Senior marketers are searching for new ways to measure marketing performance and build credibility within their organizations, according to new research. One new Forrester Research study involving 280 executives from an array of industries found that their greatest challenge this year is "measuring marketing effectiveness or ROI." Yet another study from the CMO Council, a new association of technology marketers, found that companies are spending billions on marketing, yet are failing to measure its impact.

The CMO Council's report found that more than 80 percent of the respondents do not have formal marketing performance measurement (MPM) systems in place, despite spending as much as 25 percent of their revenue on marketing. In addition, almost 80 percent of the 315 senior marketing executives polled were dissatisfied with their ability to demonstrate their marketing programs' business impact and value.

The study found that "nearly 90 percent of respondents believe measuring marketing performance is a key priority for today's technology companies -- the larger the company, the higher the priority. Growing boardroom pressures on marketing departments to justify and account for their spending, as well as more critical and demanding corporate performance environments, heightens this priority."

Further, the study found that companies that have formal performance measurement systems "consistently achieved a higher level of CEO confidence in the marketing function." Nevertheless, 70% of respondents said they spend less than two percent of their marketing budget on marketing performance measurement. Marketers are most capable of measuring direct mail and e-mail campaigns, web site and Internet search engine presence and telemarketing and contact management programs. However, they are least capable of measuring advertising, sales and marketing collateral, and branding.

Finally, the study pointed to several weaknesses in MPM analytics. Among them: performance tracking for individual countries; automated report generation across all functions; information "drill-downs" on individual programs; competitive benchmarking; and executive dashboards of key performance indicators.