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Measurement & Analytics

The Last Click Tells You Where the Journey Ended. We Want to Understand What Happened Before It.

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Digital marketing has become extraordinarily good at measuring the final action.

We can see the search that produced a click, the source recorded by a CRM, the form that was submitted or the call that ultimately became a lead. Those are important signals, but they don’t necessarily explain why the consumer acted. 

MarketStorm operates earlier in the customer journey, in the Intent & Influence Layer, where consumers are researching, discovering, comparing and developing preferences before demand becomes explicit. That requires a different approach to measurement. 

Our goal isn’t to force every conversion back to the last MarketStorm ad someone saw. It is to understand as much of the journey as the available data allows: what consumers were exposed to, how they subsequently behaved, where demand appeared and what those patterns can teach us about the next audience we should reach.  

Measurement doesn’t sit at the end of the MarketStorm Intelligence Engine™. 
What we learn feeds intelligence back into it. 

Measuring a Journey That Doesn’t Follow a Funnel

Consumers rarely behave the way traditional attribution models assume they will. Someone may see a CTV commercial, encounter Display advertising several days later, search for the brand on Google, visit the website and ultimately make a phone call. Another consumer may see an ad, visit the website directly, leave, return later through search and convert through an entirely different path. 

The final source recorded by an analytics platform or CRM may be completely accurate. Google may have delivered the click. Direct traffic may have delivered the website session. A phone call may have produced the lead. But the final interaction is not necessarily the entire marketing story. 

That is why MarketStorm’s measurement philosophy follows the same principle as JourneyIQ™: consumers move through a non-linear interaction between intent and influence before demand is ultimately captured. Measurement should help us understand that movement rather than compressing the entire journey into a single click. 

CONSUMER JOURNEY A

  1. CTV
  2. Display
  3. Search
  4. Website
  5. Call

CONSUMER JOURNEY B

  1. Display
  2. Website
  3. Leaves
  4. Search
  5. Call

Same conversion. Different Paths.

A car salesperson hands a young couple the keys.

We Don’t Need to Own the Last Click

MarketStorm does not need the consumer’s final action to occur inside a MarketStorm advertising channel for our strategy to work. In fact, we expect many consumers to take a different path when they become ready to act. They may search Google, visit a Business Profile, type the brand name directly, return to a website they previously visited, make a phone call, walk into a location or use another demand-capture environment. 

That is normal consumer behavior. 

Where the available identity and measurement signals support it, MarketStorm can connect prior programmatic exposure with subsequent website activity and other measurable outcomes, even when another platform ultimately delivers the visit. 

This gives us a more useful question than simply asking which platform received the last click. We can begin asking what happened before the consumer decided to act? 

Independent Measurement Gives Us Another View

MarketStorm has deliberately built its measurement approach so that it does not depend entirely on reporting from the platforms delivering the advertising. 

One of the technologies we use is Netrics, a separate, independent analytics and measurement company. Netrics provides a specialized measurement layer that gives MarketStorm additional visibility into website behavior and consumer activity beyond the advertising platform itself. 

That independence matters. Media platforms are exceptionally good at reporting what happens within their own ecosystems. An independent measurement layer gives us another perspective on what happens as consumers move beyond those environments. 

Depending on the campaign, technology environment and available signals, MarketStorm can use Netrics alongside media data, CRM information and other measurement sources to better understand website visits, 
engagement, calls, forms, scheduling activity and other meaningful actions. 

MarketStorm and Netrics are separate companies. MarketStorm has chosen to incorporate Netrics technology into its broader measurement architecture because its capabilities align with the way we believe modern marketing should be understood: across the consumer journey rather than solely within the boundaries of the platform that delivered the ad. 

Meta Data CTV, Display, Native, Audio, DOOH, etc.

Website Activity Visits, engagement, page views, conversions

CRM Data Leads, calls, forms, scheduling activity

Other Signals Search, business profiles, direct traffic and more

Netrics

MARKETSTORM MEASUREMENT ARCHITECTURE A more complete understanding 
of the consumer journey.

