On Device survey: marketers admit they can't explain campaign performance
More than 250 advertising professionals took part in research from Brand Lift measurement company On Device, and 80 per cent said they cannot fully explain why their campaigns succeeded or failed even with more data available than ever. Sixty-three per cent said they lean on educated guesses, such as sales spikes or click rates, to interpret performance, and 16 per cent said they move on to the next campaign without knowing why the previous one worked. On Device CEO and co-founder Alistair Hill said, "If four in five marketers can't explain why a campaign worked, we're clearly not measuring the right things as an industry."
Campaigns still get signed off on confidence built from guesswork: sales spikes and click rates stand in for real diagnosis, and some marketers move straight to the next campaign without learning why the last one worked. Brand Lift users report the opposite pattern: 28 per cent say they are completely confident explaining results, more than double the 14 per cent among non-users, and only 2 per cent describe themselves as flying blind after sign-off against 28 per cent among those who skip Brand Lift measurement. Budget decisions need evidence that explains outcomes and guides the next campaign. That is the gap Hill says the industry still has to close.