Effectiveness
Anton Buchner, Founder, Front Foot Marketing Last updated 8 August 2026
What should our marketing dashboard actually tell us?
The question behind the question
Are we asking for more metrics?
Are we asking for a decision?
The straight answer
A dashboard should help you make a decision. If it doesn't, it's probably just reporting.
Traffic, leads, CTR, CPC, CPA, reach, engagement, conversions, ROAS. There's no shortage of marketing numbers. More numbers don't necessarily create more certainty.
The deeper answer
A useful dashboard should help answer: what's changing? Why does it matter? What does the evidence suggest? What should we do differently?
And perhaps most importantly: what don't we know?
If the dashboard can't help leadership make a better decision, adding another metric probably isn't the answer.
If your dashboard needs ten minutes of explanation, it probably isn't helping the CEO make one.
The uncomfortable bit
You probably don't need another dashboard. You need to decide which three numbers actually matter.
What we know
- What every metric on the dashboard currently reads
- Which numbers moved most in the last reporting period
What we don't
- Which of those movements would actually change what you do next
- What isn't being measured at all, and whether that gap matters more than what is
What we need to decide anyway: Which five numbers to keep, and which to drop, before the next version gets built.
What I'd challenge
I'd challenge the idea that a 10:1 ROAS is automatically better than a 3:1 ROAS. What matters is what was incremental, what would have happened anyway, and what happens to margin once you account for the rest of the customer economics.
The Anton Test
If this metric turned out to be wrong next month, would any decision we've already made need to change?
What I'd do next
I'd cut the dashboard down to five numbers that would actually change what we do next, and set the rest aside for now.
The decision
This is ultimately a decision about what gets reported, and what gets cut.
This connects to the broader decision on Marketing effectiveness, if you want the fuller picture.
Keep asking
Related answers
Effectiveness
What should a CEO expect from marketing?
Not more activity. Better commercial clarity.
Decision
What happens when the numbers disagree?
Don't automatically believe the number that looks most precise.
Decision
How much evidence is enough?
You rarely get perfect information. The goal isn't certainty. It's confidence good enough to act.
Still working out what the real question is?
Sometimes the hardest part isn't finding the answer. It's knowing which question to ask.