ROI Silver Bullet: Fact or Fiction?

What’s holding back marketing managers from comprehensively measuring their Marketing spends and ROI?  Is it process? Technology? Mindset?  People?

Pat LaPointe, writing for CMO Magazine, suggests another possible reason: The Measurement Demon.

One such demon is called “The Silver Bullet Hunter.” This is a person, perhaps lurking in your very department, who “seeks the simplistic, single index to explain all aspects of marketing effectiveness,” says LaPointe, referring to that person’s search for a single “holy grail of measurement,” ignoring anything else as being “too complex.”

Think of it. What harried “feet-being-held-to-the-fire” Chief Marketing Officer wouldn’t pay a fortune to have the ROI Silver Bullet to show off to the CFO? “Hey, look at this: 300% ROI! I want a raise!”

The reality, of course, is that if you had a Silver Bullet Hunter in your department with THE solution, you’d be looking for work, right?

Let’s face it—marketing measurement takes hard work. It takes talking to the accounting, operations, sales and finance types, understanding the drivers of the business and synthesizing complex and disparate data into Key Performance Indicators and executive reports and marketing dashboards that are unique to the business.

So, as LaPointe states, while it’s okay to have diversity of thought, you also need to have Silver Bullet Hunters see beyond a single number, to
see what really is behind comprehensive marketing measurement – and to understand what marketing measures matter most to your business.