Let’s be honest! Measuring true marketing success was never easy, but for a while, we could fool ourselves we had all the answers with advanced attribution models and in-channel insights. However, with an increased focus on data privacy along with cookie limitations and performance marketing automation, we are forced to accept that those days are gone. Might just be for the better, right?
By: Rebecca de Sousa, Paid Media Capability Lead and Helen Rydlinger, Digital- & Marketing Analytics Team Lead, on February 14, 2025 | Reading time: 4 minutes
We believe that an alternative method needs to be applied, we call it marketing effectiveness measurement (MEM) and it’s essentially a triangulation of methods to better answer different levels of details and together create a more holistic view of your marketing performance.
What is Marketing Effectiveness Measurement (MEM), and how is it defined?
Marketing Effectiveness Measurement (MEM) is how you measure success in your marketing and media efforts. If being effective in your marketing is a target (which it probably is!), to get more “bang for the buck”, you’ll need to know what to measure, and how to measure it.
By combining the three following areas, you will get a much more comprehensive view of your results:
- Experiments: A good complement to attribution that helps answer in-channel incrementality on your campaigns. While Attribution answers how many saw och interacted with your ad that later converted, incremental experiments will show the share of the ad’s actual uplift on set KPIs and also answer how much of the result would have happened without the ad interaction.
- Attribution: Helps you follow user journeys and optimize channels on a day-to-day basis and helps you ensure that you can make decision-making on a granular level within the channel. Can also be used to see results between channels, though it’s typically quite limited to the last touchpoints towards a conversion and does not take offline activities into account.
- Media Mix Modelling: Gives a holistic view of all media investments, helps you answer the total impact of your marketing effort, as well as estimating how you should re-allocate budget for maximized effect. Also takes offline channels into consideration and has the ability to measure both long- and short-term results on set KPIs.
How does Marketing Effectiveness Measurement (MEM) add value to an organization’s marketing strategy and overall performance?
By setting a MEM method, you’re able to build a holistic view of what is performing and driving bottom-line results. It will also give you the ability to optimize your investments accordingly.
How can organizations successfully implement Marketing Effectiveness Measurement (MEM) practices?
An assessment of the current state and maturity within the three pillars (Experiments, Attribution, Media Mix Modelling) will give you a good understanding of where to start. It’s important to start small and build on it – otherwise, it will be overwhelming! We suggest creating a plan with concrete actions and assigning responsibilities.
In what ways does Curamando integrate Marketing Effectiveness Measurement (MEM) into its services and client projects?
At Curamando we always work towards making our clients’ marketing more effective! There is of course a lot that can be done on the topic. Our efforts within Marketing Effectiveness Measurement (MEM) specifically focus on moving the needle for our clients in how they evaluate their marketing. The work we do ranges from small Test & Learn initiatives to larger transformation agendas. No matter how big or small, we are here to help.
