This is the final article in our three-part series based on interviews with senior marketers who took part in Creative Effectiveness Decoded: The Global CMO Survey.
In our previous articles, we explored how marketers can have more productive budget discussions with their CFOs and how to build a more collaborative and analytically rigorous culture across different teams. But even with executive buy-in and aligned cross-functional teams, marketers have other barriers to overcome.
According to the Gain Theory survey, the two biggest obstacles to measuring creative are structural rather than attitudinal: 68% of marketers cite inadequate creative data taxonomy as a primary barrier, while 56% point to a lack of tools and solutions. To understand why these hurdles persist and what needs to change, we spoke with marketing leaders about the challenges they face and their vision for the future.
The structural barriers: Inadequate data and tool gaps
When marketing teams attempt to measure creative impact across complex, multi-channel campaigns, fragmented tools and incomplete data setups often dilute the results. “Limited creative-level data and fragmented measurement tools make it difficult to isolate the true impact of creative, especially across multiple channels,” explains the CMO of a global retail brand. “Having richer creative insights and more integrated platforms would significantly improve decision-making.”
The CMO points to an integrated campaign where multiple creative assets were launched simultaneously alongside media optimizations and promotional offers. Because the measurement tools could not isolate asset-level performance from broader campaign variables, determining which specific creative elements drove the overall sales uplift proved exceptionally difficult.
The CMO of a global technology company also identifies a lack of tools as the biggest barrier, recalling a campaign designed to counter competitor messaging across multiple regions: “Each of the markets was approaching it differently. There was a discussion in terms of whether we wanted to test it, but not many marketing leaders were in favor because they weren’t confident in the capability of the tool to throw up responses that would be appropriate to their local markets.”
But the Head of Marketing at a global CPG company points to the third most common barrier cited in the survey: human and cultural issues. “People just go with the flow rather than stopping and trying to understand how to do better, why to do better, and so on.”
The four items on marketers’ wish lists
To overcome these limitations, marketers are clear about what the next generation of creative measurement solutions must deliver.
1. A unified, cross-channel framework
For the Retail CMO, the ultimate goal is a single, integrated view that connects creative exposure directly to long-term commercial impact: “I’d like a more unified measurement framework that accurately connects creative exposure to long-term business outcomes across every channel. Better incrementality testing and cross-platform attribution would help isolate the true impact of creative, enabling faster optimization and more confident investment decisions.”
The CMO envisions a framework that brings brand, media, creative, and business metrics into a single dashboard: “I’d want built-in incrementality testing, creative-level reporting, and unified customer journey tracking. More importantly, it should clearly show which creative elements are actually driving business outcomes, not just engagement.”
2. Earlier testing and faster speed to insight
For the Head of Marketing in CPG, creative measurement needs to shift upstream into the ideation phase, supported by tailored benchmarks and faster turnarounds: “We would like to start earlier, when people are developing storyboards and insights. That’s where the journey should begin, so that we come out of ideation and creative route development in a more structured way.”
There’s also a need for faster “speed to insight” and better category benchmarks, particularly in niche markets where broad audience targets fall short.
3. Automated, element-level evaluation
The Tech CMO wants an automated measurement process that can analyze individual creative components while accounting for regional subcultures: “In an ideal world, I would automate the creative measurement process wherein it takes all the elements of the creative. It would test them automatically across different markets, give us feedback on cultural and subculture nuances, and provide recommendations on how to make the creative more effective.”
4. Leadership education and proven frameworks
For the CMO of a global education organization, it’s about increased awareness: “I would like to understand what is the best way to measure creative that others have used and proven out. Mostly it’s not on leadership’s radar, or even my own.”
Building the future of creative effectiveness
Throughout this three-part series, marketing leaders have made one thing clear: creative measurement can no longer remain a comparative blind spot. Defending creative budgets to the CFO requires moving beyond subjective gut feel and legacy proxies. Grounding creative investment in financial metrics, aligning cross-functional teams around a clear definition of creative effectiveness, and overcoming data, technology, and cultural barriers will all help marketers to prove and grow the impact of their creative.
“Improving creative effectiveness is one of the biggest things we can collectively do to protect and build people’s trust in our work,” says Matt Bourn, Director of Communications at the Advertising Association. “Our research shows the number one driver for people’s trust in ads is the creative quality of the work, and their subsequent enjoyment of the advertising they see and hear. And we know that trust in advertising is central to improved business performance and sales.”
Download Creative Effectiveness Decoded: The Global CMO Survey to learn more.