Ever wondered what the ROI of ROI is? What I mean by this is the net value derived from initiatives that are aimed at measuring ROI. Is it even worth measuring the ROI of every marketing activity?
Not really.
There are three key questions to ask before embarking on a marketing ROI measurement program:
1. Why is this information needed? What decisions rely on this information?
2. What is the potential value if these decisions are right? What is the potential risk if the decisions are wrong?
3. What is the degree of accuracy needed (or margin of error tolerated) from measurement?
If measuring the return from marketing activities costs more than the net value derived from doing so, then measurement is a failed exercise. If rough indicators or hypotheses will do the trick, then why waste time, money, effort in chasing 100% accuracy?
Always remember that "not everything that can be counted, counts" ! If we live by this principle, we can probably make a more critical and informed choice of which activities to formally measure, and which ones to crack open through intuition and judgement.
