How to Write Meaningful Marketing OKRs in 2025 (with Examples)

As I write this, 2025 is officially here!

If you’re in the corporate world, you know that January often means one thing: strategy planning and goal setting.

By now, you’ve probably got your shiny new marketing budget in hand and have been tasked with mapping out your strategy for the year ahead. Exciting, right? But also a bit daunting.

As a performance marketing agency, we know that setting clear goals and objectives is a crucial step in creating a successful marketing strategy.

After all, how can you measure success if you haven’t defined what success looks like?

That’s where OKRs come in. If you’ve found your way here, you’ve likely heard of OKRs—Objectives and Key Results. But just so we’re all on the same page, OKRs are a goal-setting framework designed to help you identify your objectives and the measurable results you need to achieve them.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to craft marketing OKRs that work. You’ll learn how to define your objectives, pinpoint the key results that prove success, and set your team up for a productive and impactful year. Let’s dive in!

Crafting Your Marketing OKRs

So, what does a great OKR look like?

It starts with a solid objective. Think of it this way: the objective is your destination. It answers the question, “Where do we want to go?” It’s the big, inspiring goal that gets everyone on the team excited. 

And the key results? That’s your map. They outline “How do we get there?” Key results give you the measurable, actionable steps that bring your objective to life.

1. Figuring Out Your Objectives

If you’re in marketing, your objectives rarely exist in a vacuum. More often than not, they’re closely tied to the company’s overarching business goals—whether that’s growth, profitability, or market expansion. The key is to ensure your marketing objectives align with these broader priorities and directly contribute to achieving them.

Here’s how to think about it:

Understand the Company’s Business Goals

Start by asking, “What is the company’s primary focus for this year?” Is it scaling into new markets, increasing revenue, retaining more customers, or enhancing operational efficiency? Marketing plays a pivotal role in each of these, and your objectives should reflect that alignment.

Break Down the Business Goals into Marketing Priorities

Once you’ve identified the company’s goals, translate them into actionable marketing priorities. For instance:

• If the company’s goal is revenue growth, your marketing objective might be to generate a specific number of qualified leads or drive more conversions.
• If the focus is on market expansion, your objective could center around brand awareness campaigns in new regions.
• If customer retention is the goal, you could prioritize loyalty programs or upselling strategies.

My advice: don’t shy away from involving your team in setting objectives.

They work on the front lines and bring valuable insights into what’s working, what’s not, and where opportunities lie. Including their input not only ensures objectives are practical and grounded but also fosters buy-in, collaboration, and innovation. When team members contribute to shaping goals, they feel more invested, leading to higher engagement and better results. Encouraging bottom-up ideas builds a stronger culture and often uncovers fresh perspectives leadership may not have considered.

Write Down Your Objectives

Your objective should be a concise, one-sentence statement that is both motivational and aspirational. It’s the why behind your efforts—a bold and inspiring goal that rallies your team and aligns everyone toward a common purpose.

Think of your objective as your guiding star: clear, uplifting, and ambitious enough to push your team to excel while remaining achievable within the given timeframe. A well-written marketing objective sets the tone for your strategy, providing focus and direction without overwhelming with too much detail.

Examples of objectives include: 

2. Defining Key Results

Once you’ve nailed down your objective, it’s time to focus on the key results—the measurable outcomes that tell you whether you’re on track to achieve your goal. Key results are the bridge between ambition and execution. They break your big-picture objective into smaller, actionable targets that are clear and quantifiable.

When writing down your key results, be as detailed as possible. Include the current baseline, the target you want to achieve, and the timeline for achieving it. This ensures that everyone involved knows exactly what’s expected and can work collaboratively to make it happen.

For example, if your objective is to “Generate more high-quality leads for the sales team.” your key results might look like this:

• Key Result 1: Capture 1,000 MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) through paid media campaigns for 2025.
• Key Result 2: Increase lead conversion rates from 2% to 4% on landing pages before the end of Q2.
• Key Result 3: Increase website users to a monthly average of 35,000 for 2025.

