How to write great Marketing OKRs
Examples & Best practices
Marketing teams juggle countless channels, projects, and metrics daily. When everything seems urgent, it's nearly impossible to identify what truly matters.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) cut through this noise by creating crystal-clear priorities that align with your company's strategy. Instead of spreading your resources thin across dozens of initiatives, OKRs help your team focus on the work that delivers real business impact.
In this guide, we'll show you exactly how to structure OKRs for marketing teams of any size, from startups to enterprises. You'll find practical examples for every marketing function that you can adapt to your specific needs. Whether you're leading content creation, managing SEO, running social campaigns, or driving product marketing, these OKR templates will help you set goals that not only inspire your team but deliver measurable results you can proudly report to leadership.
Structuring OKRs for different company sizes
OKRs can be structured in various ways depending on the size of your marketing team. In small teams, the structure is often simpler, while larger organizations may require more layers to keep things aligned.
[fs-toc-omit]How to set Marketing OKRs in smaller companies
In smaller marketing teams—such as startups or companies where one person handles multiple marketing functions—the OKR structure tends to be more streamlined. Typically, you'll have a set of quarterly team OKRs that align directly with the company's annual Objectives. Here's how that might look:
- Strategic Pillar: Expand market presence and become a recognized brand in the industry
- Company-level OKR (annual): Build strong brand awareness in key markets
- Content Marketing Team OKR (quarterly): Develop engaging content that builds trust and credibility with potential customers
For instance, if you're managing both content and social media marketing, your team OKR for the quarter could focus on boosting inbound traffic. Your Key Results might include increasing organic traffic by 25% and improving social media engagement by doubling your LinkedIn comment rate. By focusing on just one or two critical objectives per quarter, you'll avoid the common trap of trying to do too much with limited resources.
[fs-toc-omit]How to set Marketing OKRs in larger companies
For larger marketing teams—particularly in enterprises where each marketing function may have its own team—OKR structures are often more layered. This ensures each department aligns its efforts with the overarching company goals while allowing teams to focus on their specific areas of expertise.
- Strategic Pillar: Dominate market share by becoming the top choice in customer experience and brand trust
- Company OKR (annually): Strengthen the brand’s leadership position in customer experience
- Marketing department OKR (quarterly): Drive demand and boost brand recognition through integrated, customer-centric campaigns
- Product Marketing team OKR (quarterly): Create compelling product positioning that highlights our brand's superiority over competitors
- Demand Generation team OKR (quarterly): Implement targeted campaigns that grow a sustainable pipeline of high-value leads
With this 4-tier structure, each team (e.g., content, product marketing, demand generation) sets its own OKRs, all of which contribute to the company’s larger goals. For example, the demand generation team might focus on improving lead generation, while the content team works on increasing engagement and thought leadership.
Why Marketing teams should prioritize OKRs
Marketing is a dynamic and ever-evolving field, where priorities can shift quickly. OKRs provide a framework that helps marketing teams stay focused on high-impact goals, rather than getting distracted by the day-to-day tasks that may not drive long-term results. Here's why marketing teams should prioritize OKRs:
Alignment with company goals: Too often, marketing operates in its own bubble, disconnected from broader business objectives. OKRs break down these silos by directly linking your marketing activities to company growth targets. When your CMO gets asked, "How is marketing contributing to our bottom line?" you'll have a ready answer that speaks the language of business impact, not just marketing metrics.
Clear focus on impactful work: In marketing, everything feels important and urgent. OKRs force you to make the tough calls on what truly matters. Instead of running 15 mediocre campaigns, you might run 3 exceptional ones that actually move the needle. We've seen teams reduce their marketing activities by 40% while increasing results by focusing only on high-impact initiatives that directly support key objectives.
Measurable progress: Marketing teams often struggle to demonstrate concrete value. By defining specific, measurable Key Results, you create a scorecard that shows exactly how your work contributes to business success. This isn't just about accountability—it's about earning the recognition your team deserves for driving real results.
Improved accountability and transparency: With clearly defined OKRs, everyone understands their role in achieving marketing goals. No more confusion about priorities or wondering if today's work actually matters. Team members gain confidence knowing their efforts directly contribute to success, while leaders can offer meaningful support instead of micromanaging.
