This document discusses how marketers have traditionally focused on short-term metrics like sales that favor tactics like digital advertising. While these tactics show high short-term ROI, they risk falling into an "instant ROI trap" by only targeting consumers interested in immediate purchases. This narrow focus fails to build brands for the long-term or attract new customers. The document argues marketers need advanced analytics to understand both short and long-term ROI in order to balance brand-building and promotional tactics across channels for sustainable growth. It concludes marketers using the most advanced measurement can optimize spending based on audience segments and media goals.

1. 1
Avoiding the Instant ROI Trap
with Advanced Analytics

2. 2
Introduction
For years, marketers have been on the defensive when it came
to tangibly demonstrating advertising’s contribution to financial
metrics. Lack of data and the inherent complexity of the multi-
touch path to purchase forced marketers to rely on softer
advertising metrics and limited outcome analysis to the top of
the customer engagement funnel. The prevailing logic was that
advertising built awareness and brand, while promotion, pricing,
sales and distribution drove conversion.
Then, with the proliferation of digital technologies, media
consumption habits changed significantly, along with available
data and metrics. The promise of accountability—explicit
connection to sales and reduced waste through more precise
targeting—led to significant shifts in the media mix. But that
data has largely favored short-term goals, leaving marketers with
an unbalanced set of metrics to drive marketing decisions and
operations. In simpler terms, just because it’s measurable doesn’t
mean it’s right.
As a result of today’s typical measurement and analytics practices,
marketing is often undervalued and driven by an inefficient mix of
tactics and programs. This is a costly impediment to business
growth, but can be avoided with new analytical techniques.

3. 3
The Advertiser’s Strategy Today
As consumers spend more time on digital and mobile platforms,
advertisers are (not surprisingly) shifting their investments to align
with this change in behavior.
The increased use of digital and mobile platforms has unleashed
a host of data and metrics promising to explicitly or algorithmically
connect the effects of advertising to business outcomes and better
target and reach relevant audiences.
Today, advertisers are using analytics capabilities like direct
attribution, multi-touch attribution models or marketing mix models
to demonstrate value and optimal allocation, further contributing to
shifts in allocation.
These analytical approaches connect marketing to short-term sales
response and demonstrate what appears to be high returns from
digital tactics such as paid search and display advertising.
Additionally, programmatic buying is increasing as available data is
leveraged on both the demand and supply side to support audience-
based real-time bidding. Advertisers are embracing programmatic
for its ability to target more relevant audience groups, drive higher
conversion and eliminate waste.
So, on the surface, it appears that advertisers have finally cracked the
code; they’re leveraging data to make optimal allocation decisions,
reach relevant consumers with the right message and demonstrate
the financial impact and return of their investments. But, despite the
obvious advantages, there are limits to the current approach.
TV
10%
25%
40%
DIGITAL MOBILE
Source: IAB, Nielsen, ZenithOptimedia and eMarketer.
Numbers on bars denote % change in share 2014-2015
TV
10%
25%
40%
% SHARE OF TIME SPENT
DIGITAL MOBILE
-12% -8% +100%
% SHARE OF ADVERTISING SPENT
-2% +4% +266%
AUTOMOTIVE
PRINT RADIO TV ONLINE MOBILE
FINANCIAL SERVICES
TELECOM
PACKAGED
GOODS
2.8
0.8
1.7
0.36
3.1
1.2
2.0
0.3
5.5
1.4
2.8
0.8
5.6
1.9
5.1
1.2
19.3
1.6
5.3
1.8
The Advertiser’s
Strategy Today
Digital and Mobile Exhibit High Short Term ROI
Digital and mobile show high short term ROI based on Ninah MMM and MTA benchmark database. But when including long
term effects of marketing the ROI picture is often more nuanced. Marketers need to analytically balanced highly targeted
conversion driven tactics with tactics that feed the top of the funnel and build equity.

4. 4
The role of marketing is multi-faceted. On one hand, marketers must
support and drive short-term sales. But, at the same time, they must
also build strong brands that command pricing power and secure
the demand for current and future customers.
Because current metrics and measurement techniques are
frequently focused only on productivity gains and short-term sales,
many advertisers are falling into the instant ROI trap.
In this scenario, returns may be initially high as a result of reaching
consumers interested in a category and product with a promotional
message. But without efforts to drive new interest in the category,
brand and product, advertisers are targeting a small and ever-
diminishing cohort.
To address this, not only do advertisers need to balance the use of
marketing channels, they must also balance promotion vs. brand
building messages.
“Without efforts to drive new
interest...advertisers are
targeting a small and ever
diminishing cohort.”
PRECISE TARGETING
DATA-DRIVEN CAMPAIGNS
RETARGETING MESSAGING
LOW-COST IMPRESSIONS
SHORT-TERM BUYERS
GREATER EFFICIENCY NOW
MISSED AUDIENCE
UNCERTAIN PRICING POWER
HIDDEN SEGMENT VALUE
REDUCED BRAND EFFECTS
FEWER LONG-TERM BUYERS
UNREALIZED ROI
The Dark Side of the Short-Term Mindset
REACHED RESEARCHED
SHOPPED/
VISITED
BOUGHT
REPEATED/
ADVOCATED
The Dark Side of the
Short-Term Mindset

5. 5
AUTOMOTIVE
SHORT-TERM
MEDIA ROI
ROI INCLUDING
LONG-TERM BRAND
EFFECTS
FINANCIAL
SERVICES
TELECOM
PACKAGED
GOODS
3.2
1.9
1.8
0.8
5.5
2.9
2.4
1.5
Today, brand impact measures go beyond awareness, consideration
and equity statements to include factors like experience and word-of
mouth. Promotion, in contrast, is measured in short-term sales.
It is this lack of a common currency metric across these objectives
(and customer segmentation) that prevents marketers from
effectively balancing brand and promotion and ultimately contributes
to the instant ROI trap.
The impact is significant: benchmarks show that by evaluating only
the short-term impact in financial terms, marketers are undervaluing
brand contribution and ROI by as much as 75%
Fortunately, new analytical techniques
are enabling marketers to understand the
interplay between brand and promotion,
giving them the ability to express the value of
each in terms of long-term sales and profit.
This allows for more optimal coordination
of each.
MARKETING
BRAND
EFFECTS
YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR
YOUR BRAND – TODAY AND TOMORROW
LONGER-TERM EFFECTS
SHORT-TERM EFFECTS
BRAND MULTIPLIER
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE SALES & ROI
Finding the Right Balance for Growth
Finding the Right
Balance for Growth

6. 6
A Path to Advertising Success
Today, successful marketers are not satisfied with measurement
for measurement’s sake. They understand that they don’t simply
need data to drive and maintain a competitive advantage—
they need the right data. By adopting today’s most advanced
measurement and analytics practices, marketers can:
• More effectively and analytically balance branding and
promotion
• Embrace digital and mobile channels without getting caught
in the instant ROI trap
• Understand how channels can work better together to
achieve specific media goals and audience segment priorities
• Uncover the drivers of both short-term and long-term ROI to
inform strategic planning and allocation decisions.
To learn more about the new analytics techniques available to
support the current and evolving demands of marketing, contact
Ninah Consulting.
Ninah Consulting is a leading global professional services
company, providing a broad range of marketing analytic services
and solutions in demand strategy, data management, modeling,
and activation.