Picture this: You're staring at your marketing dashboard, frustrated. Your cost per video view is through the roof, your boss is asking tough questions, and you're wondering where everything went wrong. Sound familiar?

Here's the thing — you might not be tracking the wrong numbers. You might just be tracking the right numbers at the wrong time.

After years of building dashboards and optimizing B2B marketing campaigns, we've discovered that most marketers are making a critical mistake: they're using bottom-funnel metrics to judge top-funnel performance. It's like using a thermometer to measure distance — technically both are measurements, but they're completely useless for the task at hand.

The Funnel Metrics Framework That Changes Everything

Think of your marketing funnel in three simple phases:

1. Awareness: Get people to know you exist

2. Interest: Get them engaged and to your website

3. Conversion: Get them to buy

Each phase has a distinct goal, different creative approaches, and most importantly — completely different metrics that matter. Let's break down what you should actually be tracking.

Top of Funnel: The Audience Building Machine

The Goal: Reach as many qualified people as possible, as cheaply as possible, while ensuring they're actually engaging with your content.

What You Should Be Tracking:

• CPM (Cost per Mille): How cheaply can you reach 1,000 people?

• View Rate: What percentage of people who see your video actually watch it?

• Cost Per View: How much are you paying for each completed view?

• Video Completion Rates: Are people watching to the end?

• Engagement Rates: Comments, shares, likes — signs of genuine interest

What You Should NOT Be Tracking: Cost per lead, cost per conversion, conversion rates.

Here's why this matters: Top-funnel content is about audience building. You're not asking people to buy yet — you're introducing yourself. Judging a "nice to meet you" conversation by whether someone immediately handed you their credit card is absurd.

The view-through rate tells you everything you need to know. If it's low, you have one of two problems: wrong audience or wrong message. Either you're showing your content to people who don't care, or you're saying something that doesn't resonate with the right people.

Middle of Funnel: The Interest Engine

The Goal: Take people who are now aware of you and get them interested enough to visit your website and engage with your brand.

What You Should Be Tracking:

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Are people compelled to learn more?

• Cost Per Click (CPC): How efficiently are you driving traffic?

• Time on Site: Are visitors actually engaging once they arrive?

• Bounce Rate: Are people immediately leaving?

• On-Site Engagement: Form starts, button clicks, page depth

Think of this like retail: someone walked past your store (top funnel), now they've walked inside (middle funnel). The question isn't whether they bought something yet — it's whether they're browsing around, picking up products, and showing genuine shopping behavior.

Middle-funnel metrics tell you if you're attracting tire-kickers or genuine prospects. You can drive cheap clicks, but if everyone bounces immediately, those clicks are worthless. Conversely, you might pay 3x more per click, but if those visitors spend 5 minutes on your site and start filling out forms, that traffic is gold.

Bottom of Funnel: The Conversion Machine

The Goal: Convert engaged, interested prospects into paying customers.

What You Should Be Tracking:

• Cost Per Conversion: How much does each sale cost you?

• Conversion Rate: What percentage of bottom-funnel traffic converts?

• Return on Investment (ROI): Are you making money?

What You Should NOT Worry About: Click-through rates, cost per click, engagement rates.

This is where most marketers live, and ironically, it's where you have the least opportunity for dramatic improvement. Why? Because conversion rates are stubborn. Going from 2% to 4% conversion rate is considered exceptional performance. Going from 2% to 20%? Nearly impossible.

Here's the counterintuitive truth: At the bottom of the funnel, we'll happily pay 10x the cost per click if we know it converts 20x better and delivers stronger ROI. The math works.

The 10x Growth Secret Hiding in Plain Sight

Here's where most marketers get it completely backwards. They obsess over conversion rate optimization — tweaking landing pages, A/B testing headlines, adjusting offers. And sure, those things matter. But they're thinking too small.

Let's do some math:

• Scenario A: 10-cent video views, 2% conversion rate

• Scenario B: 1-cent video views, 2% conversion rate (same conversion rate!)

In Scenario B, you just 10x'd your sales volume without touching a single element of your landing page. You did it by creating better top-funnel content that gets dramatically cheaper engagement.

This is why view rates and cost per view matter so much. If you can create content that resonates better with your audience, you can drive 10x more people through your funnel for the same budget. Even if your conversion rate stays exactly the same, you just 10x'd your revenue.

Most companies have decent funnels that convert reasonably well. What they don't have is enough people entering those funnels. They're trying to optimize a 2% conversion rate when they should be focusing on getting 10x more people to convert at 2%.

The Vanity Metrics Trap

"But wait," you might be thinking, "aren't impressions and CPMs just vanity metrics?"

Only if you don't understand what they're telling you.

Impressions without engagement? Vanity metric. CPM without view rate context? Vanity metric. Cost per view when paired with conversion tracking? Business-critical intelligence.

The key is understanding what each metric tells you and when it matters. A high CPM might be terrible for awareness campaigns but perfectly acceptable for retargeting campaigns. A low click-through rate might be concerning for middle-funnel content but irrelevant for top-funnel brand awareness.

Building Your Measurement Framework

Here's how to implement this framework:

1. Audit Your Current Tracking Look at what you're measuring now. Are you judging top-funnel campaigns by bottom-funnel metrics? Are you optimizing for the wrong things at each stage?

2. Set Stage-Specific KPIs Define what success looks like at each stage:

• Top: Efficient reach + high engagement

• Middle: Quality traffic + on-site engagement

• Bottom: Profitable conversions

3. Create Stage-Specific Dashboards Don't mix metrics from different funnel stages in the same view. Your awareness campaign dashboard should look completely different from your conversion campaign dashboard.

4. Optimize in Order Start at the top. Get your cost per view and engagement rates optimized before you worry about conversion rate optimization. More fuel in the funnel always beats marginal improvements to conversion efficiency.

The Strategic Advantage

Companies that understand funnel-specific metrics have a massive competitive advantage. While their competitors are obsessing over landing page optimization and trying to squeeze an extra 0.5% conversion rate improvement, they're creating content that drives 10x more qualified traffic.

It's like having a well-calibrated compass before setting sail. Without proper measurement at each stage, you're navigating blind from the very beginning of your journey.

The businesses winning in B2B marketing today understand that different parts of the funnel require different creative approaches, different messaging strategies, and most importantly — different success metrics.

Your Next Steps

Ready to revolutionize your marketing measurement? Start by auditing your current metrics against this framework. Ask yourself:

• Are you tracking the right metrics for each funnel stage?

• Where are your biggest opportunities for 10x improvement?

• What creative improvements could dramatically reduce your top-funnel costs?

Remember: It's easier to 10x your top-funnel efficiency than to double your conversion rate. Focus your optimization efforts where the biggest opportunities lie.

Watch the full episode for additional insights on how often to update the creative in your digital advertising campaigns.

Watch the Full Episode on YouTube

Listen to the Full Episode on Spotify

Want personalized guidance? 

Schedule a free discovery call to discuss your specific digital advertising goals:
https://link.eic.agency/widget/bookings/eic_initial_discovery_start

This article is based on insights from the Click and Mortar podcast hosted by Mike Patterson and Dustin Trout, digital marketing experts focused on helping businesses maximize their advertising ROI.