Growing Pressure On Marketers To Prove ROI.

With global economic pressures and a rapidly evolving media landscape, marketers are facing intensified demands to justify spending and prove return on investment. A new report from Nielsen, titled “The Marketing ROI Blueprint: Unlocking the Full Value of Marketing Investments,” outlines the growing complexity of the marketing function and provides a framework for navigating it with confidence.

As marketing shifts toward a more strategic, performance-based discipline, Nielsen’s report focuses on two primary challenges: proving ROI and adopting a unified approach to measurement.

“Every marketing dollar must be deployed with maximum efficiency,” the report states. “The pressure on budgets is a powerful catalyst for a positive shift in the industry. Ad budgets have gradually moved from a focus on broad reach to a greater emphasis on measurable impact, with marketers increasingly prioritizing tangible return on investment.”

According to Nielsen’s 2025 Annual Marketing Report, 54% of marketers globally plan to reduce advertising spending next year. Despite the tightening budgets, Nielsen warns that cutting visibility entirely is not an option for brands seeking to stay top of mind with consumers.

The report notes that 38% of marketers now identify sales or ROI as their first or second most important metric. “The movement toward a tangible ROI is also reflected in the metrics they use most often,” the report says. “The data shows the industry is maturing from a focus on top-of-funnel reach to a full-funnel approach that is centered on measurable business impact.”

However, the path to effective measurement is fraught with challenges. Marketers are dealing with an increasingly fragmented ecosystem of media channels and data sources, making holistic measurement difficult.

“Despite this fragmentation, confidence remains surprisingly high,” the report notes. “Globally, 85% of marketers report being extremely or very confident in their ability to measure holistic ROI. However, this confidence contrasts sharply with reality — only 32% of marketers actually measure their traditional and digital spending in a truly holistic way. This paradox between perceived capability and actual practice suggests a potential overestimation of measurement effectiveness.”

The report warns that “a fragmented, piecemeal approach to data leads to disconnected and incomplete information, which severely limits marketers’ ability to understand the true impact of their efforts and make informed investment decisions.”

These challenges are particularly evident in emerging areas like sponsorships and influencer marketing, where measurement often happens in silos. Nielsen found that 27% of marketers measure sponsorship separately from other media channels, while 4% do not measure it at all.

“In industries with high engagement — such as sports — where sponsorship plays a critical role, this lack of unified measurement results in an incomplete view of its contribution to long-term brand value and overall marketing effectiveness,” the report says.

“Marketers are not content with the current inefficient status quo. Recognizing the limitations of fragmented data, there is a growing focus on a unified approach, aiming to measure efforts holistically,” Nielsen reports. “This strategic pivot moves beyond a single-channel view to encompass the entire media ecosystem, providing a clear picture of how campaigns work together to drive business outcomes.”

According to Nielsen, 60% of marketers now focus on both reach/frequency and ROI in their cross-media strategies — a shift that demonstrates the demand for full-funnel insights.

Confidence in ROI measurement also varies by media channel. Digital channels, with built-in attribution models, tend to inspire more confidence, while traditional channels lag behind.

“In fact, up to 12% of marketers express little to no confidence in measuring channels like direct mail and print,” the report notes. “Due to this disparity, marketers have limited visibility into the full media mix, which underscores the need for a solution that provides consistent measurement across all platforms.”

As the demand for performance clarity grows, marketers are rethinking how they evaluate campaign success.

“Media metrics remain the most widely used tool for ROI evaluation, with 54% of marketers relying on these foundational measures,” Nielsen says. “Marketers are moving beyond foundational metrics in search of methods that balance depth, speed, and actionable insight. While some approaches offer rigor, they can be too slow or complex for agile decisions. That’s why tools like sales lift and brand lift are gaining traction — they deliver timely, meaningful results.”