An Open Measurement Architecture

No single technology sees the entire consumer journey, so MarketStorm doesn’t believe measurement should depend on a single source of truth. 

Our measurement architecture can bring together information from programmatic platforms, independent analytics technology, CRM systems, call tracking, location and visitation data, website activity and other available business signals. Each system sees something different. 

A DSP sees media delivery. Independent analytics technology can provide visibility into website behavior. A CRM sees leads and customers. Call-tracking technology sees phone activity. Location data can help illuminate physical visitation. Google sees activity within its own ecosystem. 

The objective isn’t to declare one of these systems correct and the others wrong. Each is observing a different part of the consumer journey. 

MarketStorm’s job is to connect the 
signals that matter.

  • A television on a wood-paneled wall in a dark living room.

    DSP/MEDIA Sees media delivery

  • Hands type on a laptop showing charts, beside a cup of coffee.

    ANALYTICS Sees website behavior

  • A monitor shows a dashboard of charts on a desk beside a plant.

    CRM Sees leads and customers

  • People in business clothes walk across a plaza between office buildings.

    LOCATION Sees physical visitation

  • A woman talks on her phone in a bright room.

    CALL TRACKING Sees phone activity

  • A laptop open to the Google search page.

    SEARCH Sees activity within its own ecosystem

From Exposure 
to Behavior

One of the most important things this measurement architecture allows us to examine is what happens after an advertising exposure, even when the consumer doesn’t immediately click the ad. 

This is particularly important for channels such as Connected TV, Streaming Audio and Digital Out-of-Home, where clicking is either uncommon or not part of the experience at all. A consumer may see a CTV commercial and later search for the brand. Someone exposed through DOOH may subsequently visit the website. A person who hears a Streaming Audio ad may encounter Display advertising later and eventually arrive through Google. 

If we measure only clicks, much of that journey disappears.

  • A man watches television from his sofa, remote in hand.

    01 CTV Sees a commercial Later searches for the brand.

  • A smiling woman in a knit hat walks past a digital billboard.

    02 DOOH Sees a digital billboard Later visits the website.

  • A man in headphones listens on his phone at home.

    03 STREAMING AUDIO Hears an audio ad Later encounters Display advertising and eventually arrives through Google.

MarketStorm is interested in the relationship between exposure, subsequent behavior and eventual action. Where the available identity and measurement signals support it, we can use those connections to better understand how influence develops over time. 

Branded Search and Direct Traffic Can Be Outcomes, Not Mysteries

Traditional channel reporting can sometimes make branded search and direct traffic look disconnected from the advertising that helped create them. We see them differently. 

If a consumer encounters a brand repeatedly and later searches specifically for that company, the branded search may be evidence that earlier influence did its job. If someone remembers the company and visits the website directly, direct traffic may represent the same phenomenon. 

That doesn’t mean every branded search or direct visit should automatically be credited to MarketStorm. It means those behaviors deserve to be examined as part of the larger journey rather than dismissed because they occurred outside the original advertising channel. 

For MarketStorm clients, this can make metrics such as changes in branded search activity, direct traffic, website engagement and conversion behavior useful complements to conventional media metrics. The question becomes broader than “Did they click our ad?” We also want to understand whether reaching the right audience changed what that audience did next. 

  1. 01 BRAND EXPOSURE
    A consumer encounters your brand across channels.

  2. 02 BRAND RECALL
    They remember your brand and consider it later.

  3. 03 CONSUMER ACTION
    They search for your brand or visit your website directly.

A café owner in an apron smiles at her laptop, with light trails around her.

Measurement Changes With the Business Objective 

There is no single metric that defines success for every MarketStorm campaign. For some businesses, the most important outcome may be a phone call, form submission or appointment. For others, it may be an online purchase, store visit, branded search, website engagement or another meaningful action. A national brand may care about very different signals from a regional company, franchise system or retailer. 

Our measurement strategy should reflect the business objective rather than forcing every campaign into the same reporting framework. That means combining media metrics such as reach, frequency, impressions, completed views and engagement with business signals that help us understand whether consumer behavior is changing. 

