A context of economic complexity and a fragmented media landscape pushes marketing professionals to focus the measurement and the results in the short term. But this means, in many cases, giving up a holistic view of the strategies’ impact on the entire funnel and run the risk of making wrong decisions.

It is what they support warc and Google in the new whitepaper they have published, in which they collect some of the latest research for the EMEA region and analyze the importance of measure thinking in the short and long term; the impact of this on sales, and how new technologies and methodologies can help develop a more comprehensive approach.

Short-term ROI ignores half the return

As the document points out, an approach focused on performance marketing and short-term measurement makes it difficult to demonstrate long-term marketing. Additionally, neglecting long-term effects results in an incomplete ROI picture.

Referring to an analysis carried out by Ekimetrics, advertisers who Prioritizing short-term ROI can overlook half (50%) of media returns that can be generated through brand building. Thus, focusing on promotions, discounts or conversion tactics can bring immediate results, but can compromise the sustainability of the brand in the long term.

Investing in the entire funnel drives long-term growth

According to Warc and Google analysis, investing in brand awareness through online marketing top and middle part of the funnel Not only does it drive long-term growth, but it can also have a direct impact on the bottom line. Both companies advocate that marketers must move away from the traditional binary view of brand vs performance to focus on results and employ both traditional and digital channels to drive growth.

In this regard, a recent study carried out by Nielsen for Google points out that increasing the brand awareness at the top and middle of the funnel by just 1% leads to a 0.6% increase in long-term sales, and also results in a 0.4% increase in short-term sales.

Furthermore, investing in marketing lower funnel area to boost purchase intention has a long-term impact. According to Nielsen research, by increasing purchase intent activities by 1%, short-term sales grow by 0.7% and long-term sales by 0.2%.

Marketing mix models (MMM) to maximize ROI

As Warc has previously pointed out, no tool can provide a comprehensive measurement of media impact, and in order to measure marketing performance effectively it is necessary combine different methodologies and have a learning culture that encourages continuous innovation.

Thus, it is increasingly common for marketing professionals to combine the use of attribution models, measurement experiments and marketing mix models, with the intention of assessing effectiveness in different channels. When considering the different options, those responsible for the study aim to pay attention to:

• The investment, which will depend on factors such as the amount of data the company has or the degree of granularity of the knowledge. It is recommended to invest 10% of the media budget in MMM.
• The internalization or externalizationwhich will depend on experience, customized solutions or existing ones.
• The strategic planning Budget: Marketing mix modeling is effective in evaluating budget allocation across channels by leveraging past performance data.
• The assessment, to create accurate, data-driven comparisons that quantify the holistic impact of different marketing channels on ROI.

The measurement of advertising effectiveness is also being transformed thanks to the solutions based on artificial intelligencewhich allow deeper understanding at greater speed and provide information about different scenarios. However, all this improved understanding will not be useful for making more informed and impactful decisions if it is not supported by an evolved approach that ensures business sustainability.

More info.: Warc and Google – Beyond the horizon