If you’ve ever stared at a pile of Techtarget campaign reports and wondered, “Now what?”, you’re not alone. This guide is for marketers, demand gen folks, and sales ops pros who want to turn Techtarget data into something more useful than a slide in a quarterly business review. Here’s how to cut through the fluff and actually get somewhere.
Step 1: Get Your Data House in Order
Before you can analyze anything, you need all your data in one place—and it needs to make sense.
- Download everything: Grab your reports from Techtarget: campaign summary, lead lists, engagement reports. Don’t just rely on dashboards—get the raw files.
- Standardize fields: Techtarget’s data isn’t always a perfect match for your CRM. Make sure things like company names, contact info, campaign names, and dates line up with your internal systems.
- Clean up duplicates: You’ll get duplicate leads across campaigns. De-dupe them before you do any counting, or your numbers will be useless.
- Import into your tool of choice: Excel, Google Sheets, or a BI tool. Whatever you’ll actually use.
Pro tip: If your marketing ops person looks annoyed when you ask for this, it’s because this step is always messier than it should be.
Step 2: Cut Through Vanity Metrics
Techtarget loves to show off big numbers: “Impressions!” “Leads!” “Clicks!” Most of these don’t matter if you can’t tie them to actual business.
Here’s what you can safely ignore or downplay:
- Impressions: These are just how many times your content was technically “shown.” Not all impressions are equal, and some are flat-out junk.
- Clicks: Slightly better, but lots of clicks are accidental or bots.
- Raw lead counts: If you’re just counting every line in the CSV, you’re probably inflating your results.
Instead, focus on:
- Unique, qualified leads: After de-duping, how many net new, relevant contacts did you get?
- Engaged accounts: Not just one person clicking, but multiple contacts from the same company showing real interest.
- Down-funnel conversion: Did any of these leads actually become MQLs, opportunities, or (gasp) closed deals?
Step 3: Map Leads to Your Funnel
Don’t take Techtarget’s word for “qualified.” Build your own definition.
- Match to your CRM: Import leads and see if they’re really new, already in your system, or old contacts resurfacing.
- Firmographic fit: Are these companies even in your target market? Filter by industry, company size, region, etc.
- Job titles and roles: Are you getting decision-makers, or just people who downloaded a whitepaper on their lunch break?
- Behavioral scoring: If you’re fancy, use behavioral data (multiple interactions, high-value content views) to prioritize.
What to ignore: “Intent” scores that aren’t transparent. If Techtarget can’t tell you exactly how they score intent, don’t bet the farm on it.
Step 4: Look for Patterns, Not One-Offs
One lead doesn’t tell you much. Look for trends across your campaigns.
- Which content performed best? Did certain assets (like webinars or detailed guides) get more high-quality engagement?
- Are you seeing the same companies pop up in multiple campaigns? That’s a buying signal worth flagging for sales.
- Timing: Are certain months or quarters better for engagement? (Spoiler: summer is usually slow for B2B.)
- Lead sources: Did you run a banner ad, email blast, or content syndication? Which channel actually drove real leads?
Pro tip: If nothing stands out, don’t panic. Sometimes the data just shows that generic content gets generic results.
Step 5: Connect the Dots with Sales
The best insights come from talking to the people actually working the leads. Don’t treat Techtarget data like it’s gospel until you hear from sales.
- Share short, focused lists: Don’t dump 500 leads on your reps. Give them the 10-20 you think are hot, with why you think so.
- Ask for feedback: Did these contacts answer the phone? Were they aware of your brand? Did they have budget or authority?
- Track handoff outcomes: How many leads progressed to meetings, pipeline, or closed-won? That’s your real performance metric.
What NOT to do: Don’t just forward the Techtarget lead dump and call it a day. That’s how you get ignored (or worse, lose trust).
Step 6: Calculate ROI — But Keep It Honest
Let’s be real: tying revenue directly to a single Techtarget campaign is tough, especially for long B2B sales cycles. But you should still do your best.
- Cost per net-new qualified lead: After cleaning and filtering, divide your spend by the number of good leads.
- Pipeline influenced: How much pipeline can you reasonably attribute to these leads? (Be honest. If three vendors touched the same account, split the credit.)
- Closed deals: Did any of these leads close? Even one deal can make a campaign worth it, if your deal sizes are big enough.
Red flag: If you’re only seeing activity at the top of the funnel and nothing ever progresses, it’s a warning to change something up.
Step 7: Iterate, Don’t “Set and Forget”
Techtarget campaigns aren’t fire-and-forget. If you don’t learn and adjust, you’re just buying names off a list.
- Double down on what works: If a certain industry, content type, or segment delivers, focus your next campaign there.
- Drop what doesn’t: If a channel or asset flops, don’t waste more money “for coverage.” Cut it.
- Test new approaches: Try different offers, creative, or follow-up tactics. Don’t get stuck in a rut.
Pro tip: Document what you tried and what happened. It’ll save you from repeating mistakes (yours or someone else’s).
What Actually Matters (And What Doesn’t)
Let’s recap what’s worth your time:
Focus on: - Unique, qualified leads (not just raw numbers) - Real engagement from target accounts - Actual sales outcomes (meetings, pipeline, deals) - Trends and patterns, not one-off outliers
Don’t stress about: - “Impressions” or click numbers with no context - High lead counts with low quality - Vague intent scores or mystery data points
Keep It Simple, Keep It Moving
Don’t overcomplicate your Techtarget analysis. Clean your data, focus on what matters for your business, and talk to sales early and often. Most importantly, treat every campaign as an experiment—learn, tweak, and try again. That’s how you turn “insights” into actual results (and maybe even a little less reporting pain next quarter).