Vanity metrics: the numbers that make you feel good

Vanity metrics are numbers that look impressive in a report but do not tell you whether marketing made the business money. Reach, likes, raw follower growth and even headline ROAS can all qualify. The test is simple: if the number went up and profit did not, it was a vanity metric for that decision.

Every marketer has presented a slide they were secretly unsure about. A big reach figure. A ROAS of 400%. A spike in engagement. The room nods, and you move on, but a small voice asks whether any of it mattered. This Marketing Mondays signal is about that voice, and why you should listen to it.

Why do vanity metrics survive?

Because they protect people. When you are under pressure to prove marketing's value, and many marketers feel undervalued, a big number feels like a shield. Agencies are rewarded for reports that look good. Platforms report the numbers that flatter their own inventory. Nobody in the chain has a strong reason to ask the uncomfortable question.

Listening data across the marketing community shows the consequence clearly: a profitability gap. Brands optimise ROAS and CPA while ignoring returns, fees, discounts and the true cost of acquiring a customer. Agencies chase metrics they can control rather than outcomes the client cares about. Everyone feels busy and successful until finance asks where the money went.

How can a 400% ROAS lose money?

Here is a worked example with illustrative numbers. A brand spends S$10,000 on ads and the platform attributes S$40,000 in revenue. That is a 400% ROAS, and it looks excellent.

• Product cost on S$40,000 of sales: S$18,000.
• Returns and refunds: S$4,000 of revenue reversed.
• Discounts used to close the sales: S$3,000.
• Payment and platform fees: S$1,500.
• Agency and tooling fees: S$3,000.
• Sales that would have happened anyway without ads: some share, often unknown.

Add those up and the real contribution from that S$10,000 can be close to zero or negative. The 400% was real as a platform number. It was a vanity metric as a business number.

Which metrics are usually vanity, and which are useful?

Often vanity, depending on the decision

• Impressions and reach without a measure of attention or recall.
• Likes and follower counts without a link to intent.
• Platform-reported ROAS without costs, returns or incrementality.
• Content volume shipped.

Usually useful

• Contribution margin after marketing costs.
• New customer acquisition cost against lifetime value.
• Incremental lift from controlled tests.
• Share of the conversations that matter in your category.
• Pre-spend creative scores that predict performance.

Checklist: audit your next report in 15 minutes

1. For every metric on the page, write the decision it supports. If you cannot, cut it.
2. Find one number that is reported by the platform being paid. Ask for an independent equivalent.
3. Check that returns, discounts and fees are subtracted somewhere.
4. Ask what would have happened without the spend.
5. Add one forward-looking signal: what audiences are saying now that will affect next month.

What should you measure instead?

Our position is that measurement should start before the money is spent. The best time to avoid a vanity result is before you commit budget to a creative that was never going to convert. SOMIN, the AI audience-research platform behind Marketing Mondays, scores creative clickability pre-spend through its paid media intelligence, and its reporting tools tie results back to audience signal rather than just platform numbers. The Analytic Partners case study is worth reading for how a measurement-led agency thinks about this.

On the listening side, share of voice only matters if it is share of the right conversations. Our sister app Somonitor focuses on conversation signals and early warning, rather than raw mention counts, for exactly that reason.

How do you raise this without looking like you are attacking your own work?

This is the part that keeps people quiet. Challenging a metric your team has been celebrating feels risky. Three approaches help.

• Frame it as an upgrade. "This number is good. Here is how we make it believable to finance."
• Bring a peer. Someone outside your company who has made the same shift lends credibility, which is one reason communities like Marketing Mondays exist.
• Start small. Fix one report, one campaign, one metric. Show the difference.

What should you do this Monday?

Take the last report you presented and circle the single number you were proudest of. Then ask three questions about it. What costs sit behind it that the report does not show? What would that number have been with no spend at all? And what decision did it actually change? If you cannot answer the third question, you have found your first vanity metric. Replace it next month with a measure tied to contribution margin, and tell your stakeholders why. In our experience, finance teams respond well to a marketer who volunteers a harder number before being asked. It is one of the quickest ways to move from defending marketing to being trusted with more of the budget. Bring what you find to the community; someone will have already fought the same battle with the same platform.

Definitions

• ROAS: return on ad spend, usually revenue attributed to ads divided by ad spend.
• True ROAS or profit ROAS: the same idea using contribution margin after costs, returns and fees.
• Incrementality: the share of results that would not have happened without the marketing.

For the human side of the same problem, see the autopsy of a lost sale, where a flattering metric hid the real reason a buyer walked away.

Chasing illusions blinds us to genuine opportunities. The number that makes you feel good is rarely the number that makes the business better.

Frequently asked questions

What is a vanity metric in marketing?

A number that looks impressive but does not show whether marketing improved business results, such as reach, likes or platform ROAS reported without costs and returns.

Is ROAS a vanity metric?

It can be. Platform ROAS ignores product costs, returns, discounts, fees and incrementality. Used alone, it can show a strong return on a campaign that loses money.

What should replace vanity metrics?

Contribution margin after marketing costs, acquisition cost against lifetime value, incremental lift, share of relevant conversations, and pre-spend creative scores.