Why Making Every Marketing Decision Based on Data Is a Terrible Idea

Marketing is messier than that. The reality is that some of the most effective, brand-building, long-term marketing strategies are the least measurable. And by clinging to data as your only source of truth, you’ll ignore critical tactics that drive results precisely because they can’t be tied neatly to a click, pixel or dashboard.

It sounds smart: "We'll only invest in what we can track." But that mindset is flawed because:

• Not everything valuable can be tracked.
• Not everything that can be tracked is valuable.
• Attribution models are incomplete at best, and misleading at worst.
• Measurement isn't broken, but attribution is.

The best digital marketing is often the least measurable. In contrast, what’s easiest to measure, like last-click conversions or CTR, often reflects short-term behaviours, not long-term brand health.

Here are just some of the critical marketing activities you can’t accurately measure, yet absolutely impact growth:

• Cross-platform exposure: Multi-channel campaigns are 300% more effective than single-channel. (Gartner)
• Unclicked impressions and dark social: 84% of content sharing happens in private channels. (Radium One)
• Brand search uplift from offline channels: 33% of paid search lift attributed to TV, radio, out-of-home. (Thinkbox)
• Emotional resonance through creative: 86% of advertising sales lift is driven by creative quality. (Nielsen)
• Mental availability built over time: Buyers spend only 5% of their time in-market. (LinkedIn B2B Institute)
• Word-of-mouth and peer influence: 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know. (Nielsen)
• Influencer or podcast mentions that spark awareness: 46% of weekly listeners bought something they heard about on a podcast. (Edison)
• Browsing behaviour, design impact and UX: On average, only 2.35% of website visitors convert; most are researching. (Wordstream)
• The compounding effect of consistent branding: Consistent brand presentation boosts revenue by 33%. (Lucidpress)
• Internal B2B buying dynamics: 63% of B2B buying decisions involve 4 or more stakeholders. (Forrester)
• The influence of competitor activity: Google's double-serving update is skewing impression share - Auction Insights may no longer tell the full story. (Search Engine Land)
• The real effect of paid social impressions without clicks: A major chunk of ad recall could be coming from people who never clicked. (Instapage)
• The hidden value of organic content that educates: 47% of buyers read 3 to 5 pieces of content before speaking to sales. (Demand Gen Report)
• Dark traffic and masked referral data: A substantial portion of traffic is labelled as “direct” but actually comes from untrackable sources. (Sparktoro)
• Creative campaigns that shift perception slowly: Only 28% of marketers find syndicated data provides actionable insights. (Kantar)
• Time lag between exposure and conversion: Many decisions are made days or weeks after first exposure, making attribution difficult or impossible. (Northbeam)
• Non-linear customer journeys: The average B2B buyer could engage with up to 60 touchpoints before converting. Few tools track this end-to-end. (Pathmonk)
• Unmeasurable cultural relevance: Being “in the conversation” or top-of-mind during a cultural moment can produce disproportionate impact, but is nearly impossible to attribute.
• Early-stage brand interactions: Someone hears about your brand from a podcast, checks your social later and then clicks a paid ad. The podcast gets no credit.
• Offline conversations: Friend-to-friend brand mentions, in-store experiences, or hearing about your business on the radio rarely appear in analytics.

In today’s privacy-first world, even our data isn’t what it used to be:

• iOS and browser changes have gutted tracking and retargeting.
• GA4 uses modelling and thresholding, not real data.
• 99% of organic keyword data is now “not provided.” (Keyword Hero)
• Referral data is masked, direct traffic is inflated and attribution gaps are everywhere.
• Opt-in rates for precise location tracking have dropped to 25 to 30% due to falling app opt-ins, which are often directly tied to location tracking permissions. (Martech)
• Meta’s shortened attribution windows mean most conversions go unattributed.

So if your strategy is “only do what can be measured,” your playbook just lost a big chunk of its pages.

It flags opportunities and doesn’t deliver certainties.

Look at both sales and signals (brand search, case study views, sales anecdotes).

Layer real-world context onto metrics.

Attribution is a guide, not a law.

Ask: Are prospects more informed? Is the pipeline warming? Are sales cycles shortening?

Run tests that might not show immediate ROI but teach you something valuable.

You don’t need perfect tracking to do great marketing. You need conviction, strategy and a willingness to invest in what works, even when the data can’t fully prove it. The best marketers combine data and judgment. Be courageous.