Embracing change is such an important piece of life. Whether it is taking a new job, moving to a new community, or experiencing a new culture, change can enrich your life, even though it means overcoming the discomfort of leaving familiar ways behind.

B2C marketers have embraced many changes in the media and in consumer behavior, but their approach to marketing performance measurement isn’t embracing the changes we have been writing about for three years. Comfortable but increasingly outmoded approaches are still all too common:

  • Easy-to-report data points such as clickthrough rates and impressions continue to highlight reporting, even though marketers have long known their deep flaws.
  • We continue to hear that techniques like marketing mix modeling are too infrequent, take too long, and aren’t actionable enough — a vestige of how this methodology was delivered years ago.
  • Marketing mix and attribution are implemented separately, are owned by different teams, and set off unproductive debates over the different findings they produce.
  • Accessing and managing data from various sources, especially the walled gardens, prevents timely and complete marketing insights.

In our newly updated report, “Customer-Obsessed Marketing Demands Unified Measurement,” we document the changes born of the revolution in data availability, technology, and analytics:

  • The proven ability to quantitatively link marketing activities to revenue.
  • Tech platforms enable using statistical models at the planning stage to choose the optimal plan based on revenue predictions.
  • Insight into the interaction of all touchpoints — digital and traditional — as unified measurement methodologies mature.

So get ready to leave behind old ways: vanity metrics such as clickthrough rates, likes, and engagement; annual mix modeling exercises delivered in 100-slide-plus PowerPoint decks; the digital vs. traditional marketing battle; and the notion that spending money on a measurement solution detracts from “working” media spend.
It’s time to embrace the new marketing measurement standard: unified measurement.