Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the most important metrics for marketers. Today, we can track numerous metrics across multiple platforms, from organic traffic and landing page conversion rates to sales revenue and cost per lead.

Here’s why you should always identify specific KPIs prior to starting any marketing campaign and align your efforts accordingly.

1. KPIs create a clear definition of success.

It’s imperative to be able to align the success of your upcoming campaign with your marketing objectives. This removes the need for guesswork, providing clarity around the type of campaign you should craft. It also empowers you, the marketer, to communicate performance to your internal stakeholders in a compelling way. By aligning your marketing objectives with specific KPIs in the beginning, you can also identify any existing data gaps — gaps that could potentially prevent you from reporting on performance or answering tough questions down the road.

2. KPIs streamline marketing strategies and measurement tools.

With specific KPIs in hand, you can assemble your marketing campaign more effectively. For example, if your paid media team understands that website conversions are the primary goal, they can provide media recommendations to reach the right audiences. This media plan can be translated into compelling content, messaging, visuals and digital platforms that encourage users to take the desired action.

At the same time, an established set of KPIs will allow you to identify and implement measurement tools before the campaign launches, ensuring you will be able to tell a distinct story about the campaign’s success (or opportunities for improvement).

3. KPIs optimize marketing campaigns to deliver better performing work.

Without KPIs, base vanity metrics such as impressions and clicks fail as proxies for campaign effectiveness. However, if you know your KPIs and have the right tools in place to measure them, you’ll benefit from a clear perspective that allows you to optimize the marketing campaign.

For example, if you understand that lead generation is your primary objective, you can determine the efficacy of your tactics in achieving that objective. You can evaluate the role tactics, messaging and visuals play in generating the leads. And, you can pivot more quickly as the campaign moves forward in order to optimize its effectiveness. Finally, KPIs will give you the precision you need to define success and share it with stakeholders.

Having KPIs to guide marketing efforts from the point of inception boosts your ability to achieve or surpass your campaign objectives, paying huge dividends for your stakeholders and making them — and you — look smarter in the process.