Marketers Struggle to Turn Measurements into Action

The third annual ANA Marketing Accountability survey reports “substantial improvements” in the ability of senior-level marketers to measure and act on ROI, but also cites obstacles to turning metrics into action, MarketingVOX reports. Some 32 percent of senior-level marketers polled said they are satisfied with their ability to measure and act on ROI to improve business results, up from 19 percent in 2005. However, 20 percent of respondents said although they are able to measure ROI they cannot act take corresponding action, mostly as a consequence of organizational and process barriers.

The poll was conducted by the Association of National Advertisers in conjunction with Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) and the 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force.

Only 36 percent of respondents said their marketing accountability efforts include the finance division and/or a cross-functional team; nearly 25 percent described their marketing accountability efforts as being in silos within the marketing department, whereas ANA best practices indicate marketers are most successful with marketing accountability when working in tandem with departments such as Finance, Analytics, IT and strategic planning.

There is some evidence that accountability is not enough of a corporate priority. Although 65 percent of the respondents said understanding the sales impact of marketing is important to senior executives, only 32 percent said there was senior-level sponsorship of this key initiative.

Also, marketing respondents said senior executives in their companies find metrics such as brand awareness and market share more important (29 percent say they are very important to their senior execs) than metrics such as customer lifetime value (14 percent say that is very important to senior execs).

“The ANA/MMA survey shows that…marketing accountability is a multi-step process of measurement and management,” said John Nardone, MMA’s chief client officer. “Many more marketers are able to measure ROI, but now need to take the next steps to integrate marketing analytics into the marketing process in order to improve business results.”

The ANA/MMA marketing accountability survey was completed by 101 senior-level marketers/ANA members in April 2006. Survey results will be revealed at the ANA Marketing Accountability Forum on July 20, 2006, in NY, where there will be a preliminary report from the ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force. Final results will be presented at the ANA Masters of Marketing Annual Conference in October, 2006.