Developing
The Dreamdata figures do not show which channel generates more revenue; the Winterberry research is sponsored.
In 60 seconds
- Dreamdata 2026 B2B benchmarks: LinkedIn clicks averaged $6.70 versus $1.70 on Meta; cost per company influenced was $78.58 on LinkedIn and $144.24 on Meta; observed LinkedIn journeys averaged 281 days.
- Winterberry Group 2026 (sponsored by Lifesight): 83% of senior enterprise marketers ranked cross-channel spend optimisation a top priority, but only 9% said they measured unified marketing very well.
- The author's test for each KPI: which business outcome it serves, what decision it informs, what behaviour it rewards and what evidence would reveal a tradeoff.
- Each KPI is then classed as a target, balancing measure, diagnostic metric or replacement.
Impact Layer
- What changed
- A practitioner argues that metric choice shapes behaviour, with some benchmark data.
- Why it matters
- If teams are rewarded for cheap clicks or leads, they will produce them, whether or not sales follow.
- Who is affected
- B2B marketing leaders, RevOps and finance teams.
- Martech stack area
- Analytics, Advertising
- Stack impact
- Review your top five KPIs against the four questions and add a balancing measure where one metric could be gamed.
- Business impact
- Low A contributed opinion piece on MarTech (owned by Semrush). The scenarios are illustrative and the Dreamdata figures do not establish which channel earns more revenue, as the article says.
- Related technologies
- What to watch
- Your own cohort results over a 281-day journey, not 30-day revenue.
Stephanie Trovato argues in a MarTech column published October 20, 2026 that “every metric creates an incentive, whether you intended it to or not”, and that volume and cost-based KPIs can favour campaigns that do not produce customers.
The data it cites
- Dreamdata 2026 B2B advertising benchmarks: LinkedIn clicks averaged $6.70, versus $1.70 on Meta. Cost per company influenced was $78.58 on LinkedIn and $144.24 on Meta. Observed LinkedIn journeys averaged 281 days from first impression to revenue.
- Winterberry Group 2026 research (sponsored by Lifesight): 83% of surveyed senior enterprise marketers ranked cross-channel spend optimisation as a top priority, but only 9% said they measured unified marketing very well.
The recommended test
Ask for each KPI which business outcome it serves, what decision it informs, what behaviour it rewards and what evidence would reveal a tradeoff. Then classify it as a target, balancing measure, diagnostic metric or replacement.
Caveats
The Dreamdata figures do not establish which channel generates more revenue, and the article says so. The 281-day lag suggests judging campaigns on mature cohorts rather than 30-day revenue. The scenarios, such as a campaign that raises MQLs 30% while sales acceptance falls, are illustrative.
Our read
A KPI that no one can connect to revenue should be demoted to a diagnostic. That is the practical takeaway.
Sources
- MarTech: Your marketing metrics are training your team to make bad decisions (opens in a new tab)
Source for the claims, benchmark figures and caveats.