It’s Time to Breakup with Your Old KPIs

For years, marketers have been chasing the same metrics; clicks, impressions, open rates. But in 2025, those numbers tell only part of the story. They measure activity, not impact.

As discussed in the recent Touchpoint Podcast episode, “From Personas to Precision,” featuring Tim Duer, VP of Data Analytics & Strategy at Causeway Solutions, alongside Chris Boyer and Reed Smith, healthcare marketing (and frankly, all marketing) is undergoing a much-needed evolution. It’s time to redefine success metrics.

The problem with legacy KPIs

Clicks don’t mean conversions and impressions don’t mean engagement.

As Chris Boyer put it: “We’ve got to move away from click-through rates. That’s not really what it’s about.” The old tried and true metrics like click-through rate (CTR), impressions, cost-per-click (CPC) are easy to measure but fail to connect to what actually drives business growth: action and value.

The reality? You could generate thousands of clicks, but if those clicks don’t lead to meaningful results like appointment requests, newsletter subscriptions, or qualified leads the metric is empty.

Marketers must rethink how they define success. It’s no longer about how many people see your message. It’s about who is taking the next step.

From Eyeballs to Action

Reed Smith captured the modern mindset shift: “It’s not really about how many eyeballs can we get. It’s about the people who are actually likely to take action.”

The industry is moving away from broad exposure and toward behavioral precision through identifying and engaging people based on their likelihood to act, not just who they are demographically.

That shift demands a new measurement approach:

Old KPIs (and what to move away from):

• Impressions: Measure visibility, but don’t show relevance or intent.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Tracks clicks, but fails to connect to real outcomes.

• Cost Per Click (CPC): Gauges ad spend efficiency, yet ignores engagement quality.

• Follower Count: Reflects awareness, but doesn’t predict loyalty or conversion.

New KPIs (what to measure instead):

• Conversion Quality: Looks at the depth and intent behind actions. A true indicator of engagement.

• Cost per Acquired Patient or Lead: Ties efficiency directly to results, connecting marketing to ROI.

• Lifetime Value: Focuses on long-term impact and retention, not just reach.

• Engagement Quality: Tracks time on page, repeat visits, and meaningful interactions, showing real resonance with your audience.

In other words, it’s time to stop counting clicks and start measuring commitment quality, results, action…

Precision Over Persona

Tim Duer emphasized that while traditional personas were once useful, they can now limit marketing effectiveness. “Demographics are just the starting point. The real question is why people act.”

By leveraging behavioral modeling and predictive analytics, marketers can move from “people who look like our audience” to “people who act like our audience.”

This precision-based approach allows organizations to:

• Predict who is most likely to take a desired action

• Tailor creative messages to individual motivations (quality, convenience, empathy, etc.)

• Allocate budgets toward channels and audiences that truly convert

• When measurement aligns with behavior, marketers gain more than metrics…they gain momentum.

The Data-Driven Future of Measurement

Behavioral and predictive analytics, powered by AI, now allow marketers to model audience motivations with unprecedented precision. These models can predict who will respond, how they’ll respond, and why.

When you can connect a campaign to actual outcomes (appointments booked, calls made, forms submitted), your marketing data stops being descriptive and starts being decisive. That doesn’t just improve efficiency, it transforms accountability.

The Takeaway

The marketing world doesn’t need more dashboards. It needs better ones.

Clicks, impressions, and likes are remnants of an old era, when exposure equaled effectiveness. Today, precision marketing demands metrics that reflect impact, trust, and conversion quality. As Duer summarized on the podcast: “It’s not about who might show up. It’s about who’s ready to act.”

Now’s the time to build a relationship with the metrics that really matter.

Listen to the full episode:

TouchPoint Podcast — “From Personas to Precision” featuring Tim Duer, VP of Data Analytics & Strategy at Causeway Solutions.