we all live an work. This has never been more true for marketers. As marketing dollars and advertising spend has shifted from Madison Avenue to Amphitheatre Parkway, marketers can measure almost every aspect of the performance of their marketing programs in real-time. One of the potential effects of this, aside from Google's repeated quarterly revenue home runs, is a potentially overwhelming amount of statistical information associated with your various marketing programs. If you get lost in a sea of stats, and lose track of what is important, it is very easy to miss your targets, which in the b2b world is likely along the lines of pipeline, revenue, and profitability.

John's article certainly shares our mindset. While clickthrough rates, quality scores, and conversion rates are key metrics to track closely, if you live in the b2b world, be careful not to get so bogged down in the myriad of metrics that you lose sight of your original goals:
Driving new leads, pipeline, revenue, and profitability for your organization.