New media may come and go, but the eternal verities remain when it comes to marketing measurement.

Most companies judge success by the number of new customers acquired and leads generated, according to a survey by King Fish Media. Sales comes in third.

The takeaway, as far as we’re concerned? That robust prospecting pays off when done using email marketing lists and direct mail lists.

Another key finding is that 73% have guidelines in place for measuring marketing programs. But only 50% have to demonstrate metrics to get approval for a project.

The report doesn’t break out the results by market sector, but of the 230 companies surveyed, 53% were B2B. Another 36% sell to both businesses and consumers.

As for budgets, they’re looking exactly like you’d expect them to.

Almost 80% plan to increase their spending on social media, and a slightly smaller number on their company Web sites. But double-digit percentages will decrease their outlays on face-to-face events, online advertising, broadcast ads and print advertising.

King Fish Media produces custom content for clients, so perhaps we should be skeptical of its findings in this area. That said, the survey shows that 86% of those polled produce custom content for their customers, or plan to, and that 70% expect to spend more on it, compared with only 6% for advertising.

And here’s a surprise: Of those polled, 36% think that people see information from corporate sources as having the same value as material from traditional media sources. What’s more, 20% say it’s seen as more valuable. Only 32% disagree entirely.

Here’s the full list of how companies gauge the success of marketing programs:

Number of new customers acquired – 77%

Number of new leads generated – 73%

Overall net increase in sales – 67%

Net sales from current customers – 42%

Quantified increase in awareness – 40%

Increase in customer retention – 39%

Sales from lapsed customers – 29%

Quantified increase in purchase intent – 26%

Quantified increase in perceptual attributes – 21%

The survey was co-sponsored by HubSpot, Junta 42 and the Upshot Institute. For a copy, click here.