Insight Media Stream today announced a new educational initiative aimed at helping outdoor brands better understand one of digital marketing's most misunderstood metrics: Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS).
As competition intensifies throughout the outdoor industry, many brands are increasingly relying on ROAS to evaluate advertising performance. However, according to Insight Media Stream, not all ROAS calculations are created equally. The company's latest educational effort highlights how attribution methodology can dramatically influence reported campaign performance and why marketers should understand the difference before making strategic investment decisions.
While many advertising platforms report impressive ROAS figures using view-through attribution, these numbers often differ significantly from results generated through last-click attribution models.
"Attribution is one of the biggest variables affecting reported marketing performance today," said Susan Harkins, Director of Operations at Insight Media Stream. "A campaign can appear extraordinarily successful under one attribution model while telling a very different story under another. Understanding how conversions are being credited is essential for making informed business decisions."
Understanding the Difference
View-through attribution credits a display or video advertisement with influencing a sale simply because the ad was on screen for a consumer before eventually making a purchase—often days or weeks later—even if the customer ultimately returned through another marketing channel such as organic search, email marketing, direct website traffic, or a paid search campaign.
Last-click attribution, by comparison, assigns credit to the final marketing interaction immediately preceding the purchase. While no attribution model is perfect, many marketers consider last-click attribution to provide a more conservative and consistent benchmark when evaluating direct marketing performance.
According to Insight Media Stream, confusion often arises when brands compare ROAS numbers generated under entirely different attribution models without realizing they are measuring fundamentally different customer journeys.
When ROAS Becomes Unrealistic
The outdoor industry has increasingly seen reported ROAS figures that exceed what many experienced marketers believe is realistically achievable through incremental advertising performance alone.
"It is not uncommon to hear claims of 20x, 30x, or even higher ROAS numbers," said Marc Morris, Director of Client Strategy at Insight Media Stream. "Those figures certainly grab attention, but executives should always ask an important question: How is that ROAS being calculated?"
Morris continued:
"When multiple advertising platforms all claim credit for the same purchase through view-through attribution, total reported revenue can exceed actual revenue generated. That's not necessarily because anyone is doing anything wrong—it often comes down to how attribution models assign credit. But if leadership isn't comparing apples to apples, they may end up making decisions based on inflated performance metrics. Another consideration is that having 90% plus of your conversions being view-through conversions doesn't indicate a healthy attribution scenario."
Why This Matters
Marketing budgets continue to face increased scrutiny, making accurate performance measurement more important than ever.
Insight Media Stream encourages brands to:
- Understand exactly which attribution model is being used in every marketing report.
- Compare campaigns using consistent attribution methodologies.
- Separate incremental sales from influenced sales whenever possible.
- Evaluate media performance across the complete customer journey rather than relying solely on platform-reported metrics.
- Establish realistic ROAS benchmarks that align with business objectives instead of comparing results generated under different attribution models.
The company emphasizes that view-through attribution can provide valuable insights into brand awareness and upper-funnel influence, but it should not always be interpreted as direct incremental revenue generated by a campaign.
Building Trust Through Measurement
As digital marketing becomes increasingly complex, Insight Media Stream believes transparency around attribution will become one of the industry's most important competitive advantages.
Brands deserve to know exactly how their marketing performance is being measured. When everyone understands the attribution methodology, conversations become more productive, expectations become more realistic, and marketing investments become more effective.
Morris concluded, "Great marketing doesn't require inflated numbers—it requires accurate numbers. Our goal is to help outdoor brands make smarter decisions by understanding what their data is truly telling them."
Insight Media Stream plans to publish additional educational resources throughout the year covering attribution models, incrementality, customer journey measurement, media mix evaluation, and digital marketing best practices for outdoor brands.
About Insight Media Stream: Insight Media Stream is a performance-focused digital media company specializing in strategic media placement and optimization, paid search, paid social, programmatic advertising, analytics, and measurement solutions for brands seeking transparent, data-driven marketing performance. The company helps organizations maximize marketing effectiveness through objective reporting, strategic optimization, and accountable measurement practices.