Performance Marketing: The Data Trap That Wastes Millions

Let’s get one thing straight: no single measurement approach can reliably answer all your marketing questions. The best marketers triangulate across multiple data sources and know when and how to use each one.

The challenge? Strategic measurement is often costly, time-consuming, and infrequent. Often, smaller legacy businesses are flying blind.

Meanwhile, digital data is granular, real-time, and seemingly ‘free’. It’s tempting to make strategic decisions based on this alone. But using this data in the wrong way can lead to poor decisions...

How to Know If You’ve Fallen Into the Trap

If your online revenue is above $5M, here are the signs:

• Your team only talks about ROAS, CTR, and other metrics from tools like Google Analytics or attribution vendors.

• They’ve never run a lift or incrementality test.

• You’re above $20M and still don’t have a media mix model.

So What’s the Problem?

E-commerce marketing typically relies on a measurement methodology called attribution. When someone purchases an item on your site, attribution assigns credit to one of the marketing channels.

However, like any marketing approach, it has its flaws.

1. It favours channels that can be tracked, usually by clicks.

2. The tracking is flawed (due to GDPR & technical limitations), and many channels cannot be tracked.

3. Even advanced attribution models, "data-driven" / "multi-touch" all rely on partial data and have the same flaws.

Attribution gives you a tidy, granular spreadsheet, where every sale maps neatly to a marketing channel. It looks smart, but it’s wrong

But it’s wrong. Start making strategic decisions with this data, and you’ll optimise for what’s trackable, not what works.

Why Does This Happen?

1. Lack of digital marketing expertise & knowledge
   You’re not at scale yet. You’ve hired an e-commerce generalist or junior marketer, and paired them with an agency that doesn’t want to rock the boat, or is behind the curve. They do what you ask, but don’t move you forward.

2. Lack of marketing leadership
   I’ve seen boards, management or ‘strategic’ consultants demand regular and granular data from their teams. The teams provide it & are often pushed into making the wrong decision based on the data provided. A true marketing leader’s job is to present the complete picture —clearly and credibly. They take the ‘mess’ (Because marketing measurement isn’t straightforward) and provide an easy-to-understand story.

3. Lack of measurement investment or culture for ambiguity & risk taking
   Tools like media mix modelling and lift testing take time, cost money, and may be imperfect at first.. If leadership isn’t bought in or if your culture expects immediate certainty, you won’t invest in them. A decade ago, MMM tools were only for the largest enterprise brands; however, the cost has come down substantially & it is now accessible to smaller brands.

So What’s the Right Approach?

You need the right measurement for the right type of decision. Depending on your scale, you’ll deploy a different array of tools:

• Tactical, day-to-day optimisation
  Digital attribution works well here. It has its place.

• Performance marketing channel mix
  Use incrementality tests, lift studies, and media mix models.

• Comparing performance marketing to brand
  You’ll need a wider toolkit—including brand tracking, share of search, econometrics, and longer-term ROI analysis.

When done correctly on the performance marketing side, I’ve seen spend decrease by 25% with minimal impact. On the flip side, I’ve also seen brands grow by 15% after six months of applying a clear measurement methodology

If any of this sounds familiar, let’s talk.. I offer a free 15-minute call to help you assess your measurement setup and start making smarter decisions.