The DAC Blog

Clicks and last-touch ROAS no longer explain growth. In an AI-driven, multi-surface world, measurement must evolve. Influence, incrementality, and integrated outcomes are the new standards, supported by faster feedback loops and tools that connect marketing to actual profit. This post offers a modern measurement framework built to bring together the language of CFOs and CMOs. Old Habits Die Hard: Why We Cling to Last-Click   For years, last-click attribution was a marketer’s security blanket. It offered clean lines of cause and effect: ad click results in sale. ROAS and ROI simplified the story further, distilling complex journeys into a single success metric. And for a while, that was enough.   But as consumer behavior spread across screens, platforms, and formats, that promise of precision began to crumble. Today’s purchase paths often include influencer touchpoints, AI search summaries, and passive exposure on CTV or YouTube, long before anyone clicks “buy.” Traditional last-click and channel-siloed reporting flattens that complexity, over-crediting the final touch and undervaluing the layers of influence that actually move markets.   Meanwhile, zero-click environments such as AI answers, platform-native experiences, and retail networks are reducing site visits and direct control. Measuring only by last-click success metrics misallocates budget and overlooks the invisible work that builds demand.   The simplicity is an illusion. Behind that tidy last-click view lies a growing disconnect between what’s measurable and what truly matters, and in that gap, performance and opportunity quietly disappear.   Watch our short video “When Measurement Becomes Meaning” where Dan Temby, Senior Vice President, Technology Analytics shares how one of DAC’s retail clients uncovered $35 million in incremental profit by rethinking attribution.   https://youtu.be/IMG_WHv-Qr4 Modern Journeys Demand Modern Models Customer journeys aren’t linear. A single conversion might be influenced by YouTube, a creator post, Connected TV (CTV), AI Overviews, and a late-stage search, all before the click. Last-touch models flatten this complexity, undervaluing the mid- and upper-funnel work that actually creates demand.   Zero-click environments, like AI answers or platform-native experiences, make measurement harder. WARC data shows paid search ROI can be overstated by up to 190% when upper-funnel contributions are ignored. Meanwhile, 35% of last-click–attributed spend drives zero incremental sales.  Click-based KPIs like CTR and CVR still have value for tactical optimization, but they can’t measure brand lift, influence, or long-term growth. To move forward, marketers need a framework that reflects how people really discover and decide.   TotalSERP: Brand Visibility in Paid, Organic, and LocalAs search journeys fragment, visibility can’t be evaluated by looking at one channel at a time. A single results page now blends paid ads, Shopping units, organic listings, images, videos, reviews, maps, and zero-click features like AI Overviews, AI Mode, and People Also Ask. Treating SEO, SEM, and local as separate lanes risks missing where influence is actually happening.   DAC’s proprietary TotalSERP methodology approaches the results page as a single ecosystem. Instead of asking, “How are we doing in paid vs. organic vs. local?”, the focus shifts to, “How are we showing up across all the surfaces where our customers are making decisions?” That ecosystem-wide view helps teams identify gaps, overlaps, and opportunities that siloed reporting can’t see.  AIO Impact Modeling: Measuring What You Can’t Click AI-generated answers add another layer of complexity. More queries are being resolved directly in AI Overviews or conversational responses, where users may never click through at all. Traditional reporting often treats these interactions as “invisible,” even though they clearly shape perception and choice.   With AIO Impact Modeling, DAC evaluates how often and in what context brands appear within AI-generated outputs, and how that presence shifts over time. This kind of analysis helps marketers understand visibility and influence in environments where classic metrics like clicks and CTR don’t exist, but impact still does. Beyond tracking AI Overviews, DAC is adapting SEO strategies to ensure our clients continue to remain visible as AI reshapes the SERP experience.   DAC’s TotalSERP methodology is backed by our proprietary AI-driven platform. Tools for True Insight   Modern measurement requires a shift in tools and mindset. Here’s how leading brands are making it work:   Incrementality: Did this spend drive outcomes we wouldn’t have had otherwise?  Using geo splits, holdouts, or audience controls, incrementality testing isolates true lift and enables confident budget reallocation.   MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling): How much did each channel contribute to revenue or profit?  MMM reveals how touchpoints work together and adjusts for seasonality, budget shifts, and macro trends.   Creative performance: Are people engaging with the message?  Metrics like time-in-view, completion rate, and attention scores spotlight creative impact. Creative can be tested for lift, just like media.   Brand and demand signals: Are we building momentum?  Brand recall, search demand, and favorability provide forward-looking indicators of growth. Critically, the cycle has sped up. Teams are no longer waiting for quarterly reviews. With lightweight MMMs and quick geo-tests, they’re optimizing in real time and reallocating based on impact, not instinct.   Turning Measurement into a Continuous Practice Modern measurement is shifting from static reporting to a continuous, embedded discipline. Instead of treating KPIs as post-campaign scorecards, leading teams use signals across the funnel, from recall and consideration to store visits and revenue to guide planning and optimization in real time.   Incrementality testing and Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) are becoming central to this approach. By using geo splits, audience controls vs. holdouts, and both national and local mix modeling, marketers can see which channels genuinely drive lift rather than relying on last-click assumptions. Rebalancing budgets based on true contribution often reveals incremental profit that traditional attribution models miss   Another key shift is translating results into business terms such as gross profit, incremental revenue, and LTV (lifetime value). When teams quantify impact this way, measurement becomes a shared language across marketing, analytics, and finance, making decisions clearer and investment conversations more grounded.   As discovery increasingly spans paid, organic, local, social, and AI-generated surfaces, measurement also needs to reflect the full ecosystem rather than isolated channels. Understanding a brand’s visibility in zero-click environments, generative answers, and platform-native feeds such as TikTok is now essential to capturing the real influence media has long before a user clicks.   Together, these practices turn measurement from a retrospective exercise into an operational capability, one that helps teams move faster, act with more confidence, and connect their decisions to meaningful business outcomes.   The Next Step: What This Means for You   The measurement reckoning is here. Relying on last-click models puts your strategy at risk, not just resulting in inefficiency but irrelevance. In a fragmented, AI-first world, what worked five years ago no longer holds.   It is time for brands to rethink measurement from the ground up, integrating analytics, creative, and media into a feedback loop that connects directly to business outcomes.   The brands that are winning today are those shifting from metrics to meaning, building systems that uncover true influence and unlock sustainable growth.   What Good Looks Like   When measurement is working, you’re reallocating budget based on data, not gut feel. Creative refreshes happen when attention dips, not when the calendar says so. You can point to incremental profit from defined tests and answer the CFO’s question, “What would’ve happened without this spend?” And your marketing reports? They tell a business story, not just a media summary.