In an ideal world, marketers have constant access to industry-leading tools and knowledgeable experts that provide transparent and accurate measurement, connecting every marketing activity to real, measurable business outcomes. With the latest and most reliable methods at their fingertips, marketers can use strategic, tactical, and diagnostic insights to allocate budgets with precision, experiment confidently with new channels, and expand successful initiatives at scale. This leads to dramatic outperformance of competitors still stuck on vanity metrics.

An enticing vision, sure, but the reality for most marketers is far less glamorous.

For a variety of reasons, many organizations still rely on easily tracked but less effective methods such as last-click attribution and platform reporting. The recent reports of Meta inflating results from its Shops Ads product underscores the risk of this approach. A whistleblower alleged that Meta inflated results by adding taxes and shipping costs to brand revenue while also subsidizing advertiser bids in order to lower reported costs. Advanced measurement methods can help brands avoid this since results are tied to actual business revenue rather than what a platform reports back to them.

The Marketing Measurement And Optimization Services Landscape

To create an accurate and reliable measure of how marketing efforts translate into company growth, organizations often engage marketing measurement and optimization service providers. These providers offer specialized services to help with measuring incremental marketing effectiveness, optimize media budget allocation, and create forward-looking scenario plans. We recently published the Marketing Measurement And Optimization Services Landscape, Q3 2025. This report details provider capabilities, the business scenarios they support, and analyzes key trends in this rapidly evolving market.

Our new research covers a wide range of potential partners: some are wholly independent; others offer services within a broader agency setting. Some are global companies serving enterprise clients; some are regionally-focused with expertise in particular verticals. While this is largely an established market, the entry of open-source solutions and software tools with marketing measurement capabilities disrupts the status quo. Still, the availability of lower-cost alternatives may be a positive development for the sector at large if it brings more companies and brands to measure their marketing activities. Next up, we’ll be conducting an evaluation of the most significant providers in this market, due to publish early next year.

If you’d like to chat about choosing the best partner for your measurement needs, please schedule a guidance session with me.