How successful marketing teams are optimizing performance in 2026 (and what metrics they’re tracking)

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HubSpot’s 2026 State of Marketing report uncovered some good news: 65% of marketers are meeting or exceeding their performance benchmarks. But that success doesn’t happen by accident. Behind those results are clear priorities, rigorous testing, and a sharp focus on the right metrics.

This post explores how the most successful teams are optimizing performance in 2026, and which KPIs they trust most to guide their decisions.

Table of Contents

Why Performance Optimization Matters in 2026
The Top Marketing KPIs to Track in 2026
Marketing Optimization Trends to Expect in 2026
How to Optimize Marketing Performance

Why Performance Optimization Matters in 2026

Marketers report that their budgets are facing more scrutiny than in past years, and expectations are rising. Leaders want to tie revenue to marketing activities, which means every line item in their budget needs to deliver an ROI.

Major roadblocks to success include:

Measuring marketing ROI (33%).
Generating quality leads (29.6%).
Keeping up with platform and algorithm changes (29.8%).
Sales and marketing misalignment (27.6%).
Effectively using AI (25.7%).

That means that marketers can’t afford to set a campaign and let it run for months without checking on the results. Measuring, analyzing, and optimizing should be quick and frequent, allowing brands to double down on what works best.

The Top Marketing KPIs to Track in 2026

Based on HubSpot’s 2026 State of Marketing report, the top key performance indicators (KPIs) marketers are prioritizing focus squarely on quality, revenue impact, and efficiency. These reflect a shift away from vanity metrics and toward performance that directly supports business goals.

Here are the top five marketing KPIs that marketers cited as critical for success.

1. Lead Quality and Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

This KPI measures how well incoming leads align with your ideal customer profile and sales readiness. This metric reflects an emphasis on quality over quantity, with 39.4% of marketers watching this KPI.

Lead scoring can help you rate leads and identify which lead sources are delivering high-quality leads, then optimize for them. Prioritizing lead quality appears to be working, since 94% of marketers say that lead quality improved over the past year.

2. Conversion Rates

Conversion rates (lead-to-customer) track the percentage of leads that become paying customers. With 33.9% of teams prioritizing this KPI, it reflects a strong focus on optimizing the full funnel, not just top-of-funnel activity and vanity metrics. High performers test calls-to-action (CTAs), audience targeting, and messaging weekly to boost this metric.

3. Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

ROMI calculates the revenue generated relative to marketing spend. With 31.1% of marketers tracking ROMI, we see an increased pressure to tie marketing spend to business outcomes.

To measure ROMI, use the following formula:

(Revenue Generated – Marketing Expenses) / Marketing Expenses

Multiply that number by 100 for a percentage.