Google’s annual Think Measurement 2025 tentpole summit brought together leading voices to explore why ‘curiosity and learning’ is key for marketers to prove their value and drive growth.
Leading voices at Googles annual Think measurement summit explored why ‘curiosity and learning’ is key for marketers
When marketers are being asked to do more with less, it’s no longer enough to just chase efficiency metrics. At Google’s Think Measurement 2025 summit, a clear narrative emerged: measurement isn’t just about reporting performance, it’s about having the building blocks to unlock data-driven insights that will drive business growth. If marketers aren’t measuring what matters, they could be leaving some serious impact on the table.
Biren Kalaria, managing director of data, measurement and analytics at Google, set the scene by highlighting the need to evolve from disconnected data points to unified insights: “We’re moving beyond the ‘wow’ factor into the ‘how’ – how to make it all work together, and drive meaningful change. [Without it], UK advertisers are leaving a 20% growth opportunity on the table, according to BCG’s Measurement Maturity Landscape Survey 2025.”
That’s not just a gap in reporting; it’s a gap in realized potential. As Google’s host Sarah Byrne, director of sales for agency, UKI said, in today’s (predictably) unpredictable world of consumer behavior – where people are streaming, scrolling, searching and shopping across more than 130 mobile touch points a day – understanding that potential has never been more critical.
“We all believe that marketing is a crucial investment in the businesses we represent. The difference between advertisers who win and those who don’t is great measurement,” said Kalaria. The marketers who are closing that gap are balancing the precision of data with the potential of creativity – or as Harriet Williams, head of marketing measurement at L’Oréal UKI, put it: “finding the harmony between the maths and the magic.”
To move the needle for their businesses, marketing leaders need modern measurement to move from insights to action, and drive real change. “Marketing effectiveness is the reason marketing exists in the first place,” said Joanna Stringer, managing director & partner at BCG, who gave attendees a first look at the Measurement Maturity research and outlined a 24-month roadmap to media effectiveness.
Read on for five key lessons we heard from Google experts and guest speakers across the day.
Google’s global director of product, Christophe Combette, shared a simple but powerful analogy: think of your marketing activity as a train. AI might be the engine, but data is the fuel. It’s about building and laying down the tracks and finding the most efficient energy source. “It’s not AI that gives you the competitive edge, it’s your data,” he said. “Data is what can both slow down your AI or turn it into a game changer for your business.”
Combette shared an example from StartUp Jobs, as proof that strong data foundations and gaining visibility into data you weren’t even aware were being lost can unlock better decisions: the CEO of the company described implementing first-party mode with Google like “lifting a veil we didn’t even know was there”, leading to a 27% increase in weekly reported users.
How to do it:
Invest in first-party data strategies that unify online and offline signals.
Implement tools like Google Ads Data Manager to activate audiences across platforms.
Prioritize clean consented signals that fuel smarter, privacy-safe targeting.
For many brands, measurement still sits in silos, disconnected from broader business goals. Best-in-class advertisers are breaking those siloes down. They’re triangulating truth through a modernized measurement toolkit: marketing mix modelling (MMM) to see the big picture, multi-touch attribution (MTA) for immediate impact, and incrementality testing to isolate true lift.
“Solid measurement is table stakes, not the silver bullet,” said Matt Darbon, digital marketing lead at Waitrose. “We combine econometrics, digital attribution, and customer surveys – and that gets us 80% of the way there.” For his team, layering qualitative insights on top of hard data is what makes the numbers meaningful. “Customer surveys are often the missing piece – they show us not just what happened, but why.”
According to research from BCG, 76% of UK advertisers report using MMM, making it no longer just a trend but a marketing imperative. Yet the same BCG research showed that only 23% have MMMs with granular data that allows them to derive actionable insights. “Good, accurate MMM results rely on three things: great data, applying best practices and generating actionable insights,” explained Lisa Jakobovits, global product manager, media effectiveness at Google. With its open-source, end-to-end MMM solution Meridian, Google is among the first media providers to externalize reach and frequency data, enabling advertisers to get a more advanced understanding of video performance.
