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Top 3 Reasons Commercial Intelligence is the Future of Marketing Measurement

By Analytic Partners

July 25, 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI), ChatGPT, the European Data Act, carbon emissions and sustainability… unless you live in a cave, you can’t miss the new technological and political storms that are shaking up marketing. It is likely that in the years to come, neglecting to embrace the powerful tools provided by AI or disregarding carbon emissions in marketing campaign planning will lead to becoming outdated. For brands, compiling and integrating all the new factors constantly emerging in their business strategy is no easy task.

To adjust to the complexity of today’s business environment, brands need to ask the right questions that truly reflect the commercial landscape. Then, they can turn this Commercial Intelligence into future-proofed and data-driven decision making. Here are the top 3 reasons to choose this forward-looking and outcome-focused intelligence.

1. Overcoming traditional performance measurement limitations

In an attempt to measure the result of marketing efforts, the two most common measurement solutions are Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA). The first one, with its strategic top-down approach, analyzes marketing effects, mainly in the early stages, using a data-driven approach. However, it has limitations as it only provides a broad overview and can’t capture all factors influencing consumer behavior.

On the other hand, MTA, with its tactical bottom-up methodology, focuses on digital activities in later stages, tracking the last customer interactions before purchase. But it lacks complete data, considering limited access and untraceable events. This methodology struggles with accounting for factors like economic conditions and business operations, and in-person activities. In the past, marketers have tried to combine MMM and MTA to get a more unified vision of their marketing efforts, but this attempt falls short, lacking cohesion and actionable results.

For instance, last click and other user-level metrics give a biased view of what actions in a customer’s journey really contribute to sales as they might incorrectly attribute clicks and impacts to the wrong channel. Our ROI Genome research suggests that 30% of search clicks are generated by other types of marketing, as presented in our last Flash “Data Doesn’t Lie, But Your Marketing Metrics an Mislead You”.

2. Breaking down silos

A problem that many organizations are still facing, and that is fueled by fragmented measurement approaches, is organizational siloes. Each department is responsible for different tasks and operates in their own bubble. They often see themselves responsible for only the activities and metrics they are overlooking and analyzing. They are missing out on connecting the dots to form one version of truth that reflects and drives the whole business

But the customer does not care about departments. They engage with the brand across multiple channels and touchpoints, and their decisions are influenced by many factors, including: the product itself, marketing efforts, economic factors, accessibility, environmental conditions, and competition, just to name a few.

Brands need to understand all the different factors that influence customers’ decisions and adapt accordingly. Working in silos and using siloed metrics more broadly can lead to poor decisions and missed opportunities in investment and marketing strategies, as they give a biased view of all activities and their impact on consumers. In fact, according to our ROI Genome research, 35 cents of opportunity are lost for every one dollar spent if spending is prioritized based on siloed measurement.

3. Embracing a commercial view for better data-driven decisioning

Today’s business environment is getting more and more complex as both the quantity of channels and access to data increase, next to a multitude of external factors influencing decision-making. Combining transformational technology and innovative data science provides brands with Commercial Intelligence, a new approach to data-driven decision-making.

Commercial analytics is Analytic Partners’ foundational analytics solution and our way of helping customers achieve Commercial Intelligence – it identifies and measures the impact and return of all business activities. This tried and tested solution combines numerous data points and integrates it with live, always-on models that enable brands to ask the right questions and get answers in an accessible and user-friendly way.

Moreover, commercial analytics is constantly fueled with proprietary knowledge and industry expertise from the ROI Genome. This powerful business intelligence database provides best-in-class market intelligence, trends, best practices, and benchmarks to guide users through the full analytics journey from data to decisioning – and ultimately helps develop Commercial Intelligence for some of the most recognized global brands.

Embracing Commercial Intelligence not only serves marketing teams but also CEOs, CFOs, revenues and operators as it provides a common language across the company. It’s a solution that sorts through the complexity to make sense of all business drivers, including external factors, and then generates insights that answer growth objectives.