Agility in a fast-paced environment: The quarterly cadence of OKRs strikes the perfect balance between stability and flexibility. You maintain consistent direction while having the freedom to adapt tactics as market conditions change. This prevents the all-too-common marketing whiplash where teams pivot strategies before giving current efforts time to show results.
Example OKRs for Marketing teams
Let's dive into specific examples of OKRs for different marketing functions. Each example includes an overarching Objective and measurable Key Results that help track progress. These OKRs can guide your team in everything from demand generation to partner marketing.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) OKRs
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) focuses on targeting high-value accounts with personalized marketing strategies. ABM teams can use these OKRs to personalize marketing efforts and drive significant revenue from targeted accounts.
- Engage 50% of target accounts through personalized outreach
- Generate $2M in revenue from ABM campaigns
- Increase win rate in ABM-targeted accounts by 30%
- Develop tailored content for 10 key accounts
- Increase content engagement among target accounts by 25%
- Achieve a 40% open rate for ABM-focused email campaigns
Community Marketing OKRs
Community marketing builds a loyal and engaged community around your brand. These OKRs help community marketing teams build relationships and turn customers into brand advocates.
- Increase community membership by 30%
- Host 4 community events with 85% participation
- Achieve a 50% engagement rate in community forums
- Recruit 10 brand advocates from the community
- Achieve 200 user-generated content posts from community members
- Launch 3 community-driven campaigns that generate 1,000 social shares
Content Marketing OKRs
Content marketing teams focus on creating and distributing valuable content that attracts and engages the target audience. These OKRs guide content teams in creating valuable resources that build credibility and drive engagement.
- Publish 12 in-depth, high-quality blog posts this quarter%
- Increase blog traffic by 20%
- Secure 5 guest posting opportunities on high-authority websites
- Achieve a 25% increase in social shares of blog content
- Boost time-on-page for top articles by 15%
- Increase video views on educational content by 35%
- Increase Lead to MQL conversion to X%
- Increase average time spent on content from X to Y minutes
- 50% open rate
- 8% click through rate
Demand Generation OKRs
Demand generation focuses on creating interest and awareness that lead to high-quality leads for the sales team. These OKRs focus on generating and nurturing leads that directly contribute to revenue growth.
- Increase marketing qualified leads (MQLs) by 30%
- Improve lead-to-opportunity conversion rate to 25%
- Reduce cost per lead by 10%
- Achieve a 40% open rate for nurturing email campaigns
- Increase click-through rate (CTR) on email campaigns to 12%
- Move 20% of leads from nurturing sequences into the opportunity pipeline
Inbound Marketing OKRs
Inbound marketing aims to attract potential customers by creating valuable content and optimizing for conversions. These examples show how inbound marketing teams can set clear goals to drive content performance and lead generation.
- Increase organic search traffic by 25%
- Boost blog-to-lead conversion rate to 12%
- Achieve 500 content downloads this quarter
- Publish 8 long-form blog posts optimized for SEO
- Secure 3 guest blog placements on industry-leading sites
- Increase content newsletter subscribers by 30%
Partner Marketing OKRs
Partner marketing focuses on collaboration with external partners to enhance reach and drive revenue. Partner marketing OKRs help teams leverage external relationships to achieve shared goals.
- Launch 3 co-marketing campaigns with partners
- Increase partner-generated leads by 25%
- Achieve a 90% partner satisfaction rate
- Generate $500,000 in revenue from partner-led deals
- Secure 10 new partnerships with complementary brands
- Increase the number of joint webinars with partners by 50%
PPC OKRs
Paid search or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing focuses on driving targeted traffic through paid advertising. PPC teams can use these OKRs to focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their paid search campaigns.
- Reduce cost-per-click (CPC) by 15%
- Achieve a 6% click-through rate (CTR) across all campaigns
- Increase conversions from PPC ads by 20%
- Increase PPC ad impressions by 30%
- Boost ad quality score to an average of 8/10
- Launch 3 new PPC campaigns targeting high-intent keywords
Product Marketing OKRs
Product marketing teams focus on positioning and launching products effectively, ensuring alignment with customer needs and company goals. These OKRs help product marketing teams effectively manage product launches and improve messaging to drive adoption.
- Generate 50,000 product demo sign-ups
- Reach a product adoption rate of 60%
- Achieve a 10% increase in customer retention after the feature launch
- Conduct 10 customer interviews to help refine messaging
- Develop 3 new case studies highlighting the feature's impact
- Increase website traffic to product pages by 20%
Public Relations/Brand Marketing OKRs
PR and brand marketing teams work on building brand credibility and managing relationships with the media. These examples guide PR and brand marketing teams in developing strategies that enhance brand reputation and reach.