How to do it:
Combine measurement methods to get a fuller view of campaign performance.
Invest in granular data inputs to allow for actionable insights in MMM.
Use incrementality tests to validate MMM models and inform strategy.
According to The Effectiveness Equation research from Google and partners, only 40% of business leaders say their organization has clear marketing effectiveness goals. Even fewer (20%) agree on how to measure them. Therein lies the challenge: finance and marketing often speak different languages.
L’Oréal’s Williams shared how the brand is shifting the conversation with finance from “justifying spend” to “showing strategic impact”. That includes understanding marginal ROI (the return on the next pound spent) – which Sarah Ashley from Google’s EMEA market insights team calls “the unsung hero of marketing metrics” – and measuring marketing’s role in driving pricing power.
In one FMCG case study shared at the event, brand investment helped reduce price elasticity – so when prices were raised by 14%, revenue rose 7% despite a drop in volume. Without marketing, that same price hike would have only yielded a 2% increase.
Frame marketing in business terms: customer lifetime value, pricing power and profitability.
Know your marginal ROI to guide investment decisions.
Work cross-functionally to secure stakeholder buy-in for effectiveness.
One reason for the communication breakdown between teams could be that only 11% of advertisers use shared KPIs between marketing and finance, and only 18% actively bring effectiveness insights into cross-team decision-making, finds Google and BCG research. Trust isn’t won through dashboards alone. It comes from collaboration. Brands that embed measurement into cross-functional teams see better results and stronger alignment.
“Measurement is the best vehicle to build trust,” said Mauricio Ferreira, group marketing effectiveness lead at RVU (the business behind Confused.com, Uswitch and Tempcover), with Alex Kukstas, group senior brand analyst, adding: “We can have all the data points in the world, but unless our senior leaders believe it, we’re ultimately not driving decisions.”
Once marketers have solidified their data foundations and nailed a robust measurement strategy, they need the “final piece of the puzzle” which is to bring all of this together to unlock data-driven decision making to drive transformation, top line growth, and profitability.
“The one constant we see is the need for rigour,” said Steven Rampersad, analytical consultant at Google, presenting a practical approach called Prove & Grow. “It’s not enough to just have data; we need to be able to use that data to gather solid evidence. Enabling us to build a compelling business case to drive the right business decisions.”
How to do it:
Establish joint measurement committees across marketing, finance, and strategy.
Set a shared learning agenda that spans brand and performance.
Turn insights into business actions – and measure the outcomes.
One of the most talked-about statistics of the day came from Google’s research: 50% of the value of a campaign can still be felt up to 24 months after it runs. “So if you are only measuring the impact in the first four months, you are potentially missing 50% of the effect (and credit),” explained Ashley.
Dom Boyd, managing director at Kantar UK, who leads the Marketing Effectiveness Practice, introduced a blueprint for modern brand building and measurement – making a compelling case for thinking beyond the campaign window.
“Strong brands enable businesses to sell more, charge more, and be more resilient to crises,” said Boyd. “Platforms like YouTube can play a really strong role to help maximize potential by driving effective brand-building reach; by providing more powerful contexts that drive sales potential; and by targeting new audiences and occasions.”
How to do it:
Don’t optimize solely for short-term metrics like clicks or ROAS.
Bring brand measurement into your core effectiveness framework.
Embrace MMM acceleration to measure long-term impact at pace.
The summit closed with a challenge for everyone in the room from Google’s Byrne: “What are you doing to shift your culture from proof and fear to curiosity and learning?”
It’s not enough to implement new tools. The marketers who will win in 2025 and beyond are those who change the narrative – from chasing proof to championing potential.
All the AI, all the models, and all the insights won’t deliver growth unless they’re backed by the right mindset. The maths matters. Magic matters. But most of all, how marketers choose to use them – together – to measure what matters is what will really move marketing forward.
“Modern measurement holds the key; it can help you capture high-quality data, improve accuracy, unlock relevant insights, move marketing to a profit center, and drive growth for your business,” said Byrne. “All of this begins with measuring what matters.”
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