Over a third of senior leaders also admit not always understanding the connection between campaign analysis and future decision making.
Are the analytics available for measuring creative effectiveness always fit for purpose? Marketers don’t seem to think so.
Half (51.7%) of CMOs and marketing directors responding to Marketing Week’s 2025 Language of Effectiveness survey, in partnership with Kantar and Google, are unhappy with the analytics available to analyse creative effectiveness.
Some 49.4% of the total sample of more than 1,000 brand marketers don’t rate the analytics available when measuring creative effectiveness, a figure which rises to 57% for B2B marketers. Those targeting a business audience are more likely than their B2C peers (48.5%) to be concerned about the quality of analytics.
Are the analytics available for measuring creative effectiveness always fit for purpose? Marketers don’t seem to think so.
Half (51.7%) of CMOs and marketing directors responding to Marketing Week’s 2025 Language of Effectiveness survey, in partnership with Kantar and Google, are unhappy with the analytics available to analyse creative effectiveness.
Some 49.4% of the total sample of more than 1,000 brand marketers don’t rate the analytics available when measuring creative effectiveness, a figure which rises to 57% for B2B marketers. Those targeting a business audience are more likely than their B2C peers (48.5%) to be concerned about the quality of analytics.
A difference emerges when cutting the data by size of business. While over half (55.6%) of marketers working in SMEs (250 employees and under) are unhappy with the analytics on offer, this number drops to 46.6% among those within large businesses – albeit still a significant minority.
When it comes to media measurement specifically, over a third (36.9%) of the total sample don’t have confidence their brand can measure short- and long-term effectiveness across channels. Worryingly, this is an opinion shared by a sizeable chunk (44.1%) of CMOs.
Under 40% of marketers always measure ROI
B2B marketers (48.2%) are more likely to question their company’s ability to measure short- and long-term effectiveness across media channels than their B2C peers (35.5%).
Over two-fifths of marketers in smaller firms (41.5%) and more than a third (34.9%) of their counterparts in large businesses also lack confidence in their brand’s ability to measure effectiveness across a variety of media, both in the short and long term.
This lack of confidence in the tools available, and their ability to measure both creative and media effectiveness, is laddering up to something potentially even more concerning.
Over a third (35%) of senior marketers admit they don’t always understand the connection between campaign results/analysis and future decision making.
A third (33.4%) of the total sample are sceptical about the way campaign analysis is fed into future decisions about the direction of marketing.
Likewise, over a third of B2B (36%) and B2C (35.1%) marketers admit to not always understanding the way campaign analysis is used to inform future decision making. These numbers are relatively similar regardless of whether marketers work in a small business (30.7%) or large corporate (35%).
Relationships matter
A lack of cohesion between marketing and other functions could well be contributing to issues around how effectiveness data is interpreted and then informs strategy.
Most of the sample (70.3%) agree a lack of connectivity between marketing teams and data hinders improvements in marketing effectiveness. This is an opinion shared by almost three quarters (74.1%) of B2B marketers and 70.8% of their B2C peers.
There are similar high levels of agreement within SMEs (69.1%) and marketers working in large businesses (71.5%).
However, even though marketers understand a lack of connectivity between marketing and data stymies improvements to effectiveness, under half of the total sample claim to have a close relationship with finance.
Some 48.3% of respondents say they collaborate regularly with finance around marketing returns and future investments. The number improves slightly for CMOs and marketing directors, 56.7% of whom claim to collaborate regularly with their counterparts in finance. At managerial level, this number drops to 41.5%.
Less than a third (32.6%) of B2B marketers say they have a close relationship with finance, far lower (51.5%) than their peers in consumer facing businesses.
Under half (46%) of marketers in small firms and large corporates (49.3%) claim to regularly collaborate with finance on discussions around the impact of marketing and making the case for future investment.
Marketing Week will continue its reporting from the Language of Effectiveness research in the coming weeks. Click here to download our report on the data.
