At eTail Connect West, Fospha’s VP of Growth Jamie Bolton moderated a panel that tackled one of the most persistent challenges in digital marketing: how to measure impact in an omnichannel world. Joining him were John St Juliana, SVP Marketing at Backcountry, and Ryan McClurkin, Head of Performance Marketing at Affordable Care.
The session, titled “Remix: Revolutionizing Your Approach to Attribution in an Omnichannel Environment”, asked a simple but loaded question: are brands truly gauging the effect of their marketing investments across every channel? What followed was a practical debate on philosophy, finance, and the blind spots that still distort budget decisions.
A philosophy, not a single source of truth
The panelists were unanimous that there is no perfect measurement model. Multi-touch attribution (MTA), marketing mix modeling (MMM), and incrementality testing each offer useful but partial perspectives. As John St Juliana put it, “as much as we talk about measurement, I think it’s a guess.” The real discipline lies in triangulating across methods to build a credible, actionable picture.
Ryan McClurkin described it as a “three-pronged stool”: start with MTA for granular signals, layer in MMM for broader incrementality, and validate with geo-based or experimental lift tests. Each approach strengthens the other when used in concert.
The Finance Test
The conversation turned repeatedly to finance. For all the talk of models, the real test of measurement is whether a CFO buys into it. John, SVP Marketing, described how simple geo-holdout tests helped him secure incremental budget: split markets, isolate spend, prove lift, and “walk the CFO through the test.”
Marginal return curves, rooted in econometrics, were another tool that resonated with finance teams looking for clarity on diminishing returns. As Ryan, Head of Perfomance Marketing, noted CFOs are not interested in campaign performance; they want confidence in the relationship between spend and return. Measurement succeeds when it bridges marketing’s language with finance’s.
The Upper Funnel blind spot
Perhaps the most pointed theme was the undervaluation of upper-funnel investment. MTA skews towards clicks, giving disproportionate credit to retargeting and bottom-funnel channels. Yet incrementality tests repeatedly show that demand-generation channels - Meta awareness campaigns, TikTok, Snapchat - drive significant long-term value.
Ryan framed it through predictive LTV: upper-funnel investments rarely deliver immediate ROAS, but they generate future revenue streams as new customers convert again and again. Brands that crack this measurement gap can scale while maintaining efficiency, an “arbitrage opportunity” as Jamie from Foapha put it.
Build or Buy?
The session closed with the perennial question: should firms build their own measurement stack or buy from a partner? John was blunt-his team lacked the data science resources to build a robust MMM, so they partnered externally while developing simpler in-house attribution. Ryan added that the true cost of building at scale is often underestimated, with sometimes seven-figure investments required for data pipelines, talent, and ongoing calibration.
The consensus: hybrid approaches work, but buying specialist MMM capability is often the pragmatic route.
Key Takeaways
Triangulation beats dogma – MTA, MMM, and incrementality are best used together, not in isolation.
Finance is the real audience – Successful measurement speaks the CFO’s language: marginal returns and forecasted impact.
Upper funnel matters – Click-based bias undervalues discovery channels. Measurement that proves their value unlocks growth.
Trust and adoption take time – Shifting enterprises to new measurement practices can take a year or more.
Build vs buy is contextual – In-house MTA may be feasible, but MMM requires external expertise.
Editor’s Note
At ClickZ, our role is to capture and share the conversations that matter most to growth leaders. This panel at eTail Connect West made clear just how broken measurement remains: last-click still skews spend towards the bottom of the funnel, MMMs and incrementality tests are too slow to guide daily action, and the halo effect of paid media on marketplaces is often invisible.
We’re proud to partner with Fospha, whose work sits at the heart of these challenges. Fospha has built what many of the panelists were calling for: a way to combine the speed of attribution with the scope of MMM and the rigor of incrementality. Their full-funnel, daily, impression-led measurement model brings ad-level granularity without sacrificing causality.
Fospha is helping to close the exact gaps surfaced on stage turning measurement from a backward-looking report into a forward-looking driver of profitable growth.
📲 Like what you’re seeing?
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
Independently Created. Not affiliated with eTail.