Marketing Manager Goals: A step-by-step guide to setting clear performance objectives

One of the biggest challenges for a small to mid-size startup is scaling. Up until now, you've been in charge of everything. Wearing many hats, managing various functions and divisions in your team, and being hands-on with (just about) everything.

You've seen great success in this DIY method. But as your business achieves greater and greater milestones, your ambition for the business will grow as well. With your growing ambition, you'll need more hands on deck to get there. You can't do everything forever; you need more 'yous'.

But growing your team can present huge risks as well as great reward. Adding an entire salary to your payroll with send that burn-rate through the roof, so understanding that ROI and mitigating risks while growing rapidly is crucial.

It's not easy to calculate these risks, so take time to really think about your growth strategy. Before starting your hiring process, it's important to set some good clear goals for your company and what you want your next hires to help you achieve.

Today, we're going to talk about how to properly set performance goals for your marketing managers setting them, and you as a leader, up for success as you scale your team.

Start with the goals

You may think that step 1 would be to hire someone, but it's actually setting the goals and job expectations. These goals can help you define your JD and understand what kind of person you're looking for.

Why setting performance goals for your Marketing Manager is important

By setting clear goals and expectations for any new hire you have, you can ensure that:

1. You are hiring based on your company needs. The goals you decide for them and their job align with what we need as a company right now.
2. The person we hire has a clear path to success, and as a leader, you also have a baseline to measure the efficiency of your hire.

Align with company-level objectives

Before discussing your Marketing manager's goals, you need to understand your company's goals. You will likely already have some version of this, such as OKR goals or KPIs you track regularly.

Understanding how your new Marketing hire will be an extension of that is key to this process. Your company goals should reflect both what you're doing now and  how they can contribute to it.

Ask yourself:

• What are our key Marketing success metrics? Do we value on Direct Outreach, Event Marketing or maybe Social Media?
• What are some things are proving to be successful but we need help to accelerate?
• What are some things that I'm doing that someone could be doing full time?

In a small startup, the new hire's goals will likely align with something you're already doing and have proven to be successful. Whether it's someone to watch social media or paid ads, it's usually something you've already done a bit of yourself and just need someone full time to take over to let you focus on other parts of the business.

Once you have an understanding of what your team's goals are, and where your new hire will fit in, you can get started on writing some good SMART goals for them.

How to write SMART performance goals for your Marketing Manager

SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) are the gold standard for goal-setting. Here's how to apply this framework:

1. Specific: Clearly define what the goal aims to achieve.
2. Measurable: Use metrics to track progress.
3. Achievable: Ensure the goal is realistic.
4. Relevant: Tie the goal to larger business objectives.
5. Time-bound: Set a clear deadline.

Examples of SMART Goals with Metrics:

• "Increase monthly organic traffic by 15% within six months by optimising blog posts for trending keywords and improving internal linking."
• "Generate 500 qualified leads by the end of Q3 through targeted LinkedIn ads, with a cost per lead below $50."
• "Boost conversion rates on the pricing page by 10% in three months through A/B testing new call-to-action buttons."

Writing your goals for your new Marketing manager hire in this way will give them clarity on what to do and what success looks like. It will also give you a baseline to measure whether or not things are moving in a positive direction.

How to track SMART goals with your Marketing Manager goals

You'll need some sort of timeline for success. Usually every new hire gets, at least, a 30, 60, and a 90-day plan. These plans will include the goals that you set for them, as well as tasks and milestones you want them to hit. It's very likely that most of the 30-day plan will revolve around on-boarding and getting situated with your business and necessary knowledge, but as they progress their work will more and more become serious parts of your business. By the time you hit your 90-days, you should really be seeing some signs of success.

You can pair these plans and goals with a monthly review of their progress, but you should also check-in weekly. A weekly check-in let's you calibrate as you go. You'll likely be interacting more on a daily basis with your employees, but having that one weekly meeting on the calendar gives you both a designated time to focus and talk about progress.

