What is digital effectiveness? It’s a question I didn’t fully understand until I had to answer it myself, under pressure.
Fifteen years ago, a former colleague who had taken over web and digital at a Fortune 50 company reached out to me. He needed someone outside the internal politics—someone who could be trusted to evaluate their digital efforts objectively, across all channels and stakeholders.
He chose me because, in his words, “you think multidimensionally and will tell me if my new baby is ugly.” That trust came with weight. I had done audits before—SEO, analytics, content—but this was different. This wasn’t a channel review. This was a question of overall effectiveness. What does it mean for a website and its connected digital ecosystem to be truly effective?
Defining Digital Effectiveness
That question became the foundation of my evaluation, and I built a framework from scratch—one that still holds up today:
- Are the individual parts functioning optimally?
This includes everything from the quality of content to the site’s structure and how paid media campaigns are executed. - Are those parts working together?
It’s one thing for SEO to perform well. It’s another for SEO and paid media to complement each other, and for the analytics team to measure the collective impact. - Are we connecting people to the correct destination based on intent?
This requires more than just traffic. It demands alignment between user needs, content strategy, and site experience. - Are there synergies across marketing efforts?
Many organizations still operate in silos. Actual effectiveness comes from shared goals and complementary efforts, especially between paid and organic search. - Are we driving meaningful action?
Not just visits or clicks, but real business outcomes: purchases, sign-ups, inquiries—whatever defines success for that organization.
That framework changed how I approached every client project from then on.
Lessons from IBM: When More Traffic Isn’t Enough
Six months after implementing many foundational SEO strategies and force multipliers at IBM, we had driven millions of additional visitors to the website. Organic traffic had increased by over 300%. But despite the surge in traffic, we didn’t see a corresponding spike in MQLs, SQLs, or sales.
Initially, we attributed this disconnect to lengthy sales cycles. Then we questioned whether we were attracting the wrong audience. But something didn’t add up. I initiated a root cause investigation to trace the entire lead journey.
We designed a controlled test: we came in through search ourselves, filled out the lead form using a uniquely crafted name and a highly qualified profile to ensure we would be fast-tracked. Within a few days, we were contacted by the sales team, confirming that the lead handoff process was working as intended.
Then we followed the trail through the CRM, and that is where we found the problem.
The initial source search was recorded correctly when the form was submitted. However, once the lead was assigned to a sales representative, the CRM overwrote the “source” field with the new point of contact, often labeling it as “sales generated.” This meant that although search was making the introductions, all the credit was going to sales.
We pushed back and argued that every touchpoint—marketing and sales alike—should be preserved and analyzed. That’s how we began advocating for what the industry now calls omnichannel attribution. This single discovery allowed us to reclaim credit for a significant portion of the pipeline. By demonstrating that search played a crucial role in initiating relationships, we established the concept of search-influenced leads and revenue, thereby positioning SEO as one of the most effective lead generation drivers within the entire organization.
The point of this story is that everything needs to be aligned with a holistic viewpoint. No one wanted to change anything due to the work and potential impact on their KPIs, but fortunately, our champion, who saw the big picture, mandated change across the ecosystem.
The “Drinks Curious” Discovery
Another example came during a project with Absolut. Global HQ assigned a pretty significant CRM growth target to the markets. Search was not initially part of this initiative because it had nothing to do with “search.” During a brainstorming session with the digital team on how to increase signups, their brilliant analytics person identified that most signups were on pages we had created with a list of drinks with a specific ingredient.
A year earlier, during our Drinks Discovery Mining project, we noticed a segment of searchers looking not for a specific drink, but for drinks using particular ingredients, such as “drinks with elderflower” or “cocktails with pear vodka.”
We dubbed them the drinks curious—users who were exploring, not deciding. Instead of pushing a single product, we designed content to inspire: galleries of recipes, ingredient swaps, and flavor pairings. Shortly after, Google launched what they called rich snippets to highlight specific content categories. We added multiple schema elements to the drinks pages. Clicks increased, as did engagement. The time on site increased, and these pages were generated 10 times more frequently. ECRM signups than any other medium.
Despite the reluctance of the other departments, the data compelled their willingness. We then collaborated with all of the different teams to share this data, and they aligned their campaigns around the trends we were seeing in search volume. This wasn’t just optimization. It was an alignment between the user mindset, content delivery, and brand positioning. That’s digital effectiveness in action. Had we not pushed our data and the potential positive impact on their KPIs we would not have had this success.
The Emerging Role of the Digital Effectiveness Officer
These experiences led me to a broader realization: what companies need is someone responsible for orchestrating digital effectiveness across the organization. Not just SEO, not just analytics, not just content—but someone who can see the whole system, understand how each piece fits, and make sure the whole works better than the sum of its parts.
It’s a role I’ve come to describe as the Digital Effectiveness Officer—a hybrid of strategist, diagnostician, systems thinker, and translator between marketing, IT, and the business.
This person doesn’t just look at metrics. They look for meaning. They ask:
- Are we measuring what matters?
- Are we rewarding the right behaviors?
- Are we set up to continuously improve?
Final Thoughts: A System, Not a Scorecard
Digital effectiveness is not just about fixing problems; it’s about creating solutions. It’s about building systems that adapt and improve. It’s the shift from traffic to intent, from channels to customer journeys, from reporting to understanding.
That journey started for me with a phone call and a blank sheet of paper. And today, I believe more than ever that digital effectiveness should be treated as a core competency—not just in marketing, but in the business itself.
Because when every part of your digital presence works together toward a clear purpose, you don’t just get better results. You build a smarter, stronger, and more resilient organization.
