Nerd Alert: Why Your Advertising ROI is Wrong

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.In this episode, Elena and Rob break down why proving ad ROI is far harder than most marketers assume, even with millions of dollars and millions of customers. They also unpack why the Super Bowl might be the hardest ad buy of all to measure.Topics covered: [01:00] "The Unfavorable Economics of Measuring the Returns to Advertising"[02:00] Why the spirit of ROI gets abused[03:35] Why customer spending is too noisy to spot small ad effects[06:00] How targeting bias can inflate results by 30 times[07:00] Why the Super Bowl isn't a coupon, it's fame[09:00] Could anyone actually solve the ROI theorem?To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter. Resources: Lewis, R., & Rao, J. (2015). The unfavorable economics of measuring the returns to advertising. The Economic Journal, 125(585), 1–27.  Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.