Four in Five Marketers Lack Confidence Explaining Campaign Performance
by on 13th Aug 2026 in News
Despite having access to more campaign data than ever before, 80% of marketers admit they do not fully understand why their advertising campaigns succeed or fail, according to new polling by brand lift measurement company On Device.
The research, conducted among over 250 advertising professionals, points to a growing confidence gap in campaign measurement. While marketers are surrounded by dashboards, reports, and performance metrics, many still struggle to explain what genuinely influenced campaign outcomes, suggesting the industry's challenge is no longer collecting more data, but improving the quality of the insight that data generates.
Among those surveyed, 63% said they rely on educated guesses, such as sales spikes or click rates, to explain campaign performance, while 16% admitted they effectively move on to the next campaign without knowing why the previous one succeeded or failed.
Interestingly, respondents already running brand lift measurement studies reported much greater confidence in evaluating campaign performance. They were twice as likely to say they were completely confident explaining campaign outcomes (28% vs 14%), while those not using brand lift were almost sixteen times more likely to admit they were effectively 'flying blind' after campaign sign-off (28% vs 2%).
Additional findings include:
- 75% admit falling back on campaign delivery metrics such as reach or CTR when campaign performance is difficult to explain.
- 30% say their biggest measurement challenge is having plenty of data but no single source of truth.
- 57% believe AI will make robust measurement even more important, while 24% worry AI tools will prioritise speed over statistical accuracy.
"The most worrying thing about these insights is what it says about the industry's confidence in its own measurement," said Alistair Hill, CEO and co-founder at On Device. "If four in five marketers can't explain why a campaign worked, we're clearly not measuring the right things as an industry."
"AI isn't going to solve that problem on its own. It'll help us make decisions faster, but only if the data behind those decisions is good enough. That's why measurement quality matters. Advertisers need evidence they can trust, not just more dashboards. The businesses that get ahead will be the ones using measurement to make better decisions about the next campaign, not just report on the last one."
The findings reinforce On Device's wider view that measurement quality is becoming a competitive advantage. As advertisers increasingly adopt AI and more sophisticated planning technologies, the value of campaign measurement will depend less on the volume of available metrics and more on the quality of the underlying evidence informing future investment decisions.
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