The media metric tells us what we delivered. The business metric helps tell us whether it mattered. 

Connecting Digital Influence to the Physical World

Not every meaningful outcome happens online. For businesses with physical locations, MarketStorm can also use available location and visitation data to help understand whether advertising exposure is associated with real-world activity. This becomes particularly valuable for retailers, multi-location organizations, events and campaigns where the desired consumer action may happen in a store or other physical environment rather than on a website. 

  1. Digital Influence CTV, Native, Display, 
    DOOH, Audio, Social

  2. Relevant Audience Behavioral intelligence 
    identifies consumers

  3. Real-World Outcomes Store visits, in-store sales, event attendance, location visitation

Digital Out-of-Home creates another interesting connection between physical and digital behavior. An audience can be exposed in the physical world, behavioral intelligence can help identify relevant consumers within that audience, and subsequent digital or physical activity can provide additional information about what happened next. 

The objective is the same whether the final action occurs online or offline: understand more of the relationship between 
audience, influence and outcome. 

Measurement 
Makes the Intelligence Better

Measurement is not only about proving what happened. It also creates new information for the MarketStorm Intelligence Engine™. 

The audiences we reach generate response signals. Those responses help us understand which behaviors were meaningful, which audiences engaged, which markets behaved differently and which patterns deserve additional attention. That information can feed back into audience strategy. 

ProtoSignals™ helps us recognize emerging intent. Audience Intelligence helps us determine who matters. Human verification strengthens the audience. Intent Retargeting allows the relationship to continue. JourneyIQ™ helps us understand the consumer as that relationship develops. Measurement helps us observe what happened next. 

  1. 01 Audiences Reached Consumers encounter advertising.

  2. 02 Response Signals Observe engagement 
    and behavior.

  3. 03 Meaningful Patterns Identify what deserves attention.

  4. 04 Refined Strategy Apply insights to future decisions.

The result is a learning system rather than 
a one-directional media campaign. 

A man in a suit looks out over a city from an office window.

Better Measurement Doesn’t Mean Pretending We Can See Everything

Modern consumer journeys cross devices, platforms, browsers, applications and physical environments. Privacy protections are increasing, identity signals are changing and not every consumer interaction can or should be connected. 

MarketStorm’s approach is to measure what can be measured responsibly and avoid pretending that marketing technology can create perfect visibility where it cannot. 

That means distinguishing between what we know, what the available data strongly indicates and what cannot be directly observed. We believe that is a stronger foundation for marketing decisions than forcing every conversion into a simplistic attribution model. 

The goal isn’t perfect attribution. The goal is better intelligence. 

Measurement & Analytics, the MarketStorm Way

Book a Demo Talk to MarketStorm

MarketStorm doesn’t measure advertising simply to produce a report at the end of the month. Measurement is part of the intelligence architecture. We want to understand who we reached, how consumers responded, what happened as they moved across channels, where demand eventually appeared and what those behaviors can teach us about the next audience we should influence. 

Sometimes the final click will come directly from a MarketStorm ad. Often it won’t. Google may capture the search. A CRM may record the phone call. A consumer may visit directly or walk into a physical location. That’s not a failure of the measurement model. That’s the consumer journey. 

By combining the MarketStorm Intelligence Engine™ with independent measurement technology and the other data sources available to the business, we can see more of that journey, learn from it and put that intelligence back to work. 

Measure what happened. Understand what changed. Make the intelligence smarter.

Get in Touch

Good to Know

Programmatic can be complicated. It doesn’t have to be. Here are a few things worth knowing.  

  • Why doesn’t MarketStorm always receive credit for the last click?

    Because the final interaction and the marketing that influenced the decision are not necessarily the same thing.

    A consumer may see CTV, encounter Display, search several days later and eventually convert through Google. Google may accurately record the final interaction while telling us very little about what created familiarity or preference beforehand.

  • How do you measure advertising when someone doesn’t click?

  • Can MarketStorm measure brand lift and footfall?

  • Does MarketStorm rely on one analytics platform?