If you’re a CMO, make friends with the CFO
Many CEOs now asking, ‘why are marketing metrics up, but sales and market share in decline’ – here’s how CMOs can course correct, by Kelsey Robinson
Marketing used to be the growth engine of every company. It championed the customer. It was responsible for everything the customer touched, saw, bought, and felt. But, customer behaviours keep changing. Nearly half (46 per cent) of UK consumers plan to or have already changed their spending habits due to tariffs. Three quarters (73 per cent) are now trading down in their purchases, especially by adjusting quantity or pack size. And before any purchase, customers will visit multiple channels before making that decision.
Brands need to work harder. CEOs responded by appointing new customer custodians. Chief digital officers, chief commercial officers, and chief data officers all fighting to deliver for the customer. But this spread of collective responsibility has led to an unconscious uncoupling of the CMO-CEO relationship. And has left many CEOs now asking, ‘why are marketing metrics up, but sales and market share in decline’.
CEOs believe they get marketing, but CMOs strongly disagree
Part of the problem is that the CEO and CMO no longer speak the same language. The majority of CEOs (64 per cent) believe they’re comfortable with modern marketing. A confidence that has grown from 48 per cent in 2023. Yet, CMOs simply don’t agree. Only 31% believe that CEOs are comfortable with modern marketing, down four percentage points from last year.
This widening gap is significant. One wedge that is making it worse is the way marketing impact is measured and reported. CMOs often report on performance through operational metrics like ROAS (return on advertising spend), CTR (click-through rate), CLV (customer lifetime value), SQLs (sales qualified leads) and CPCs (cost per click). And while these are widely understood across marketing teams, they don’t necessarily mean anything to the CEO or CFO. In short, they aren’t resonating.
It’s growth that matters, not ROAS, CTRs and SQLs
CEOs care primarily about top-line outcomes: year-on-year revenue growth and margin expansion. It’s the heart and soul of what they are measured on. So, it is no surprise that 70 per cent of CEOs want to use those benchmarks to evaluate marketing’s effectiveness -an expectation that is up from 50 per cent. Yet only 35 per cent of CMOs prioritise those same commercial metrics. And there is no momentum in that changing – there has only been a 2 per cent increase in focus over the previous year. This growing disparity has meant that marketing has lost its footing as the company’s growth engine. Only half of CMOs are involved in strategic planning with their CEO.
It’s time to hand back ownership of the customer
The other part of the CMO-CEO divide is down to the fragmentation of the customer journey. When everyone became responsible for the customer, nobody ultimately did. The impact of digital, sales, product and beyond made it even harder to measure the impact of marketing.
The most successful organisations have now realigned their leadership teams by re-centring around the customer. Our analysis of Fortune 500 companies shows that when companies have a single customer or growth-orientated role in an executive committee, they see up to 2.3 times more growth than those with multiple roles.
It is here the CMO is well placed to fill this role. They can leverage deep customer insights, strategic capabilities, and technology (such as genAI and agentic AI) to navigate market challenges and capitalise on new opportunities.
The secret to success?
One of the top secrets to CMO success is to make best friends with the CFO. When marketing metrics are co-owned with finance, they gain legitimacy. And when the CEO sees those metrics tied clearly to revenue and margin, marketing regains influence. Critically, leaders need to align on what gets measured, how it’s measured, and why it matters. Because without shared understanding, there can be no shared accountability.
Kelsey Robinson is senior partner at McKinsey & Company