Measuring marketing and sales results in single-channel campaigns is usually a more straightforward process: choosing a goal that reflects the performance of a specific channel and then calculating the ROI. But what about 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 channel integration, while valuable for maximizing results, makes measuring return on investment much more complex.
In an omnichannel context, ROI assesses how much financial return an action integrating multiple channels, whether physical and/or digital, generated in relation to the investment made. However, while in single-channel campaigns it is possible to directly correlate investment and return, when there are multiple targeted channels, the return comes from the sum of interactions at different touchpoints, often with longer and non-linear purchase journeys – which makes this a very complex task for many companies.
Beyond the complexity of evaluating impacts from different channels, it's 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 traceable 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 the ROI.
So, what are the drawbacks of not paying attention to these precautions, especially in a highly digital and connected market? According to a survey by ILUMEO, about 20% of media investments do not show a statistically significant relationship with business results, such as sales or lead generation. This means that, without proper measurement, one-fifth of the marketing budget can be wasted.
This data reinforces the importance of centralizing information from different sources in a single channel and standardizing metrics, channel names, and tracking methods, in order to have a 360º view of the customer journey and, therefore, a clear and objective view of the return the company obtained from each established campaign. And, in this sense, of course, we cannot fail to highlight how technology can be a valuable ally.
There are several 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; as well as BI solutions that help transform large volumes of data into easy-to-interpret dashboards. Many of them even allow you to map journeys and assign weight to each channel, making this analysis even more complete and reliable to support future decision-making.
In this sense, there isn't just one single indicator that companies can use; it all depends on the strategy adopted and the objectives they wish to achieve. Despite this, there are some essential ones to prioritize, such as the overall ROI of the campaign, CAC compared before and after omnichannel implementation, LTV (which measures the total value a customer generates throughout the relationship), conversion rate per channel and cross-channel (identifying where consumers advance in their journey), engagement, and retention rate.
This data analysis allows for continuous hypothesis testing, adjusting messages, segmentations, and formats to create more personalized experiences, increasing engagement and, consequently, 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 of this is ensuring the quality and constant updating of this data, since it can compromise the entire ROI analysis and lead to misguided business decisions. The secret is to transform numbers into insights , because by identifying which channels have the greatest impact at each stage of the funnel, it's possible to redistribute budget and efforts more intelligently and strategically to increase the achievement of desired results.