Nowadays, it's common for companies to use tools like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) as an organised way to maintain focus and accountability around their goals. OKRs ensure that your goals are part of your weekly workflow and that the work you do remains focused and aligned with the company's vision and mission. Having your new hire's goals be part of the company's OKRs is recommended, as it integrates them in with the entire team's efforts and helps them to understand other aspects of the business as well.

Now, whether the new hire is failing or succeeding overall in the company is up to you, but the goals can help you get a heartbeat on the situation.

Example performance goals for marketing managers

Now that we know what a good set of goals should look like, let's review some examples.

A marketing manager is a very general role, and you likely work with a specific type of manager. If you are working with a more general or head of marketing type role, pick and choose from the examples and create your own goals that align with the company's goals.

The types of marketing managers we will be talking about:

1. Content Marketing Manager
2. Growth Marketing Manager
3. Social Media Marketing Manager
4. Product Marketing Manager
5. Brand Marketing Manager
6. Performance Marketing Manager
7. Email Marketing Manager
8. Event Marketing Manager

1. Content Marketing Manager

The main focus of a Content Marketing Manager is creating and managing content strategies to drive traffic, engagement, and leads.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop blog, video, and social media content calendars.
• Collaborate with writers, designers, and video producers to create engaging content.
• Track content performance using metrics like organic traffic, engagement rates, and shares.
• Optimise content for SEO and audience targeting.

Example of SMART performance goals for a Content Marketing Manager:

• Goal 1: Publish 12 high-quality blog posts optimised for SEO within the next quarter.
• Goal 2: Increase organic traffic to the blog by 25% within 3 months.
• Goal 3: Achieve an average time-on-page of 3 minutes for new blog posts.
• Goal 4: Generate 500 new leads from gated content downloads in the next quarter.

2. Growth Marketing Manager

The Growth Marketing Manager drives user acquisition, retention, and growth through experiments and data-driven strategies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and execute A/B tests for landing pages and marketing campaigns.
• Implement performance marketing campaigns (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook Ads).
• Analyse and optimise conversion funnels.
• Identify and execute growth opportunities across paid and organic channels.

Example SMART performance goals for a Growth Marketing Manager:

• Goal 1: Increase website conversion rates from 2% to 3% within 6 months.
• Goal 2: Launch and evaluate 5 growth experiments per month, with at least 2 achieving a 10% improvement in key metrics.
• Goal 3: Reduce CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) by 20% in Q1.
• Goal 4: Drive a 15% increase in active user retention within 3 months.

3. Social Media Marketing Manager

Focus: Building and managing the company's presence across social media platforms.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement social media strategies.
• Create and schedule engaging posts, videos, and stories.
• Monitor and respond to comments and messages to foster community engagement.
• Analyse social media metrics to optimise campaigns.

Example OKRs for a Social Media Marketing Manager:

‍

Goal 1: Build an engaged online community and boost brand visibility.‍

KR1: Increase Instagram and LinkedIn follower count by 20% in the next quarter.‍

KR2: Achieve an average engagement rate of 5% across all social media platforms by the end of the quarter.‍

KR3: Generate 1,000 leads through social media campaigns in Q1.‍

KR4: Launch 2 successful influencer campaigns that achieve a reach of 50,000+ each.

4. Product Marketing Manager

Focus: Positioning and promoting a product to increase adoption and sales.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop product messaging and value propositions.
• Collaborate with sales and product teams to ensure alignment.
• Conduct competitor analysis and market research.
• Plan and execute product launches and go-to-market strategies.

Example OKRs for a Product Marketing Manager:

Objective: Drive adoption of the product by improving positioning and launch success.

KR1: Conduct 10 customer interviews to refine product messaging by the end of the quarter.

KR2: Develop and roll out a product go-to-market strategy that results in 15% growth in signups post-launch.

KR3: Increase awareness of new features, achieving 500 downloads or upgrades within 1 month of release.

