Sep 16, 2025
At its core, your marketing department exists to make the brand more recognizable and memorable to your audience. Others will say its role is to generate leads, support sales, or help launch new products. And they’re all right, because your marketing team does all that, and more.
Marketing operates across multiple fronts: brand, acquisition, retention, product support, and even internal communications. But when budgets get tight, marketing is often the first to face cuts—unless it can clearly demonstrate ROI.
That’s where OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) come in. They help turn strategic goals into measurable progress. In this blog, you’ll understand what OKRs are, why they work for marketing teams, how to write strong Objectives and Key Results, and common traps to avoid.
What is OKR?
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results, a collaborative goal-setting methodology used by teams and individuals to drive alignment and focus around their strategy.
It’s a powerful framework to make sure marketing teams don’t lose focus trying to check all the boxes. By clearly defining what matters most (the Objectives) and how success will be measured (the Key Results), OKRs keep everyone moving in the same direction.
So, as you can see, an OKR is broken down into:
Objective: The goal you or your team wish to achieve
The Key Results: Measurable outcomes that track progress toward reaching the objective
Why create OKRs for marketing teams?
When you track progress and success, you can easily justify budgets and prove ROI. But the benefits for marketing teams go far beyond that.
Think about the never-ending to-do list or the (tight) deadline to hit that came out of nowhere. It’s no wonder focusing on what matters is hard, and actually accomplishing it is even harder.”
To make matters worse, nobody is moving in the same direction because no one really knows what the priorities are.
Marketing OKRs provide a structured way to set goals and measure success, aligning the whole team. They act as a roadmap, so everyone knows where they’re headed, why it matters, and how progress will be measured.
Put simply, creating OKRs for marketing teams connects the dots between people, strategy, and results.
How to write strong marketing OKRs?
There are content marketing OKRs, demand generation OKRs, and SEO marketing OKRs, for example. All follow the same principle: breaking objectives into actionable key results.
To start with, you need to craft a SMART objective:
Specific: Clear and focused
Measurable: Progress must be trackable
Achievable: Ambitious, but within reach
Relevant: Aligned with team and business strategy.
Time-bound: Tied to a clear deadline (usually quarterly)
Each objective is followed by key results (KR). As a rule of thumb, you should have a set of two to five KRs. They must be:
Relevant to your marketing goals
Challenging, but not unrealistic (KRs need to motivate and push your team)
Quantifiable, so you can measure progress
Outcome-focused, not just task-based
Marketing OKRs: examples
To make things clearer, take a look at some examples of marketing OKRs below. They’re not meant to be copied, but to inspire you. Remember: Your Objectives and Key Results must align with your business strategy.
1 - Objective: Build thought leadership in the industry
Key Results:
KR1: Publish 8 blog posts targeting high-intent keywords
KR2: Increase organic traffic by 40%
KR3: Achieve an average time on page of 2 minutes or more
KR4: Generate 150 MQLs from blog content
Objective: Boost engagement and brand presence on social channels
Key Results:
KR1: Increase LinkedIn engagement rate from 4.1% to 6%
KR2: Gain 2,000 new followers on Instagram
KR3 Post consistently 3 times per week on each active channel
KR4: Increase average reach per post on Instagram by 25%
Objective: Increase brand visibility in AIOs by 30% in the next quarter
Key Results:
KR1: Identify top 10 high-intent keywords likely to trigger AI Overviews in our niche
KR2: Optimize 30 blog posts to improve chances of being featured in AIOs
KR3: Create 5 new content pieces structured specifically to target AIO formats (FAQ-style, summaries, authoritative tone)
KR4: Track and report monthly mentions of our brand or content in AIO snippets, aiming for a 30% increase compared to the baseline
Common traps to avoid when defining OKRs
In theory, OKRs are an easy-to-understand framework. But that simplicity can also lead to poor Objectives and Key Results. To prevent this, be aware of these 4 common marketing OKRs mistakes:
1. Confusing OKRs and KPIs
Maybe while reading this article, you’ve asked yourself: “Aren’t OKRs just another name for KPIs?” Although both are performance management tools, their concepts differ significantly.
OKRs focus on leading and achieving results. When defining OKRs, you set ambitious goals with measurable key results that track progress toward those goals. That means that OKRs are forward-looking and outcome-oriented.
KPIs, on the other hand, are metrics used to measure ongoing performance for existing goals.
For example:
OKR: Increase website traffic by 30% in Q3
Key Result: Achieve 50,000 monthly visitors by the end of September
KPI: Monthly website traffic (monitored continuously)
2. Creating a to-do list for Key Results
It’s quite common to see people mistaking Key Results for a list of tasks. Instead of focusing on measurable outcomes, they write down activities like:
Invite specialists for the podcast
Increase organic traffic
Launch a new landing page
The problem is that KRs should measure the outcome of your actions instead of describing them. So, when crafting your marketing OKRs, don’t forget the following rule:
The Key results must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
3. Not defining check-in meetings
A common trap with marketing OKRs is turning them into a “set and forget” exercise. Regular check-in meetings help prevent this.
Done weekly or bi-weekly, these meetings give the team a chance to review progress toward key results, update metrics, and discuss priorities and initiatives for the upcoming period. This helps put all team members on the same page and ensures everyone is making progress.
In addition to it, OKR check-in meetings provide a space to flag obstacles early and adjust strategies if needed.
4. Not aligning marketing OKRs with business goals
OKRs only work when marketing objectives align directly with the company’s overall strategy. Without this alignment, the marketing team may stay busy but fail to drive meaningful impact
For example, if the company’s main goal for the quarter is to expand into the Brazilian market, marketing OKRs should reflect initiatives that support that expansion, such as localizing campaigns, building brand awareness in the target region, or generating qualified leads in that market.
When done right, OKRs help marketing teams prove their value and amplify their impact. And once the results are achieved, take time to celebrate your team’s accomplishments.
Also, remember to raise the bar by setting bolder goals each quarter. This ensures your marketing team keeps helping your company level up.
Continuously review and adapt your OKRs to stay on track
Business environments change, priorities shift, and new challenges emerge. So why should your marketing OKRs remain static?
Implementing OKRs means embracing an ongoing cycle. Regular check-ins are key to spotting obstacles early and adjusting key results or initiatives as needed.
That’s why “sticking to OKRs” doesn’t mean rigidly following a plan regardless of circumstances. Instead, it means committing to a cycle of setting clear goals, measuring progress, learning from results, and refining your approach to drive continuous improvement.
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I am Renata, a marketing and communication expert living in the Netherlands. I hold a degree in journalism and have been working with content, marketing, and communication for over 15 years.