Measuring marketing and sales results in single-channel campaigns is usually a more straightforward process: choose a goal that reflects the performance of a specific channel and, from there, calculate ROI. But what happens when a customer researches a product on your website, asks questions to a salesperson in a physical store, and completes the purchase through the app? In omnichannel, every touchpoint counts — and this integration of channels, although valuable for boosting results, makes measuring return on investment much more complex.
In the omnichannel context, ROI assesses how much financial return an action integrating multiple channels, whether physical and/or digital, generated relative to the investment made. However, while in single-channel campaigns it is possible to directly correlate investment and return, when multiple channels are involved, the return comes from the sum of interactions at different touchpoints, often with longer and non-linear purchase journeys – which makes this a quite complex task in many companies.
In addition to this complexity in evaluating impacts from different channels, it is also important to consider other significant challenges in this journey: data integration, as each channel collects information in different formats and metrics; visibility of the complete journey, since parts of the experience are often not recorded in a trackable and measurable way; and the overlapping of results that can occur without an integrated view, when the same conversion is counted in more than one channel, thus distorting ROI.
And what are the drawbacks of not paying attention to these considerations, especially in a highly digital and connected market? According to an ILUMEO survey, about 20% of media investments show no statistically significant relationship with business results, such as sales or lead generation. This means that, without proper measurement, one-fifth of the marketing budget could be wasted.
This data reinforces the importance of centralizing information from different sources into a single channel and standardizing metrics, channel nomenclatures, and tracking, to achieve a 360º view of the customer journey and, consequently, gain a clear and objective understanding of the return the company obtained from each established campaign. And, in this regard, we certainly cannot fail to highlight how technology can be a valuable ally.
There are various tools on the market capable of assisting with this measurement, such as integrated CRMs that help track all interactions throughout the customer lifecycle and consolidate behavioral, transactional, and engagement data; besides BI solutions that contribute to transforming large volumes of data into easy-to-interpret dashboards. Many of them even allow mapping journeys and assigning weight to each channel, making this analysis even more comprehensive and reliable for supporting future decision-making.
In this sense, there isn't just one single indicator for companies to use; everything will depend on the strategy adopted and the objectives they wish to achieve. Despite this, there are some indispensable ones to be prioritized, such as the campaign's overall ROI, CAC compared before and after omnichannel implementation, LTV (which measures the total value a customer generates throughout the relationship), conversion rate by channel and cross-channel (identifying where consumers advance in the journey), engagement, and retention rate.
This data analysis allows for continuously testing hypotheses, adjusting messages, segmentations, and formats to create more personalized experiences, increasing engagement and, consequently, this return on investment. Perform these checks frequently, as consumer behavior changes and this directly impacts the performance of channels within the omnichannel campaign strategy.
The most important thing in all this is to ensure the quality and constant updating of this data, as shortcomings here can compromise the entire ROI analysis and lead to misguided business decisions. The secret is to turn numbers into actionable insights, since, by identifying which channels have the greatest impact at each stage of the funnel, it is possible to redistribute budget and efforts more intelligently and strategically to enhance the achievement of desired results.
