Here's an interesting post from Open View Venture Partners: http://bit.ly/UjxtRr
Essentially, the post discusses appropriate ROI measurements highlights a key problem in today's world of hyper-measurement: attribution. Just because you can't see an exact click stream from display ad to "complete purchase" doesn't mean that specific campaign has failed. I just means it didn't convert a consumer at that given second. It could have helped build awareness, which ultimately led to the conversion.
The author does a nice job comparing marketing to a football team (despite not being a huge football fan, I can appreciate the analogy). In today's world, where we measure absolutely everything we do, we tend to place to much emphasis on the exact instance of conversion. This is like giving credit for a touchdown entirely to the wide receiver or to the quarterback. Without the linemen, there would be no touchdown. The WR or QB can get the glory, but you can't win the game without the entire team.
The key takeaway is, before you consider abandoning a campaign because you don't think it's working, consider whether the ROI isn't actually there or you just can't see it.
In my mind, however, considering this question is important, but not the final step. There are companies (like C3 Metrics) trying to tackle this issue. It's not a perfect solution, but it's certainly better than just considering the problem.
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