Vanity metrics are easy to manipulate. A modest budget can inflate follower counts. A well-timed promotion can spike app installs. A paid influencer push can make engagement skyrocket. But when the campaign ends, the numbers often collapse just as quickly as they rose. Anything that grows dramatically overnight should be treated with suspicion.
Vanity metrics lack context. They don’ t explain why something happened, whether it will happen again, or what it means for the business. They are isolated numbers floating in a vacuum, impressive from afar, but hollow when examined closely.
What makes vanity metrics dangerous is not the metrics themselves but the false confidence they create. They are easy to chase, easy to celebrate, and easy to hide behind. They give leaders the comforting illusion that growth is happening. But as my own experience taught me years ago, that comfort can be fatal. The real problem is that we’ ve built cultures around these conveniences. Cultures where marketers are rewarded for activity, not impact. Where founders chase growth without asking whether that growth is useful. Where internal dashboards become echo chambers that reaffirm decisions instead of challenging them.
In these cultures, vanity metrics thrive. And meaningful metrics- the ones tied to value, loyalty, experience, margin, or consumer emotion- get ignored because they are slower, quieter, and harder to influence. But they are also the ones that tell the real story.
The Problem Isn’ t Data. It’ s The Wrong Data
Sitting with older marketers and reading
books about marketing in the past, you will appreciate one fact: we do not have a shortage of data.
The truth, and it’ s a truth many marketers quietly know but rarely admit, is that we have never had more data at our fingertips as we do now, but still, we have never understood consumers less( we say consumers are complicated).
Over time, marketing has built a cathedral of metrics, dashboards, and algorithms where every click is tracked, every impression is counted, and every action is plotted. But somewhere along the way, we might have lost the plot by confusing data with insight. We confused measurement with meaning and reporting with strategy.
I think being a fully qualified accountant probably helped sharpen this instinct in me. I look at numbers differently. I’ m trained to follow value, to connect metrics to actual business outcomes, to understand how every coin spent or earned finds its way into the bottom line. And because of that, it has always baffled me how many marketing teams obsess over growth that doesn’ t grow anything, dashboards that dazzle but don’ t deliver, and KPIs that reward motion instead of progress.
Especially marketing agencies. Have you seen their pitches and reports?
The thing about vanity metrics is that they are relative, and anyone could actually be tracking them. It’ s not like they don’ t show up wearing a label. In fact, they’ re often the neatest numbers in the room. They rise smoothly. They spike spectacularly. They make you feel like you’ re in control- like something meaningful is happening.
Vanity metrics are the easiest numbers to
The term“ vanity metrics” was popularised by Eric Ries in The Lean Startup, where he describes them as“ measurements that give the illusion of progress but don’ t reflect meaningful, actionable insights.” In other words, they make you feel good without making you any smarter. They are the numbers you point to when you want to appear successful, not when you want to understand what is actually happening. generate and the easiest to misinterpret. They seduce you because they’ re loud and not because they’ re right.
And that’ s where so many otherwise good marketers, smart founders, even entire corporations get it wrong. They don’ t fail because they lack data. They fail because they follow the wrong data with religious devotion. We have been taught that data-driven decision-making is the gold standard, and it is. But only when the data points in the right direction. Because if your compass is broken, it doesn’ t matter how diligently you follow it. You’ re still lost.
Let’ s look at a few examples.
Take the example of a digital lending app. Every time a new loan app launches, the early numbers are spectacular. Thousands of installs. A flood of first-time loans. A dashboard glowing with activity. These metrics matter, but probably not so sustainable until you start asking about repeat borrowers, repayment reliability, uninstall rates, and complaints logged( have you ever received those debt collector SMSs that threaten your entire lineage? That’ s desperation). The same dashboard that looked so triumphant hides the uncomfortable truth that many users jumped in because the first loan was free or nearly free. The moment terms tightened, they vanished. What looked like traction was nothing more than opportunistic sampling.
Or a ride-hailing app. Drop prices by 50 % or offer a week of discounted rides, and the whole of Nairobi will flock to your platform. Trips double. New users pour in. Drivers stay busy. And for a moment, the campaign feels brilliant. But turn off the promotion, and the party ends abruptly. Riders go to the next best deal or their default app, loyal to nothing but price. The KPI that made the team look exceptional on Friday becomes irrelevant by Tuesday.
The same thing happens every November and December in e-commerce. Black Friday numbers jump out like fireworks. Traffic surges. Carts fill. Orders flood in. Leadership smiles knowingly.“ This,” they say,“ is what great marketing looks like.” I have worked in e-commerce, and the marketing department loves this time of the year because the KPIs are so easy to beat due to the discounts and the implied culture that has been built around this season- pageviews skyrocket, and even the better metric, sales, go up exponentially. And yet, January tells a completely different story. Many of