2025 Marketing OKRs Examples

Objective	Key Results
Position the brand as a trusted authority in the industry through thought leadership.	– Publish 4 high-quality whitepapers by the end of Q2. – Host 3 webinars with at least 200 attendees each by year-end. – Achieve a 15% increase in newsletter subscriptions from thought leadership campaigns.
Enhance marketing performance by optimizing ROI across campaigns.	– Increase the overall marketing ROI by 20% by Q4. – Reduce cost per acquisition (CPA) by 15% across all channels. – Identify and scale 5 high-performing campaigns by mid-year.
Improve organic visibility with a user-focused content strategy.	– Rank in the top 5 for 10 targeted keywords by the end of Q3. – Increase organic website traffic by 25% year-over-year. – Publish 15 user-focused, SEO-optimized articles by the end of Q2.
Strengthen customer relationships to boost loyalty and lifetime value.	– Launch a customer loyalty program with a 20% adoption rate by Q3. – Increase repeat purchase rate by 15% by year-end. – Improve Net Promoter Score (NPS) by 10 points by Q2.
Enhance brand visibility and recognition in key markets.	– Increase unaided awareness among our target audience by 5%. – Secure 15 media placements in industry-relevant publications. – Drive 100,000 new visits to the website through organic and referral traffic.
Boost revenue by optimizing digital marketing efforts.	– Increase e-commerce revenue by 30% year-over-year. – Improve paid media conversion rates by 10% by Q3.
Improve lead generation quality and volume.	– Capture 1,500 MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) by the end of Q2. – Improve lead-to-sales conversion rate from 8% to 12% by Q4. – Implement 2 new lead magnets with a 5% conversion rate by mid-year.
Drive better performance and returns from Google Ads campaigns.	– Increase click-through rates (CTR) on Google Ads by 25% by Q2. – Achieve a 5x return on ad spend (ROAS) across Google Ads campaigns by Q4. – Reduce cost-per-click (CPC) by 10% on average on Google Ads before the end of the year.
Boost SEO performance to drive organic growth.	– Rank on the first page for 5 high-priority keywords by Q3. – Increase organic traffic by 30% by the end of the year. – Earn 10 new backlinks from authoritative domains by Q2.

When Writing Your Marketing OKRs, Remember…

Clarity Creates Focus: When your objectives and key results are well-defined, it’s easier for everyone on your team to understand what success looks like. This clarity eliminates ambiguity and ensures all efforts are aligned toward the same goal.

Motivation Through Tangibility: A specific objective feels more tangible and achievable. It gives your team something to strive for and a sense of progress as milestones are hit. Seeing the numbers move closer to the goal—whether it’s revenue, leads, or engagement—creates momentum and keeps morale high.

Better Strategy and Execution: With a clear OKR, it’s easier to build a strategy and prioritize tasks. For example, if the goal is to boost paid media revenue by $50,000 within six months, you can focus on scaling high-performing campaigns, testing new ad channels, or increasing the budget for top-converting ads.

Accountability and Measurement: A specific objective sets the stage for accountability. By writing it down, you’re committing to the goal and creating a benchmark to measure success. It’s no longer a vague aspiration but a concrete plan that can be tracked, evaluated, and adjusted as needed.

Let’s Get Started

Setting effective marketing OKRs is more than just a planning exercise—it’s a way to align your team, measure progress, and drive meaningful results. By defining clear objectives and pairing them with actionable key results, you create a roadmap that keeps everyone focused and accountable.

Now it’s your turn. Take these examples and tips, tailor them to your goals, and set your team up for success. Remember, great OKRs don’t just measure success—they inspire it. 

And if you’re feeling lost or unsure about where to start, don’t worry—we’re here to help. Contact us, and we’ll work with you to set the right objectives and key results that will accelerate your growth and make 2025 your most successful year yet!