How to Get Buy-In From Top Marketing Leaders & What KPIs Truly Matter
Whether you’re crafting a new content campaign, launching a YouTube series, or revamping your social strategy, leadership will inevitably ask: “How will this impact our company’s bottom line?”
Answering this question isn’t always straightforward. That’s why I always make sure to identify my key performance indicators (KPIs) before seeking executive buy-in. KPIs not only help me measure success but also provide the concrete evidence needed to gain leadership’s support and turn ideas into reality.
And you likely know how quickly the marketing landscape is changing — 56% of marketing leaders agree it has changed more in the past three years than in the past fifty. So, it’s clear to me that the bar for securing buy-in has risen.
Leadership wants concrete evidence of impact, often backed by AI-powered insights, customer understanding, and proven ROI.
To get a clearer picture, I spoke with marketing leaders to gather their top tips for receiving buy-in and to uncover which KPIs matter most to them in 2025.
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What is executive buy-in?
Executive buy-in is more than just getting a nod of approval from leadership — it’s about earning their active support for your idea or campaign. When leaders buy into your plan, they become champions for it, help secure necessary resources, and remove organizational obstacles that might impede success.
As Kyle Denhoff, senior director of media at HubSpot, explains, “Securing leadership buy-in goes beyond presenting strong ideas; it’s about aligning those ideas with the broader goals of the business. At HubSpot Media, we center our investments around two core business objectives: build brand awareness and drive demand.”
Denhoff emphasizes the importance of efficiency and alignment here: “When presenting to executives, the key is to tie your initiatives to metrics they care about while being efficient (lean team, low costs).”
By directly connecting your initiatives to the KPIs that matter most to leadership, you make a compelling case that resonates with their priorities.
How to Get Buy-In From Top Marketing Leaders
If you’re aiming to secure meaningful executive buy-in, here are some key steps I suggest you follow.
1. Lead with business impact.
Don’t start with tactics — start with outcomes. Frame your initiative in terms of business objectives and the KPIs that matter most to executives, such as Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) or Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
“It’s easy to get lost in vanity metrics like traffic or page views, but executives care most about return-on-investment,” says Dhanvin Sriram, head of content marketing at Neptune.AI, adding that showing tangible results is key to getting executives on board.
“For instance, we use content engagement metrics such as time spent on page, click-through rates, and bounce rates to assess the effectiveness of our …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
