Measuring Marketing ROI: Metrics to Trust and Readjust
In today’s competitive landscape, understanding the true impact of marketing efforts is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s essential. However, many marketers find themselves navigating a murky data landscape, with 96% of marketers reporting distrust in their data. For businesses investing heavily in digital advertising, trustworthy and precise metrics are essential for making confident, informed decisions.
The key challenges in marketing data
Many marketing teams face challenges with messy attribution, commonly caused by foundational data gaps, duplication of data, and browser tracking limitations.
It’s possible that some channels are simply not tracking data that they should be tracking, creating gaps in the larger picture. Additionally, Google and Meta could both be taking credit for a click or transaction, creating duplicate attribution. Add the limited attribution window of browser tracking, often ending after 7 to 28 days depending on the platform, and your team may have really messy metrics for attribution in general.
These things are all solvable, primarily by shifting from third-party to first-party data to better track KPIs at every stage of the customer journey.
How ONAR agencies solve the attribution puzzle
To overcome these challenges, businesses are partnering with performance marketing agencies like ONAR’s recently rebranded Storia, who have the infrastructure and talent to assess the current data challenges and build a transition plan towards more modern first-party tracking solutions.
Their approach helps brands unlock actionable insights and forecast growth by ensuring accurate data reporting. Storia begins by auditing clients’ existing tracking and attribution systems to ensure all campaign data is clean and reliable.
Using a sophisticated tech stack to consolidate data from multiple platforms into a single view, Storia is able to provide a holistic look at the metrics that matter most—whatever your essential business KPIs are—to identify high-impact opportunities for revenue growth.
Key metrics our experts use for revenue growth
To truly get at the heart of measuring and forecasting revenue growth, our agencies organize the KPIs based on the customer journey: upper, middle, and lower funnel. The primary drivers of revenue for clients are often lower funnel metrics, like cost-per-lead (CPL), cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and return on ad spend (ROAS). All of these metrics work in tandem to answer the question, “How much did it cost for me to get a customer to make a purchase?”
Within that structure, Storia’s metrics can be categorized into two major buckets: quantitative and qualitative data. CPL, CPA, and ROAS are all lower funnel quantitative metrics. However, every step of the funnel has a conversion rate. And whatever the rate in which people take the next step is essential to driving growth and profit. Having a seamless customer journey with industry leading conversion rates ensures that your business will succeed.
Then there are the qualitative metrics, which are more observations about customer behavior without a numerical value. An example of this could be website heat maps, which serve as cart abandonment or browser abandonment surveys. They answer questions about why a customer is leaving your site without making a purchase.
Regardless of your metrics, the importance of first-party data cannot be overstated. The more direct your source of data is, whether it’s qualitative or quantitative, the more accurate your attribution reporting will be, and subsequently revenue forecasting, as well.
Optimizing for revenue growth
By balancing these metrics, our teams at Storia can identify the most profitable channels, optimize ad spending, and develop strategies to maximize the lifetime value of each customer. This data-driven approach allows for precise resource allocation, driving sustainable growth.
When every marketing dollar counts, investing in data integrity, clear attribution, and predictive analytics is paramount. By working with a specialized agency like Storia, marketers can make decisions with confidence, aligning their budgets with tactics that deliver measurable, predictable growth.
Want to learn more about Storia? Visit their website or contact sales@wearestoria.com.