Marketing success doesn’t always equal business growth - here’s how to change that

Analytic Partners’ Paul Sinkinson argues that true marketing leadership requires visibility across pricing, availability, competitor activity, and demand cycles – not just campaign results.

Marketing is the growth engine for businesses. But are we driving as much growth as we believe?

A startling stat from our latest analysis shows that, on average, 60% of a company’s growth comes from forces outside of marketing.

That means things like product availability, pricing strategies, macroeconomic trends and even the weather can have just as much - if not more - impact on performance than the strongest media plan or best creative executions.

That might feel like bad news. But it’s actually a wake-up call.

Breaking silos

If marketers want to be seen as commercial leaders - not just campaign managers - we need to better understand and measure the wider business ecosystem that our work operates in. That means breaking out of marketing silos and adopting a more holistic, commercial lens.

What I’m referring to is tunnel vision, which is a real risk when it comes to marketing. Too often, teams are chasing top-line marketing metrics - clicks, conversions, return on ad spend - while the business faces much bigger challenges that marketing can’t solve alone.

A media campaign might drive strong digital performance but if product distribution is patchy or if foot traffic is declining due to external factors, then we miss the bigger picture. When these gaps aren’t addressed, it not only limits marketing’s effectiveness - it undermines its credibility.

And when the broader business results don’t match the marketing dashboards, guess who gets the blame?

Marketing budgets are often the first on the chopping block - not because the campaigns weren’t effective but because the measurement was incomplete. That’s not just frustrating; it’s career-limiting. Marketing leaders need to arm themselves with data that reflects the full commercial context, not just the media output.

Something else our ROI Genome research uncovered is a need to be more in tune with natural demand and availability. Factors like seasonality, retail cycles, even sudden weather changes can make or break a campaign’s effectiveness. Brands that synchronise their activity with periods of high demand see a significantly better return on investment.

Similarly, greater omnichannel availability - being present both digitally and physically, across more sales channels - has been shown to lift marketing ROI by 32%. When you’re present wherever your customers are, your media works harder.

That’s a critical insight for marketers in Australia[1] , where online and offline customer journeys are deeply intertwined.

If you’re launching a major brand campaign without knowing whether your product is stocked and visible across your key retail partners or marketplaces, you’re leaving performance on the table. Worse still, you may be fuelling demand that can’t be fulfilled - creating a poor customer experience and lost sales.

The same principle applies to regional demand planning. Let’s say a brand runs a pilot campaign in Sydney and Melbourne, and uses matched control stores to measure impact. That’s a reasonable approach, but what happens when unexpected rain dampens footfall in Melbourne or a surprise discount from a competitor hits at the same time in Sydney?

If those factors aren’t accounted for, the data could tell the wrong story. A campaign might be unfairly written off, or worse - an underperforming initiative could be mistakenly scaled up. Either way, ROI is compromised.

A new framework

Many measurement frameworks don’t account for these real-world factors. This disconnect is where opportunities are often missed. This is where marketers need to shift gears and adopt a commercial analytics mindset. Rather than looking at just media performance or attribution models, we need to factor in pricing, distribution, operations and competitive activity.

This broader context helps marketers make better decisions, justify their investments and earn credibility at the executive table. And it helps to answer the question every CFO is asking: what’s really driving the business forward?

It also allows marketers to take a more proactive role in business strategy. With a better understanding of the non-marketing levers that influence performance, marketers can contribute to conversations about supply chain priorities, inventory planning and customer service investments.

These aren’t always seen as marketing’s domain, but they should be if you an adherent of the ‘Four Ps’ model

For marketing leaders, this is the moment to step up if you are keen to have a greater impact across more areas of growth. It’s time to stop looking at marketing in isolation and start seeing it as part of a bigger, more dynamic commercial engine.

True marketing leadership means influencing the broader commercial conversation. If marketers want to drive meaningful, sustainable growth, they need to look beyond their own walls and understand the full picture of what moves the business forward.