AMA: Sentry Head of Demand Generation, Fanette Jobard on Demand Generation KPI's

If Demand Generation and Content Marketing were to share a single KPI, Marketing Engaged Leads (MELs)—also known as leads generated or new emails in the system—would be ideal. MELs provide a clear view of top-of-funnel content performance, it answers which blog posts, landing pages, and ad creatives drive new signups and grow the lead base. This KPI is powerful for understanding if content is attracting the right leads and if Demand Generation can scale paid traffic to that specific content effectively. However, there are additional KPIs and metrics to consider: For Pure Awareness Efforts: Content marketing can be assessed through web traffic metrics, such as page views and visits. It’s crucial to exclude any artificial traffic boosts, like those from paid promotion or newsletters, to get an accurate picture. I recall a time when a niche topic seemed highly successful in page views, only to later realize the blog post’s high traffic came primarily from onboarding emails rather than organic interest. Further Down the Funnel: Content and Demand Gen can align on KPIs like opportunity creation and revenue influenced by content. For instance, did a particular piece of content serve as the last touchpoint before someone started a trial or before sales created an opportunity? This alignment is even stronger when the sales team leverages content in outbound efforts, showcasing its value directly in the sales process.

I love this question, though it’s a challenging one because there are plenty of KPIs that can be misleading or even counterproductive to commit to. Generally, I believe it's best to avoid KPIs that seem too easy, too vague, or overly flattering. The reason is simple: there are countless ways to tweak metrics to make them appear more favorable than they actually are. Common Quantitative Pitfalls (often volume-based without a quality component): -Leads collected during an event: For instance, it’s easy to boost lead numbers by simply scanning badges at the keynote entrance without real interaction. Many tradeshows now have strict guidelines on when, where, and how to scan leads to avoid these issues (I sense some crazy stories behind these rules). You may need 10 conversations at an event to get great results. -Email open rates: These can be inflated by factors like bots opening emails or people who want to unsubscribe... -Cost per lead (CPL): This one is particularly tricky. CPL can often be optimized in ways that look impressive on paper but don’t translate to real value. High CPL might yield more leads quickly, but without quality, it can flood SDRs with poor leads, erode trust in Demand Gen, and disrupt sales-marketing alignment. In my experience, CPL is one of the riskiest KPIs to commit to without a focus on quality. Qualitative Pitfall: Committing to Company Names and Job Titles (Another Favorite Example) This may sound counterintuitive, but committing to only high-quality leads based on company names, job titles, and professional email addresses can have unexpected drawbacks. In one case, we prioritized leads with ideal company names, professional emails, and fitting job titles, yet conversion rates declined over time. The reason? Cold channels like content syndication and LinkedIn Lead Gen were generating these ‘ideal’ leads, and more qualified leads without specific companies or emails (e.g., trial or demo requests) were deprioritized, which slowed down the sales pipeline on the long term. Ultimately, the best KPIs balance quality with impact across the full funnel.

You could just rename MQL to PQL (product qualified lead) and, voilà! Just kidding. Many teams treat sales-led and self-serve as entirely separate models, but in my view, the KPIs don’t need to change much. In most companies, it’s actually helpful to keep KPI names consistent so that new hires familiar with a sales-led funnel can easily understand the different stages. You’ll still track Leads/MELs, PQLs/MQLs, paid users/SQLs, and ARR/revenue. Of course, in self-serve, you won’t have stages like "Sales Accepted Leads", "meetings", "Proof of concept", or "Sales Qualified", but you’ll have equivalents that allow you to effectively track ARR.

Framing KPIs in terms of control and impact: if you control it or influence it, you can own it. In Demand Gen, we can control lead quality, MQLs routed to sales, and even the initial stages, such as Sales Accepted Leads, meetings, and early-stage opportunities. However, once we move past meetings and into opportunity creation, we enter a gray area. At that point, we’re less in control of what sales is doing during meetings or POCs, making it harder to be accountable for bottom-of-funnel outcomes. Similarly, in a self-serve model, it’s challenging to be fully accountable for results that are dependent on the product experience and UX. We can drive engagement with emails and in-app messages to guide users toward a successful trial, but ultimately, accountability for product and UX changes lies outside of our control.

Start by aligning Demand Generation’s OKRs with the company’s main pillars so that every internal stakeholder can understand your goals. For each theme, define 2-3 highly measurable KRs (key results), then tie each KR to specific activities, campaigns, or initiatives to achieve those results. For example: * Company Goal: Become the leader in the Enterprise segment. * DG Matching Goal: Drive demand for the Enterprise segment. * DG OKRs: Increase Enterprise ARR by X%; acquire X% more new Enterprise logos. * DG Activities: Invest in Enterprise trade shows and field events, launch an ABM campaign, consider some Enterprise content syndication...

Congrats! This is an exciting role, and it’s definitely an addictive one because you’ll have the chance to build everything from the ground up. I’d start by focusing on MQLs as your north star—quality leads that either support sales or, in a self-serve model, drive free trials. The definition isn’t set in stone; it’s a work in progress. You’ll need to find the right balance, possibly through lead scoring, to determine what qualifies as a perfect MQL. It’s also helpful to consider metrics like Leads or Marketing Engaged Leads to gauge how many inbound leads you’re able to support. Demand Gen typically owns conversions, so those are key KPIs you can commit to as the business scales. Think of it as tracking the journey from eyeballs (page views, impressions) to leads, then leads to MQLs, and finally MQLs to SQLs/opportunities. Every quarter your efforts should be able to improve these conversion rates.

Sharing in a central wiki or company repository (we use Notion at Sentry), at the same time as other teams to give them the same level of attention. I am a big fan of async communication. Connecting ahead of time with other business stakeholder to see how these KPIs fit in their pictures and serve their need. Connecting ahead of time with the Demand Gen DRIs for each KPIs to request their feedback and how they would prioritize these differently. On a regular basis, organizing weekly pipeline meetings to track trends and collect feedback on these KPIs.

Great question! To me, it would be what I call 'MCI' (Marketing Customer Interaction) or 'MAI' (Marketing Account Interactions). The goal here is to track marketing touches at the account level. By tracking all campaign touches—whether it’s for a prospect account or an account ready for expansion—you can assess some level of intent. For instance, let’s say one account had 5 people attend a webinar, 2 people meet us at an event, and 10 others open and click your newsletter. This would give a total score of 17 interactions for the week, which is a clear indicator that the sales team should reach out. MCIs allow you to prioritize these accounts based on urgency. Sales teams love this!

Similar to the question about worst KPIs, I believe vanity metrics and volume KPIs are often too easy to manipulate and can be used to tell a misleading story. Metrics like email open rates and click-through rates can be artificially inflated by bots. Lead counts and sign-ups can also be influenced by acquisition campaigns that don’t necessarily bring in high-quality prospects. Likewise, a low cost-per-lead (CPL) is often over-hyped; in the end, what matters is quality, bottom-of-funnel conversion. Constantly feeding the top of the funnel with low-quality leads won’t actually move the needle.

This is the million-dollar question! It’s a real challenge for many companies, as it touches on all the complexities of attribution. 1. I would start by defining a straightforward way to track each channel’s performance across the funnel stages—Leads, MQLs, and SQLs—for different channels (events, paid, product, organic, etc.). 2. Next, analyze past results to identify where you have control over volume, and adjust planning for the upcoming quarter based on these insights. 3. For ongoing tracking, the team should sync regularly on KPIs with sales and hold a mid-quarter review to refine goals and make necessary adjustments. KPIs and Goals live into a central updated document everybody can check.