"Meanwhile, you're wondering: are we investing in the appropriate channels? Are we optimizing toward what's truly driving outcomes or just what's easy to measure? If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. According to the IAB's State of Data 2026 report, 60%-75% of marketers say their measurement approaches fall short on coverage, consistency, timeliness and trust. Not a single respondent said their MMM covers all paid media channels. Your CTV investment? Probably underrepresented. Same with retail media, gaming, creator content and audio."
"Here's what happens: when you can't easily measure a channel, you invest less in it or skip it entirely. You call it smart allocation. But really, measurement bias is dictating your strategy. You're optimizing for the wrong thing Your models likely lean on platform-level or last-touch attribution. Your dollars keep flowing to lower-funnel channels that are easy to track, even when you suspect they're not the most influential. That mid-funnel brand campaign? The podcast sponsorship? They're undervalued because your measurement can't see them clearly."
"Here's the more complicated truth: your models are confusing correlation with causation. A channel being present at conversion doesn't mean it caused the outcome. Without incrementality testing or causal frameworks, you're optimizing based on coincidence rather than contribution. I've watched planning teams default to what worked last quarter, not because they believe it's right, but because that's what the outputs indicate."
Analytics teams spend hours connecting offline and online campaigns while relying on predominantly last-touch or opaque attribution methods. Marketing mix models (MMM) often lack coverage for paid channels such as CTV, retail media, gaming, creator content and audio. The IAB State of Data 2026 reports 60%-75% of marketers find measurement approaches deficient in coverage, consistency, timeliness and trust. Measurement gaps cause underinvestment in channels that are hard to measure. Models that prioritize platform-level or last-touch signals push dollars to lower-funnel channels that are easy to track. Without incrementality testing or causal frameworks, optimization can mistake correlation for causation and reinforce biased allocations.
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