KR4: Create 3 sales enablement tools (e.g., one-pagers, pitch decks) to support the sales team.

5. Brand Marketing Manager

The Brand Marketing Manager is there to guide the building and strengthening of the company's brand identity and reputation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversee branding initiatives across all touchpoints (website, ads, packaging, etc.).
• Manage campaigns that enhance brand awareness and loyalty.
• Ensure consistency in brand tone, voice, and visual identity.
• Track brand health metrics, such as awareness and sentiment.

Example OKRs for a Brand Marketing Manager:

Objective: Strengthen brand awareness and perception across key markets.

KR1: Improve brand awareness score by 15% in surveys conducted within 6 months.

KR2: Secure 5 earned media placements in high-impact publications within Q1.

KR3: Launch a rebranding campaign that achieves a 20% lift in brand recall among target customers.

KR4: Achieve a 90% consistency score for brand assets across all marketing materials by the end of the quarter.

6. Performance Marketing Manager

The Performance Marketing Manager is responsible for managing and optimising paid marketing campaigns to maximise ROI.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversee ad campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Optimise for key metrics like CPL (Cost Per Lead) and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).
• Perform keyword research and manage ad budgets.
• Use analytics to refine campaigns and identify opportunities.

Example OKRs for a Performance Marketing Manager:

Objective: Maximize ROI from paid marketing campaigns across channels.

KR1: Reduce CPL (Cost Per Lead) by 15% across Google and Facebook campaigns by the end of Q1.

KR2: Achieve an average ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) of 3.5x for all paid campaigns.

KR3: Increase conversion rates for paid ad landing pages by 20% in Q1.

KR4: Generate 1,000 qualified leads from paid marketing efforts within 3 months.

7. Email Marketing Manager

Focus: Driving engagement and revenue through email campaigns.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and manage email lists and segmentation strategies.
• Create and execute email campaigns for nurturing, promotions, and announcements.
• Analyse open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
• Optimise email copy, design, and CTAs for better performance.

Example OKRs for an Email Marketing Manager:

Objective: Drive engagement and revenue through targeted email campaigns.

KR1: Increase email open rates from 20% to 25% within 3 months.

KR2: Achieve a 10% click-through rate (CTR) across all email campaigns by the end of Q1.

KR3: Generate $50,000 in revenue through email marketing campaigns within 6 months.

KR4: Reduce email unsubscribe rates by 5% within the next quarter.

8. Event Marketing Manager

Focus: Planning and executing events to generate leads, build brand awareness, and engage customers.

Key Responsibilities:

• Organise in-person or virtual events like webinars, conferences, and trade shows.
• Develop event promotion strategies across channels.
• Partner with sponsors, vendors, and speakers.
• Measure event success with metrics like attendance, leads, and post-event feedback.

Example OKRs for an Event Marketing Manager:

Objective: Plan and execute events that generate leads and build brand loyalty.

KR1: Host 3 webinars or in-person events with an average attendance of 200 participants each in Q1.

KR2: Generate 500 qualified leads from event signups and follow-ups by the end of Q1.

KR3: Achieve an NPS (Net Promoter Score) of 80 or higher for event attendee feedback.

KR4: Secure 2 new sponsorships for future events, generating at least $10,000 in sponsorship revenue.

Wrapping up: Setting your Marketing Manager up for Success

Scaling a startup is one of the most exciting yet challenging stages of growth. Hiring the right marketing manager—or any key role—isn't just about filling a gap in your team. It's about strategically investing in your company's future. By setting clear expectations and measurable goals, you not only give your new hires the roadmap they need to succeed, but you also create alignment across your organisation.

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Tools like Tability can help you simplify this process further by making goal-setting and progress-tracking easy, transparent, and actionable. Tools like this help you, as a leader, understand how things you care about are progressing.

(See also: 5 things that make Tability the OKR platform of choice for leaders)

With good goals and a solid framework in place, you'll set your marketing manager—and your company—up for success, ensuring every hire is a step toward scaling smarter, not just bigger.