One of the leading metrics I believe that will always be at the forefront of marketing - is attention. The reason is simple: When information is abundant - attention is scarce - and people want to protect this scarce resource because its valuable to them.

Marketers who acknowledge and cradle attention this attention will be better off in the long run then the marketers who use and neglect peoples attention. Which begs the question: How do we know if we are adding to someones attention or just taking away from it?

Our leading metric should always be ROA (Return on Attention) which is something you can calculate using common sense. When someone engaging with your brand by "paying attention" to you - what do they "get in return"? Getting a "high return" in this example is correlated with building trust.

Another more practical and micro example of measuring attention is with a metric called Attention Ratio.

Attention ratio refers to the number of interaction points to the number of calls to action on any given page.

That measuring attention is not only about the absolute return but is also about asking how we can guide focus to help our customers make more thoughtful decisions.

What is your return on attention? What is the attention ratio?

Start measuring the real metrics that matter.