B2B marketers recognize the need for a data-driven approach to marketing. Fully eight in ten (80%) say they are spending more time and resources on critical marketing metrics in 2012, according to a survey from Pardot.

However, B2B companies continue to face challenges related to capturing and using various metrics, Pardot found.

Among those surveyed, lack of time and resources is the biggest obstacle to measuring marketing (40%), followed by inadequate tools to track leads through the sales cycle (29%).

Despite challenges in measuring marketing, lead qualification is critical for B2B companies.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of B2B marketers say their company has developed a set of standards—sometimes referred to as marketing qualified leads (MQLs)—in order to qualify leads.

Below, other findings from Pardot's survey of B2B marketers.

B2B marketers use a variety of criteria to qualify leads:

• 51% qualify leads based on a combination of both demographic factors and a person's actions.
• 22% qualify based on a person's actions (requested a white paper, visited a particular page on website, watched a video, etc.).
• 12% qualify based on demographic factors (job title, industry, company size, location, etc.)
• 15% do not qualify leads.

Room for Improvement

Many B2B marketers are still not measuring basic marketing information:

• 37% do not track the revenue (closed business) generated by campaigns.
• 29% do not measure sourced-opportunities generated by campaigns.
• 20% do not measure the number of new sales leads generated by marketing campaigns.

Most Important Metrics

Fully one-third (33%) of B2B marketers agree that MQLs are the most important metric to measure, followed by new leads generated (24%) and marketing opportunity value (17%).

Among B2B marketers, metrics such as landing page conversions (14%) and website traffic (9%) are viewed as less important.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 65 B2B marketers, conducted by Pardot in February 2012.