Advertisers Far Underestimate Creative’s Sales Effect, Survey Says.

Consistently since 2020, an annual survey of brand marketers and agency media experts conducted by Advertiser Perceptions has found those perceptions to be out of whack when it comes to the sales effects of creative and targeting, significantly underestimating the former and overstating the latter.

The studies, commissioned by the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group and reported in Westwood One’s weekly blog, tested five key sales drivers, also including: brand-related factors (market share, brand penetration, and the tendency to retain loyal buyers relative to the competition); reach of households during ad campaigns; and recency, or the timing of advertising in relation to when a consumer makes a purchase.

According to “The Five Keys to Advertising Effectiveness,” a series of studies conducted in 2023 by Nielsen and advertising researcher NCSolutions, creative — the degree to which the message and context in which it’s delivered motivate consumer purchase decisions — drives nearly half of sales (49%), while targeting, the measure of how well a campaign was able to reach a particular audience, drives just 11%.

Those factors, as Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard notes, are “the two sales drivers with the most dramatic disconnect between marketer perception and reality.”

Indeed, the more-than-300 marketers and media agencies participating in Advertiser Perceptions’ 2025 survey say creative represents only 21% of total sales effect, while targeting drives more sales, at 25%.

Year-to-year, there’s been little change in these results. Since 2020, perceptions of creative as a sales driver have remained consistent, averaging near 20%, while marketer perceptions of targeting have been in the mid-to-high-20s.

Overall, “brands overestimate the sales effect of targeting, reach, and recency,” Bouvard says. “Brand is the only sales driver correctly perceived at 21%.”

Separating marketers and media agencies shows little difference between their perceptions. “Both groups are aligned on their perception of sales drivers,” Bouvard says. “For the most part, marketers and media agencies have similar perceptions on the sales effect contribution. Both groups believe targeting to be the most important.”

Based on the reality of creative’s sales effect, the blog makes several recommendations to marketers: 1. make creative quality the top priority; 2. pre-test creative where possible; 3. remember that fixing audio creative is inexpensive; and, 4. “don’t overstate the value of targeting — it is a small lever.”