For marketers juggling multiple advertising platforms, the challenge isn't a shortage of data. It's knowing which numbers to trust and how to use them to make better decisions.
At MediaPost's Data & Programmatic Insider Summit, Gupta Media Director of Strategy & Analytics Jordan Maddocks joined measurement leaders from Mars and Kelly Scott Madison to discuss how advertisers can navigate an increasingly fragmented measurement landscape.
Jordan's advice: Start with the fundamentals, and don't assume every business needs the most sophisticated measurement tools.
Different businesses require different approaches. High-priced products need larger investments to generate meaningful sample sizes. Mature brands may struggle to distinguish advertising's impact from existing organic sales. The right measurement strategy depends on those characteristics, not simply which platforms an advertiser uses.
Jordan outlined a progression from foundational tracking and attribution to incrementality testing and, ultimately, more advanced marketing mix modeling (MMM). Along the way, advertisers should look for agreement across different measurement methods and design tests to investigate discrepancies.
And while AI and open-source tools are making sophisticated models easier to build, Jordan cautioned that expert judgment remains essential. Early models can help identify opportunities, but they aren't necessarily ready to guide major budget decisions.
The ultimate objective isn't a perfect model. It's a measurement system that becomes more reliable over time and gives marketers greater confidence in how they invest.
Watch the full discussion from MediaPost's Data & Programmatic Insider Summit.
