Marketing can’t own the results without a say in the strategy

There’s no shortage of conversation about giving marketing a seat at the table. Over the years, we’ve seen dozens of articles calling for marketing to be treated as a strategic partner, not just a service department.

But the real problem isn’t just that marketing lacks a seat at the table. Even when we’re technically invited, strategic decisions are already made, and marketing is just there to execute them.

That leads to the root issue: a tactical vs. strategic disconnect, most clearly visible in misaligned KPIs. It’s hurting growth for some companies.

The disconnect is real

Marketing is often handed KPIs set by finance or executive leadership without marketing input. Things like:

• “Reduce lead cost by 30%.”
• “Generate 1,000 MQLs this quarter.”
• “Hit a ROAS of X.”

Are these metrics important? Sometimes. But without context or collaboration, they often miss the bigger picture. They don’t reflect what marketing is capable of impacting. Or worse, they incentivize behavior that looks good on a dashboard but doesn’t move the business forward.

Up to 40% of Fortune 500 companies don’t have a single growth- or customer-related role in their executive committee, per a 2023 McKinsey study. It also found that CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely to have greater than 5% annual growth than their peers.

What happens then? Marketing must execute someone else’s vision and chase targets built without marketing’s input or insights.

This results in teams focused on driving short-term wins instead of long-term business growth. Tactics are optimized to capture current demand instead of balancing them with creating future demand. The results might check a few boxes but won’t drive real growth.

Dig deeper: How shared goals and incentives improve marketing results

A common misalignment

Here’s a scenario we see often: marketing is asked to promote multiple products equally or at least have some budget behind all products. Leadership wants to see marketing dollars spread across the board to every product. It sounds good and balanced, but in practice, it doesn’t always work that way.

Some products just don’t perform as well. Maybe:

• There’s not enough demand. 
• The price point is off. 
• The product-market fit isn’t there yet.
• Or it’s highly competitive. 

Still, marketing is stuck trying to push all of it. Instead of focusing on the products driving efficient growth, the team is stretched thin. The dollars don’t go as far. And when results lag, marketing gets pressure, even though the strategy wasn’t built to win in the first place.

The better approach? Focus marketing efforts on the one or two products that convert efficiently. Let those become the door openers. Then, build systems — sales enablement, CRM automation and lifecycle campaigns — to introduce the rest of the product portfolio after that initial traction. Maybe it’s a month or a year later. But that cross-sell opportunity still exists; it just doesn’t need to happen on the first click.

That is a perfect example of KPI misalignment. Instead of a strategic conversation about how to grow or which products, channels and sequences to use, marketing is handed a checklist and told to make the math work. That’s not a strategy, it’s wishful execution.

It’s a strategic-tactical disconnect. Marketing is held accountable for outcomes requiring cross-functional input and long-term thinking, but told the KPIs after the planning has already happened.

Dig deeper: 5 ways to transition from tactical to strategic marketing

Marketing has to step up, too

This isn’t supposed to be a rant about how marketing is not getting input on strategy. Marketers are part of the problem, too. 

They must effectively translate what we do into business terms. We need to show how brand equity impacts conversion and how paid media strategy can scale revenue and long-term business growth.

We also need to get comfortable having tough conversations. Not confrontational, but in a collaborative, problem-solving mindset focused on ensuring you’re addressing the right issue.

If the direction given is “Hit X ROAS,” it’s fair to ask: 

• “What problem are we solving for? Is short-term channel efficiency going to get us where we need to be? Is there room to lower short-term efficiency, knowing we have tactics to increase LTV? Instead of ROAS being our north star, what if we focused on LTV:CAC ratio because…”

This can earn strategic trust. Help reshape KPIs into something that reflects reality, not just vanity metrics.

The takeaway

If you’re a marketing leader and you’re being handed KPIs that don’t tie to business goals, don’t just start building campaigns. Pause. Ask how those goals were set. Push for clarity.

Marketing is in a great position to spot when the math doesn’t add up or when a target sounds good on paper but won’t hold up in practice. Use that. Share what you’re seeing. Show how you’d reframe the problem. Sometimes, even a slight shift in direction early can save a ton of wasted effort.

The goal here is to align on what moves the business forward. That’s the real seat at the table: not being louder but objective, strategic, and realistic. 

Dig deeper: KPIs that connect — 5 metrics for marketing, sales and product alignment