Return On Investment is something we must consider a given. If we, as marketers, don’t believe there is a return to be had, we shouldn’t make the investment. And as we’re better able to measure the success of our campaigns, our ability to make smarter decisions can only increase. Right?

But it’s in the measurement of the return that marketers can lose their footing.

As pressure increases to demonstrate measurable (and immediate) results, opportunities for a potentially greater (or longer-term) return are passed up because they aren’t as measurable as their less needle-moving alternatives.

I blame Google.

Let’s call it benchmark-eting. The phenomena of marketers being reduced to goal-setters. Hopeful goal-hitters. And eventual reporters on the goal-hitting process.

The need for return on investment is a given, the approach we take is not. At the end of the day, the question we all need to ask is: Do our stakeholders want the most measurable return – or the best one? (Sometimes the best return is the most measurable one, sometimes not.) The long-term success of your brand may depend on it.

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