There is a deafening amount of noise surrounding marketing effectiveness.
Every agency, platform, and consultant champions their own proprietary approach. They promise the “best” methodology. They peddle complex attribution models that look impressive in a slide deck but fall apart in the boardroom.
For a CMO managing a £20m+ budget, this ambiguity is dangerous. You aren’t looking for technical debates on Bayesian priors. You are looking for the bottom line.
You need to know what is actually driving net new customers. You need to know how much more you could scale if you reallocated spend intelligently. And you need to know it now, not in a post-campaign audit six months from now.
We see this frustration daily. Fast-growing brands hit a plateau because their measurement can’t keep pace with their execution.
It’s time to rethink the status quo.
The Reality: Models Don't Drive Growth. Decisions Do.
The industry has obsessed over the “perfect” model for too long. But a model is static. The market is not.
If your measurement strategy is purely a retrospective look at what happened, you are driving using the rear-view mirror. Real effectiveness requires a shift from reporting to predicting.
At Charlie Oscar, we built COmpass to solve this. We didn’t build it around one rigid methodology. We built it around what real marketing teams need: clarity, confidence, and speed.
We found that when measurement finally makes sense, teams make brave decisions. They invest with confidence. They unlock growth that has been hidden in plain sight.
Here is the framework you need to cut through the noise and choose a partner that doesn’t just measure your marketing, but actively improves it.
1. Focus on Outcomes, Not Methodologies
Stop asking “How does the model work?” and start asking “What will this model solve?”
Many agencies hide behind black-box methodologies. To pioneer real growth, you must clarify what matters before the ink dries on the contract.
The shift: Demand a focus on pinpointing true incremental drivers of revenue, not just correlation. Your partner must understand full-funnel impact—paid, owned, earned, influencer, retail, and promo.
If they can’t forecast business outcomes versus channel outcomes, they aren’t strategic partners. They are just reporters.
2. Align Insight Cadence with Decision Speed
The rhythm of your insights must match the rhythm of your decisions.
Traditional econometrics delivers results annually or quarterly. In the app economy, that is a lifetime. If leadership receives results 90 days late, those results are obsolete.
The shift: You need insights fast enough to change live plans. We engineered Compass to deliver insights in four weeks and update frequently. This ensures modelling moves at the speed of your business, not the speed of an outdated audit cycle.
3. Demand Transparency and Financial Validation
Accuracy only matters if you can explain and trust the outputs.
We often see CMOs struggle to defend marketing spend to the CFO because the data is wrapped in “proprietary” opacity. If finance cannot easily interpret and validate the model, your budget is at risk.
The shift: Ask for drivers, lag, decay, and coefficients. Demand human interpretation, not just a dashboard. Transparency builds trust; trust builds budgets.
4. Bridge the Gap Between Granularity and Strategy
There is a false dichotomy between Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) and Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA). Brands are told they must choose between the “big picture” and “granular detail.”
This is false. You need both.
The shift: Set expectations on granularity early. Do you need influencer breakdowns by tier, content type, or format? Compass blends MMM accuracy with MTA-style granularity. This gives you detail by format, creator, and platform while retaining full incrementality across the funnel.
5. Plan for Adoption and Action
The most sophisticated model means nothing if it isn’t adopted across teams.
Data without interpretation does not create change. A partner must do more than hand over a login. They must guide you on what to do next. They must challenge assumptions, sense-check anomalies, and embed measurement into weekly routines.
The shift: Ensure your partner has real operational channel expertise. They should provide practical recommendations and a growth strategy overlay, turning outputs into real action.
Redefining the Standard
The real question isn’t “Who has the best MMM methodology?”
It is: “Who fits how your organisation thinks, decides, and grows?”
Future-proofing your business requires a system that evolves with your marketing reality. It must adapt to new channels—CTV, podcasts, retail media—and remain privacy-safe as data signals shift.
The right partner won’t just measure your marketing. They will help you build a more effective, efficient, and confident growth engine.
Ready to build what matters?
If you are ready to move beyond vanity metrics and start measuring for revenue, let’s talk. Whether you need help structuring an RFP or want to see an example of a COmpass output, I’m always happy to help.
Drop me a note on LinkedIn. Let’s conquer the next phase of your growth.
