A $20M brand was pouring budget into the channel their dashboard crowned the winner. The mix model told a different story, and the real growth lever was sitting starved at the bottom of the report. Here is how to tell whether your marketing is actually working, why your agency and in-house team usually can't answer that, and which third of your budget is doing the work.

Your engagement metrics are soft but sales are strong? Welcome to the lurker economy, where your best buyers consume everything and signal nothing in public.

Six years ago, a client called share of voice the biggest BS metric in marketing. By the end of the engagement, his campaign efficiency had improved 300%. Here's why the metric still wins in 2026, and how to build SOV across every channel that matters now, including AI search.