Amid economic uncertainty, marketers need real-time, causal measurement to cut waste, prove impact, and stay agile.
In today’s uncertain economic climate, marked by rising costs, supply-chain disruptions and tariffs, marketers face more pressure than ever to justify every dollar spent or risk budget cuts.
Yet, many marketing teams operate with measurement systems and plans built for calmer times. They still rely on outdated correlations from months-old MMM reporting that can undervalue or overvalue channel performance and mask inefficiency at a time when every penny counts.
A modern measurement standard must fuse the granular, causal truth with a strategic outlook, operating at the speed of the market. Here are three considerations to ensure your measurement approach is primed to fuel success:
1. Focus on the Here and Now
Operating in the present means real time. Making urgent budget decisions based on MMM results from months ago could be ghost metrics leading you astray. A reliance on lagging indicators is increasingly costly as shopping behaviors rapidly evolve.
An InMarket study found that, amid economic uncertainty in Q1, consumers increasingly purchased items like milk, frozen foods and candy at a discount. Meanwhile, they shifted to warehouse clubs and discount retailers for categories like canned goods, coffee and ice cream where they could get the most for their dollar.
As marketers navigate these shifts, combined with the emergence of new channels and search patterns, relying on lagging indicators and slow attribution models means you’re potentially missing out on significant opportunities.
2. Prioritize Incremental Outcomes
Now more than ever, marketers’ ability to understand the value driven by each campaign is essential.
The imperative is stark: Shift from observing correlation to proving causation or leave potential revenue behind. By rigorously comparing exposed vs. control (A/B experiment) in near real time, incrementality cuts through the noise and wishful thinking. It reveals the actual incremental value driven by specific marketing efforts—the unvarnished truth needed to allocate resources effectively and eliminate unnecessary waste.
Focusing on incremental outcomes like incremental sales, visits and return on ad spend (iROAS) can also drive greater media efficiency, enabling marketers to optimize toward the top-performing creatives, calls to action, offers and media placements while a campaign is in flight.
This ensures that, as uncertainty persists, you’re able to remain agile, predicting and responding to consumer behaviors, rather than having to wait months to assess what could’ve been improved.
3. Eliminate Blindspots With Holistic, Granular Measurement
From dining to retail to CPG, marketers are executing complex omnichannel programs. Navigating a fragmented media landscape, disparate data and siloed measurement tools across a variety of media channels make it difficult to accurately assess and compare outcomes. A holistic and unified approach eliminates these potential blind spots, empowering marketers to dive deeper with comprehensive and actionable insights across their entire marketing portfolio. This ensures that marketers can truly evaluate performance and transform data and results into actionable insights while a campaign is in flight.
For CPG brands, as an example, the ability to not only measure across channels but also go a step further and assess performance by retailer can be a game-changer for fragmented shopping. If the announcement of certain tariffs is causing shoppers to prioritize discounts or switch to discount retailers in certain categories, this in-depth, by-retailer analysis can help marketers keep a close eye on how economic pressures are impacting performance and adapt accordingly.
The Case for Real-Time, Causal Measurement
Actionable insights are paramount. Don’t rely on ghost metrics from MMM dating months back. In such fast-moving, unpredictable shopping and media landscapes, a real-time pulse on performance and the ability to optimize accordingly are vital.
This integrated approach must translate complex causal proof into clear directives, empowering marketing teams to eliminate waste, pivot quickly and seize real opportunities quickly. The new standard—integrated, always-on, causal measurement—isn’t just best practice; it is rapidly becoming essential for profitable growth.