Connected goals define success at every level of planned marketing work. They break executive objectives into targets at each level. Results then roll up through the hierarchy to show progress, reveal gaps and trends, and flag lagging targets. For example, a $500 million revenue objective breaks down into a $50 million marketing directive to expand into new European markets.
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Marketing Goal Basics
Marketing goals define what you want to achieve with a program or campaign. Every goal belongs to either a program or a campaign, but not both. As work runs, you track actual results against the target. Goals can roll up through hierarchy levels, so executive goals at the top break down into smaller targets at each level below.
Marketing Goal Types
Marketing goals classify into financial and non-financial categories. Financial goals track revenue, bookings, pipeline value, or other monetary targets. Non-financial goals track counts such as leads, impressions, clicks, or customers.
Each goal has a type that defines the business pillar it impacts, such as revenue or retention. Within that type, you select a subtype that specifies the metric that measures success, such as annual recurring revenue (ARR) or churn rate.
A goal's rule type sets how to read progress. An At Least rule succeeds when actuals meet or exceed the target, and an At Most rule succeeds when they stay at or below it. Use At Most for cost or efficiency metrics, where lower is better.
Marketing Goal Rollup and Hierarchy
Goals follow your planning hierarchy. When a program breaks down into lower-level programs, its goal breaks down into child goals at those same levels. A parent goal at the directive level breaks down into child goals at the initiative level. Each initiative goal breaks down further at the program level. Each goal sets its own target. Goals at the lowest level track actuals directly, and those actuals roll up to each parent goal above. To learn how, see How Marketing Goal Actuals Update and Roll Up.
Marketing Goals in Programs and Campaigns
You attach each goal to a program or a campaign, depending on where you set and track the target. Programs carry strategic targets across hierarchy levels. Campaigns carry operational targets tied to specific execution.
Set a goal on a program when the target is strategic and rolls up through hierarchy levels. For example, a marketing directive has a $50 million revenue goal. That goal breaks down into a $15 million goal for a demand generation initiative.
Set a goal on a campaign when the target is operational and tied to specific execution. For example, a webinar campaign has a 2,000-registration goal, and an email nurture campaign has a 5% click-through rate goal.
A program or campaign can have multiple goals, but each goal tracks one metric. To track revenue, leads, and impressions for the same program, create three separate goals.
Marketing Goal Progress
To track goal progress, update actual results as work runs. Update actuals in one of three ways:
| Method | Use Case | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Manual entry | Enter actual values directly in the goal when you report or calculate results outside Salesforce. | A marketing manager enters registration counts from an event vendor's report. |
| Integration | Push actual values into the goal from an automation or an external system. | As new leads come in for a campaign, a record-triggered flow adds each one to the goal's actual lead count. |
| Semantic metric definition | Link the goal to a semantic metric definition to calculate actuals from your Data 360 data by using a Tableau Next semantic metric definition, and refresh them daily. | A semantic metric definition combines engagement and conversion data from multiple Data 360 data model objects (DMOs) to calculate a campaign's total pipeline. |
Manual entry and integration work for both program and campaign goals. Semantic metric definitions apply to campaign goals only.
Here's how goals cascade through hierarchy levels in a retail company:
| Level | Goal | Target | Parent Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Objective | Grow active loyalty members from 10 million to 20 million | 10 million new members | None (top-level) |
| Marketing Directive | Re-engage lapsed members | 4 million reactivations | Business Objective goal |
| Initiative | Launch afternoon promotions for lapsed members | 1 million reactivations | Marketing Directive goal |
| Program | Q3 afternoon promotion program | 300,000 reactivations | Initiative goal |
| Campaign | Email campaign | 50,000 reactivations | Program goal |
As the email campaign runs, the marketing manager updates the campaign goal's actual value. That actual value rolls up through the hierarchy. The marketing director sees how the Q3 program is tracking against its target. In turn, the VP, CMO, and CEO each see how their own goal is tracking as results roll up.
The marketing director sets child goals on the campaigns that support the program. Because child targets can't exceed the parent target, the director sees how much of the 300,000 target remains to assign to new campaigns.