Don't just analyze your entire email list's performance. Create a separate set of metrics for "verified subscribers"—those who fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This allows you to differentiate what resonates with your target buyers versus the broader audience, leading to more effective content strategy.

To test a specific tactic like out-of-home or connected TV, focus the entire campaign within one geographic region. By establishing a performance baseline before the campaign and then measuring the incremental lift in branded search or sales in that area, you can better isolate the tactic's true effect.

To prove marketing's ROI, run geo-fenced ad campaigns targeted at a specific set of retail locations. By comparing sales in these "test" stores against a control group of similar stores, you can measure the direct, incremental sales lift caused by your creative, providing black-and-white accountability.

A common attribution error is assigning all sales to paid marketing activities. In reality, most brands have a strong "baseline"—sales that would occur even without marketing. Accurate measurement requires modeling this baseline first, then attributing only the incremental lift from campaigns.

To find the real impact of your marketing, intentionally exclude a small percentage (e.g., 5-10%) of your database from all campaign activities. By comparing the conversion rate of this "holdout group" to the group that received marketing, you can calculate the actual performance delta and determine if your efforts generated a genuine lift.

Focusing on a blended, company-wide conversion rate is a mistake. A flood of low-cost, low-intent traffic might lower the overall rate but still be highly profitable. The key is to isolate and improve conversion for specific, valuable cohorts, like users from a targeted ad campaign.

Moving beyond basic attribution, LinkedIn's new Conversion Lift Testing tool measures the causal impact of campaigns. It compares conversions between an ad-exposed group and a control group that saw no ads, allowing marketers to determine the true incremental value generated by their advertising.

Shift the mindset from a brand vs. performance dichotomy. All marketing should be measured for performance. For brand initiatives, use metrics like branded search volume per dollar spent to quantify impact and tie "fluffy" activities to tangible growth outcomes.

To understand a specific channel's effectiveness (e.g., out-of-home), concentrate spend in one geographic area. By comparing metrics like branded search volume in that area against a pre-campaign baseline, you can measure the channel's incremental lift, though this method can be expensive.