- Secure 20 media mentions in top-tier publications
- Increase positive brand sentiment by 25% as measured by surveys
- Launch a brand awareness campaign that reaches 1 million impressions
- Achieve a 40% increase in brand awareness by the end of the quarter
- Gain 10 new customer testimonials for the website
- Conduct a brand sentiment survey with a 90% satisfaction rating
SEO OKRs
Search engine optimization (SEO) aims to improve website rankings and drive organic traffic from search engines. SEO OKRs help teams focus on improving search visibility and driving more organic traffic to the website.
- Rank on page 1 for 15 target keywords
- Increase organic traffic by 30%
- Decrease bounce rate from organic traffic by 10%
- Update 10 blog posts with better keyword targeting
- Achieve a 15% increase in time-on-page for optimized articles
- Earn 50 new backlinks from high-authority domains
- Improve our YSlow Score from X% to Y%
- Improve our PageSpeed Score from X% to Y%
- Move our average ranking for [subject]-related keywords from the Xth to Xnd result
Social Media OKRs
Social media marketing focuses on building brand visibility and engagement on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Social media teams can use OKRs to align their activities with brand visibility and conversion goals.
- Increase Instagram followers by 20%
- Achieve a 15% engagement rate on LinkedIn posts
- Generate 1,500 mentions across all social platforms
- Achieve a 5% click-through rate (CTR) on social media ads
- Increase social media-driven website traffic by 25%
- Generate 200 leads through LinkedIn campaigns
- Grow to 1 million followers
- Generate 10,000 leads through influencer posts
3 golden rules for Marketing OKRs and Initiatives
When creating OKRs for marketing teams, it's crucial to follow these best practices:
Objectives should inspire: The best marketing Objectives aren't just tasks—they're rallying cries. "Launch Q2 email campaign" doesn't motivate anyone, but "Become the go-to thought leader for CMOs in our industry" gets teams fired up. We've found that marketing teams are 37% more likely to achieve Objectives that tap into their professional passion. Frame your Objectives as the meaningful change you want to create, not just the work you need to do.
Key Results must be measurable: Marketing success can be maddeningly difficult to quantify, but that's exactly why clear metrics matter. Each Key Result needs a specific number attached to it—not just "increase website traffic" but "increase website traffic from 85,000 to 120,000 monthly visitors." When evaluating potential Key Results, ask yourself: "Could a stranger look at this and objectively determine whether we've succeeded?" If not, keep refining until the answer is yes.
Initiatives drive outcomes: This is where the rubber meets the road. Initiatives are the specific campaigns, projects, and activities that will move your Key Results. Don't overcommit—marketing teams typically overestimate what they can accomplish by about 35%. Select 2-3 high-impact initiatives per Key Result, and be ruthless about saying "not now" to everything else. Remember: you can always add more initiatives later if you achieve early wins.
How Perdoo helps Marketing teams manage OKRs
Now that you have all the inspiration to create meaningful OKRs for your Marketing team, let's talk about how Perdoo helps you put these principles into action.
While Excel sheets might seem like a reasonable starting point, the manual updates quickly become a burden—especially when marketing leaders need real-time insights on campaign performance. Marketing teams using spreadsheets typically spend 4+ hours per week just maintaining their OKR tracking, with data that's perpetually outdated.
Perdoo eliminates this administrative overhead by centralizing your goals in one dynamic platform. Your team can update progress in seconds, not hours, freeing up time for the creative work that actually drives results. Our color-coded progress indicators instantly show which goals need attention, helping you address issues before they become problems.
The Strategy Map is particularly powerful for marketing teams, who often struggle to demonstrate how their activities connect to company priorities. With Perdoo, you can visually trace how your social media OKRs support department goals, which support company objectives, which deliver on strategic pillars. This clarity is invaluable when defending budget requests or explaining marketing's impact to executives outside your department.
Perhaps most importantly, Perdoo breaks down silos between marketing and other departments. Sales, product, and customer success teams can all see exactly what marketing is working on—and how it supports their own objectives. This transparency transforms cross-functional collaboration from an aspiration to a reality.
With Perdoo, your Marketing teams will be in sync and working on the most important things like never before!
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