Tips for Overcoming Measurement Challenges

Common situation: a CMO reaches out, ready to modernize their measurement and evolve beyond attribution. Budget approved. Leadership aligned. Then we look at their data 🤢 Most brands aren't ready for modern measurement, even if they think they are. Data cleanup alone can delay launch by months. Here's what we commonly find: - Historical data scattered or missing - No centralized data warehouse - Random campaign naming conventions - Basic platform access issues - Geographic data gaps Want to be ready for modern measurement in 2025? Here's your roadmap for getting your data house in order: 1. Data Consolidation You'll need 2+ years of data for proper Media Mix Modeling. - All of your campaigns across paid and organic - Spend (or impressions) This is often challenging for large/enterprise brands...multiple agencies, dozens of social/paid media accounts, online and offline channels, etc. Quick Tips: - Daily data preferred, weekly minimum - Spreadsheet ok, data warehouse preferred - ETL tools are your friends to automate API pulls 2. Campaign Classification This is the silent killer of measurement projects. The better we understand the campaigns that were run, the better the model output will be. You should tag (and name) your campaigns to cluster by: - Marketing channel (affiliate, paid search, etc) - Platform (Meta, Google, TikTok, etc.) - Funnel stage (TOF/MOF/BOF) - Audience - Product category - Promotional periods Campaign Examples: Bad: "Q1_2024_v2" Good: "GOOGADS_NB_US_TOF_HOLIDAY_ELECTRONICS_VIDEO_15S_BROAD" Ps, don't feel bad. 80% of our clients need significant data cleaning. Save us both time and start your naming convention cleanup today. Future you will be grateful. 3. Access Management The number of times we've heard "No one actually has those login credentials..." is staggering. - Assign clear data ownership - Document all platforms and accounts - Centralize credential management Be honest, is your data house in order? Your model will only be as good as it's source data. Garbage in garbage out. Let me know if you have questions (we've seen it all, you won't scare me). #measurement #mmm #marketinganalytics ♻️ Share this with marketing folks 🔔 Follow me for more rants on data + marketing

A colleague of mine asked a great question recently: “Our display ads show solid view-through conversions, but how do I know if we’re spending too much or too little? Some of these conversions would happen anyway.” It’s a question I get a lot — and one that cuts right to the heart of modern measurement. Here’s what I told him: 1. View-through conversions ≠ incrementality. Just because someone saw your ad and later bought doesn’t mean the ad *caused* the sale. Many of those users might have converted anyway. So before increasing spend, it’s critical to know: *What’s the true lift?* 2. Incrementality testing is essential. The best marketers run geo holdouts, sophisticated A/B tests, or randomly selected matched market experiments. These give you a clean read on whether your display ads are actually *driving* results — or just taking credit. 3. Leading indicators matter too. One sophisticated client I have uses AI to track marketing metrics as leading indicators of effectiveness: increases in brand measures, branded search activity, CLV shifts among exposed audiences. These signals tell you if you’re moving in the right direction *before* the conversions show up. 4. Ask better questions, not just measure more. Don’t settle for surface-level metrics. Align your measurement to business impact. That means understanding how different channels contribute to awareness, consideration, and — most importantly — profitable growth. Efficiency metrics like CTR or ROAS don’t tell the whole story. The smartest brands go deeper. Art+Science Analytics Institute | University of Notre Dame | University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | University of Chicago | D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University | ELVTR | Grow with Google - Data Analytics #Analytics #DataStorytelling

Every company I work with or have observed struggles with metrics measurement at some point. They measure too much that doesn't matter at too fine a level of detail or they don't measure much. Certainly not the correct metrics to be successful. Crystal Widjaja is no stranger to this either. Over 5 years she built Gojek from a very small company to a super-app powerhouse as their SVP of Growth and Data. She knows what to measure, how to measure it, and how to evolve your data practices to get to the right place. In today's FishmanAF newsletter she shares all of it -- starting with how to identify the symptoms of Data Theater all the way through actionable steps to building great data practices and how to leverage data to focus on the right work. The work that matters to your customers and your company. She covers: 🎭 The signs that you're performing Data Theater 🗺 The Altitude Map framework she created to break free of poor data practices 🚶♀️ A step-by-step guide to implementing Altitude Maps at your company 🛣 An Altitude Map template that you can use... today! She says, "If you don’t have a strong understanding of the company’s ecosystem and a repeatable (see: sustainable) process to make data-driven product decisions, even the best-in-class data tooling inevitably turns OKR setting and product meetings into Data Theater." In product strategy we tend to over-index on goal setting as the primary driver of success. We create ambitious goals with the intention that they will motivate our teams to achieve outstanding results. Nearly every company has some form of yearly OKRs or KPIs with goals set for different teams in the organization, but these metrics often devolve into data theater. They become superficial justifications for feature prioritization or reduced to a simple checklist of items in your product-building process. There are three symptoms that you're stuck in Data Theater: 1️⃣ A disconnect between the org structure and the "physics" of the business. 2️⃣ Rigid focus on select, low-level KPIs/metrics/features despite new insights 3️⃣ Lack of a repeatable, systematic approach to separate signal from noise The solution is Altitude Maps. This is a quantitative "map" of the product area we own (our altitude) that describes how our work drives impact for the organization. They organize, align and communicate the physics of our business. Implementing an Altitude Map is a repeatable process that Crystal uses with every company she advises. Learn the 5 primary steps to building an Altitude Map at your company, see how Crystal breaks it down in excruciating detail with a step-by-step walkthrough of her Altitude Map template, then use that template (in this newsletter) to make your own altitude map. Learn more at the link below!

I lost $2.3M because I was drowning in metrics. Most entrepreneurs (including my former self) fall into one of two dangerous traps when it comes to measuring business performance. Let me share what I discovered after the expensive way... Trap #1: The "Gut-Feel" Brigade These are the entrepreneurs running their entire operation on intuition. "I know my business," they say. "I can feel when things are working," they insist. I get it. But here's the truth: You can't improve what you don't measure. Trap #2: The "Data Hoarders" Then there's the opposite extreme (this was me): • 47 different KPIs • Multiple dashboards • Daily metric reviews • Endless spreadsheets What did I get? → Analysis paralysis → Decision freezes → Constant strategy shifts → Bleeding cash like a hemophiliac in a tub of razors Here's what changed everything for me: The One Metric That Matters (OMTM) Framework Instead of tracking everything or nothing, identify the ONE metric that's currently blocking your growth. Examples from my consulting work: • E-commerce client stuck at $2M/year OMTM: Cart abandonment rate Result: Added $3M in profit • Services business launching in new geo OMTM: New meetings booked Result: $1M in new business in 8 months The magic happens because: 1. Clear focus 2. Aligned teams 3. Faster decisions 4. Better results How to Find Your OMTM: 1. Identify your current #1 business goal 2. List all metrics that influence it 3. Ask: "If I could only improve ONE of these, which would have the biggest impact?" That's your OMTM. But remember: It's not static. Your OMTM will change.  Focus on your One Metric That Matters. Everything else is just noise. P.S. - if you want to know how to scale without voodoo and gurus, I write and make videos about using the scientific method in business.