marketing metrics for the board

B2B Marketing Board Credibility: What Boards Want to See

At Marketing Week's Festival of Marketing on October 14, 2026, three B2B marketing leaders said marketers earn board credibility by understanding business economics, measuring what matters and showing how brand investment drives growth. The gap is real: McKinsey found 70% of CEOs judge marketing on revenue growth and margin, while only 35% of CMOs track that as a top metric. This guide turns the panel's advice into steps: learn the profit and loss, swap activity metrics for business ones, make the case for brand as future demand, apply deal rigour to spend, and add AI search visibility as an early signal of demand.