Stacking Growth | The B2B Marketing Podcast How to Measure the ROI of Brand Marketing
Jul 29, 2025
In this enlightening discussion, Dale Harrison, a renowned speaker at Refine Labs with expertise in brand and performance marketing, delves into the complexities of measuring ROI in brand marketing. He tackles common misconceptions, emphasizing the importance of showcasing long-term value. Dale critiques the limitations of ROI as a sole metric and offers insights into lift analysis as a vital tool. He also reveals how real-time data can effectively link ad spending to consumer behavior, challenging traditional perceptions of brand marketing's measurability.
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ROI Misconception Origins
- Marketers created the expectation of ROI by promising precise digital attribution that proved inaccurate.
- Finance now demands ROI due to this training, but marketers must retrain finance for broader metrics.
B2B vs DTC ROI Differences
- Marketing ROI is suitable for short sales cycles like DTC where purchase follows quickly after marketing.
- B2B suffers from long sales cycles making typical ROI calculations misleading and ineffective for marketing.
ROI's Real 'R' Explained
- ROI's "R" means incremental contribution margin, not total revenue.
- Contribution margin deducts production and sales costs, showing true profit from sales after costs.