Less than a quarter of CMOs report having enough budget to deliver their strategy. Chris Callaghan at Jaywing says that’s all the more reason to make sure you know what’s working.
Good measurement starts with clarity, explains Callaghan
With marketing budgets under more scrutiny than ever, there’s a growing pressure to make every pound work harder. This relies on being able to measure how impactful marketing plans are, but what does that actually mean in practice? Is it about driving more conversions? Proving ROI to finance? Optimizing creative? All of the above? The truth is, good measurement isn’t just about the numbers; it’s about knowing which numbers matter, and how to use them to make better decisions, faster.
Let’s be honest: measurement can feel messy. Different teams speak different languages. Data sits in silos. And with so many channels, formats, and tools available, it’s easy to default to what’s easy to measure, rather than what’s most meaningful.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
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According to Nielsen, nearly 40% of marketing budgets are wasted due to ineffective campaigns, poor targeting, or lack of optimization. That’s a sobering stat, and it’s not just about media efficiency. Even once traffic hits your site, average conversion rates are falling, with Contentsquare reporting a 6.1% drop year-on-year.
All of this adds up to a lot of spend going nowhere.
And with just 24% of CMOs saying they have enough budget to deliver their strategy, according to Gartner, it’s never been more important to know what’s working and what’s not.
So, what does good measurement look like? We’ve broken it down into three core pillars that can help businesses build a stronger, more joined-up approach to marketing effectiveness.
Good measurement starts with clarity. If ‘working harder’ means different things to different teams, you’ll never measure the right things, let alone optimize them.
Good measurement means aligning marketing, finance, product, and data teams on shared objectives, clear metrics, and what success really looks like. It’s about building habits and using data, not just for post-campaign reports, but as a daily decision-making tool. It’s also about encouraging debate rather than avoiding it. Different perspectives can lead to better answers as long as you have a shared language.
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You don’t need to track everything. But you do need to track the right things, in the right way. That means choosing fit-for-purpose methods such as attribution modelling to understand digital journeys, marketing mix modelling (MMM) for long-term channel effectiveness, and incrementality testing to validate campaigns with real rigour
You also should consider UX research and testing for voice of customer measurement and insights. Conversion rate optimization for controlled website improvements. And, critically, auditing your data quality so decisions are based on solid ground.
Even with the best data, you still need to do something with it. That’s where experimentation comes in. Whether it’s UX prototyping, creative testing, CRO, or bigger strategic bets, testing gives you the evidence to evolve your marketing over time, not just report on what’s already happened or fumble your way from campaign to campaign.
And don’t just focus on the wins. Learning from what didn’t work is just as powerful as understanding what your competitors are doing.
Jaywing
At Jaywing, we’ve made it our mission to help clients establish concrete foundations in a world of shifting sands. As a data-powered integrated agency, we bring...
