Short answer
The most useful B2B marketing metrics are the ones tied to specific buyer actions, especially actions you can define as events or key events. Traffic and clicks still matter as context, but by themselves they are weaker revenue signals than a defined business-important action. Source: support.google.com.
What is usually happening
Usually the problem is not that the company has no data; it is that the measurement path stops before the action that really matters to the business. When that happens, the team can see activity without seeing whether a buyer actually moved closer to a commercial next step. Source: support.google.com.
Event, key event, and custom event
| Metric type | What it tells you | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Page loads or clicks Source: support.google.com. | They show that an interaction happened, but they do not by themselves tell you that the action was business-important. Source: support.google.com. | Use them as context, not as the final proof of revenue movement. Source: support.google.com. |
| Events Source: support.google.com. | An event measures a specific interaction or occurrence on a site or app. Source: support.google.com. | Use them for the actions you want to observe and compare. Source: support.google.com. |
| Key events Source: support.google.com. | A key event is an event marked because it matters to business success. Source: support.google.com. | Use them when you want to evaluate marketing performance across channels. Source: support.google.com. |
| Custom events Source: support.google.com. | You define them yourself, and they do not show up in most standard reports. Source: support.google.com. | Use them only when no other event fits and you can support custom reporting or exploration. Source: support.google.com. |
How WAVES handles it
The operating rule is diagnosis before prescription: if you have not identified the bottleneck, you should not assume one metric will settle the decision. That is the practical reason to choose metrics after the path is visible, not before. Source: D3 Digital Media. Source: support.google.com.
Related resource for diagnosis before prescription. Source: D3 Digital Media.
What to do next
- Pick one buyer action that really matters to the business and decide whether it should be an event or a key event. Source: support.google.com.
- Confirm that the event is actually implemented and visible in analytics. Source: support.google.com.
- Keep custom events for cases where standard events do not fit. Source: support.google.com.
- Check whether the surrounding page is original, substantial, and written to help people rather than to manipulate rankings. Source: developers.google.com.
Related resource for a connected lead-generation system. Source: support.google.com. Source: developers.google.com.
Related resource for channel handoffs. Source: support.google.com. Source: developers.google.com.
Illustrative application
Illustration: if someone loads a page, clicks a link, and later completes a purchase, the purchase is the clearest revenue-linked signal in the source set; the earlier actions are useful supporting context. In a B2B setting, the exact action you mark may be different, but the rule is the same: the closer the metric is to the defined business action, the more useful it is. Source: support.google.com.
Practical limits and checks
The limit is that events only help when they are implemented intentionally and reviewed in the reports where you actually work. Custom events can be useful, but the documentation says they do not appear in most standard reports, so you may need custom reports or explorations. The helpful-content guidance is not a revenue formula; it is a quality check for originality, completeness, and usefulness. So the honest boundary is this: the sources support a way to measure useful actions, but they do not prove that any one metric mix predicts revenue in every company. Source: support.google.com. Source: developers.google.com.
Sources
Use the WAVES Kompass to find the bottleneck.
If this question is active inside your company, the next step is diagnosis before prescription.
