In his latest column, Alex Lamaro-McCrindle, (with a little help from Drake), digital lead, Miroma Founders Network, looks at why numbers mean clarity, and clarity means progress…

I am one of those marketers that loves a spreadsheet. Loves numbers. Loves forecasting. Give me a brief with a hard number and I will break that number down. I find it one of the most therapeutic tasks in my job and I do it regularly. Last week I caught myself humming Drake's "Started From The Bottom" while running forecast numbers. Make of that what you will.

There is something genuinely satisfying about taking a big challenge and making it manageable. Breaking a sales target into its component parts. Addressing the comments we always hear. What if we improve the creative? What if we try new audiences? What if we optimise better? Can we try different channels? Work through those questions methodically and you get real clarity on what performance media can deliver.

Once you run the numbers, something becomes visible. You can see when you are working in the margins. Small gains, incremental improvements, harder work for diminishing returns. And you can see when there is a gap that a performance media approach alone will never close. The numbers give you that clarity. And that clarity gives you the foundation for the conversation that needs to happen next.

Build from the bottom

The approach that makes this work is bottom-up planning. Start with the channels you already know and already trust. Search, paid social, programmatic. If you have been running these channels for any period of time you already have a sense of what they can deliver. Cost per acquisition, conversion rates, audience sizes. There is a familiarity and a confidence in these numbers that is valuable. And for senior stakeholders who are less close to the day to day, this is the part of the plan where the numbers are tangible and the logic is easy to follow. Build from the bottom and you bring everyone with you before you ask them to take a bigger step.

Bottom-up planning only works if the numbers you are building from are numbers you have confidence in. That starts with having an attribution framework in place that you trust. What that looks like will differ from business to business. But there are plenty of methodologies available. Multi touch attribution, incrementality testing, market mix modelling, or a combination of all three. The important thing is that you have made a conscious decision about how you are measuring performance and that decision is one you can stand behind in a room full of senior stakeholders.

Identify the gap

Forecasting is rarely a simple task. But it can be liberating. Running the numbers and pushing performance as far as it can go gives you something valuable, a ceiling. And once you have that ceiling, the gap between what performance can deliver and what the business needs becomes visible. That gap may have two possible responses.

First, look at whether performance can close more of it. Improved creative, different targeting, smarter allocation across channels can all move the needle. But there is a limit to how far optimisation alone will take you. When performance is working as well as it can and the gap is still there, you have your answer. The next stage of growth requires building demand, not just capturing it. That is where brand comes in.

Bring in brand

Choosing where to start with brand doesn't have to be complicated. Go back to your audience understanding. Where are they spending their time outside of search and social? That will tell you which brand channels deserve your first investment.

Measure with confidence

What is important is that you put together a measurement framework that specifies how you are going to measure the impact brand is having. Not all measurement solutions will be available to every business due to complexity, cost, or the scale of investment. So your framework needs to be realistic, sensible, and one you are confident will actually pick up whether your brand activity is working.

Brand studies are the gold standard. They give you a clear read on awareness and perception and allow you to track change over time. But they can be expensive and may not be feasible for everyone. If you are trying to shift awareness or brand sentiment, having something that gives you an indication of where you stand and allows you to track it over time is always worth having.

Share of voice monitoring is another useful proxy. There is plenty of evidence that share of voice drives share of market over time, making it a practical indicator of brand health.

For businesses with tighter budgets or earlier stage brand investment, branded search volume is one of the most accessible signals available. If brand is working, more people will search for you by name. Incrementality testing is a method we use regularly with clients, running brand activity in some markets or geographies and comparing exposed versus unexposed groups is a strong proof of concept. Direct traffic trends can also be a useful indicator, though it is worth flagging that cookie consent changes and LLM search behaviours are significantly affecting website traffic data, making this signal less reliable than it once was.

Market mix modelling has become far more accessible and affordable in recent years. But approach it with caution. It is as much art as science and a topic that I could write an entire article of my opinions on.

Starting from the bottom is not a consolation. It is a strategy. Build your performance foundation, pressure test your numbers, identify the gap, and let the plan tell you what it needs next. That is how you make the case for brand without it feeling like a leap of faith. And that is how you bring a room full of sceptical senior stakeholders with you.

"Started from the bottom. Now you have a plan to get there." Sing along, if you get the Drake reference.