And Your Brand Should Be Tracking Instead
Beyonce said it best: pretty hurts.
That is, if all you’re going for is being “seen” and looking pretty for the ‘gram, you might not be seeing the numbers or metrics that matter.
Brands tend to celebrate high likes, thousands of views, or social media followers without asking: Did this translate into real value for our business?
Welcome to the problem of vanity metrics.
For brands investing in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), getting ROI right means looking beyond surface-level metrics.
This blog breaks down:
- What vanity metrics are
- Why they’re dangerous for ROI
- What to track instead
- And how a PR and IMC agency can help you focus on what really moves the needle
What Are Vanity Metrics?
Vanity metrics are numbers that look impressive at first glance but don’t directly reflect business performance or campaign effectiveness.
Common examples:
- Facebook or Instagram likes
- Page views with no conversion
- Social followers
- Video views (without watch time)
- PR impressions (without engagement or action)
They’re called vanity metrics because they feed our ego, but not necessarily our bottom line.
Why Vanity Metrics Are a Problem
At a time where social media is dominant and everyone wants their content to “trend,” it’s easy to mistake popularity and virality for success.
But if you’re a business (versus, say, a random individual with no content goals), here’s the problem:
- They distract from real goals: You might celebrate 1M TikTok views without realizing your actual sales didn’t move at all.
- These metrics can be manipulated: Paid likes, low-cost bot views, or boosted content without targeting can inflate numbers without adding real audience value. Your audience can tell!
- They encourage the wrong decisions: If your team is rewarded for impressions, they’ll prioritize reach, even when more niche, conversion-focused content would perform better in the long run.
Vanity metrics can help initially, by helping you see who your captive audience actually is, and what kind of content captures their interest.
Also See: Why Search Intent Should Dictate Your Content Strategy
The IMC Trap: When Multiple Channels Inflate Vanity
Integrated campaigns often include:
- PR and press coverage
- Digital ads
- Events and activations
- Influencer marketing
- Social content
- Community engagement
All these can generate high numbers, but unless you define your real success metrics upfront, you’ll struggle to justify ROI.
(And this is coming from an IMC agency! We’re intent on you getting your money’s worth.)
What You Should Be Tracking Instead
Here are smarter, actionable metrics that reflect true performance across all your campaign efforts:
1. Engagement Quality
Instead of likes, track:
- Comments that show genuine interest or intent. Read through them and create content as replies, too!
- Organic share count
- Saves and bookmarks
- Click-throughs on social links or stories
2. Lead Generation and CRM Growth
Are people:
- Signing up for your email list?
- Messaging you on Messenger or Viber to inquire?
- Scanning QR codes at on-ground events?
Track these as signs of audience interest moving down the funnel.
3. Media and PR Outcomes
Beyond impressions, assess:
- Mentions with backlinks to your site
- Pickup by relevant media outlets (not just mass wires)
- Quality of sentiment in coverage or influencer content
- Referral traffic from earned media
Pro tip: A good PR and IMC agency will include these in post-campaign reports anyway. They may even report on the spot via your communications channels if performance is really good!
4. Brand Lift and Recall
Especially for awareness campaigns, measure:
- Increase in branded search terms (e.g., “where to buy Brand X PH”)
- Ad recall through simple polls
- Preference ratings from post-campaign surveys
This gives a better picture of brand impact over time.
5. Sales Attribution (Even Offline)
Tie campaigns to:
- Promo codes
- Store foot traffic during campaign windows
- POS data and geo-targeted results from activations
Even if you can’t measure perfectly, directional data helps paint the story.
How We Can Help
A reputable agency won’t just deliver views or coverage—they’ll help you:
- Define campaign KPIs based on your actual goals
- Create dashboards to visualize cross-channel performance
- Interpret data to drive insights, not just stats
- Filter out the noise from what matters
- Advise on tools like UTM parameters, social listening, or CRM tracking
As your agency partner, let’s shift your brand conversation from “how many people saw this?” to “what did this campaign actually achieve?”
Make a Killing with Better Metrics
Vanity metrics might give you a dopamine rush, but they won’t pay your team, scale your business, or build lasting brand equity.
In a cluttered, fast-scrolling media space, true marketing success comes from meaningful engagement, measurable results, and mission-aligned impact.
So the next time someone flashes a chart with 100,000 impressions, ask the better question:
“And what happened next?”
NGP IMC can help you do that. Contact us today.