Performance Marketing: The Data Trap That Wastes Millions

Written By Shanjay Damani

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

The challenge? Strategic measurement can be costly, time-intensive & infrequent. Oftentimes legacy businesses are running blind.

Meanwhile, digital data is granular, real-time, accessible & ‘free’. It’s tempting to make decisions only from this dataset. Many organisations fall into the trap of using this data in the wrong way & end up wasting millions.

How to Know If You’ve Fallen Into the Trap

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

  1. Your team only talk about ROAS, CTR, and other metrics from tools like Google Analytics/ Attribution vendors.

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

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

So What’s the Problem?

E-commerce marketing typically relies on attribution: assigning credit to tracked channels for each sale. It gives you a tidy & granular spreadsheet. But attribution favours what’s easiest to track. The tracking is flawed (due to GDPR & technical limitations), and many channels cannot be tracked. (It doesn’t matter how much modelling you do on top of this data-set, it will always be flawed!)

You end up with a detailed spreadsheet showing exactly where every dollar supposedly went. It looks smart.

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 and management teams that 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.

  3. Lack of measurement investment or culture for ambiguity & risk taking
    Tools like media mix modelling and lift testing take time, cost money and can be imperfect at first. If leadership isn’t bought in or if your culture expects immediate certainty, you won’t invest in them.

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 seen brands grow by 15% after 6 months of applying a clear measurement methodology.

Sound relevant to your company? Click here to jump on a free 15-minute call & I can help you get going.

Shanjay Damani