I just wrapped up a full marketing measurement audit for a growing DTC brand, and the biggest surprise was this: most of the data looked okay at first, but on further digging, it wasn't painting an accurate picture.
Here's what we found.
1. Broken pipelines
Missing data that will never be recovered. To keep it from happening again, we set up AI-powered alerts that ping Slack when the data looks off, for example when a channel that usually sends a steady share of daily traffic suddenly sends a tiny fraction of it.
2. A naming structure that needed work
Campaigns with a typo in the name were getting categorized as organic. We tightened up the campaign naming process and made the categorization code more forgiving, and added alerts for future typos.
3. Campaign performance siloed in tools
Results lived in separate platforms, which made it hard to connect the dots. Unifying the measurement framework and putting it into one dashboard made holistic trends and impact much easier to see.
With those fixes in place, I was able to recommend spend changes that would drive 10%+ revenue growth.
Growth hacking with Claude, ChatGPT or Lovable is great, but it leaves room for exactly these kinds of issues. With a better foundation, every decision becomes easier, faster, and more defensible.
Is your marketing data telling you the right story? What's the biggest measurement gap you've run into?