According to the IAB, 94% of 100 U.S. advertisers surveyed in February said they were concerned about the impact of tariffs on this year’s spending. Sixty percent anticipated budget cuts between 6% and 10% while nearly a quarter expected deeper reductions of up to 20%.
As macroeconomic headwinds pick up — whether from rising tariffs, shifting consumer confidence, or global market instability — the ripple effect hits every corner of the organization.
For many brands, that pressure is already being felt in tighter marketing budgets, sharper boardroom questions, and an all-too-familiar request from the CFO: “Show me what’s working.”
When budgets shrink, marketing leadership faces heightened scrutiny. Successful CMOs won’t stand out for flashy slogans or surface-level creativity, but for the strength and effectiveness of their strategies. To move forward, they need to prove impact—with clear results and dependable performance metrics that justify every decision.
This blog explores how multi-touch attribution becomes your most powerful tool in tough times. Key takeaways include:
- Why cutting attribution is a costly mistake
- Proving impact is the new creative advantage for CMOs navigating tighter budgets
- The growing importance of location intelligence in proving campaign performance
- Expected lift and ROI across campaign performance
Attribution: Your Most Powerful Tool
Attribution isn’t just a dashboard with numbers; it’s your engine for performance and optimization. An effective attribution model depends on high-quality, reliable data.
Think about it: everything—training AI in media buying, building audience segments, testing creative, measuring campaign performance—hinges on having good data. Without it, even the most advanced strategies fall short. That means not just tracking impressions or clicks but tying media investment to real business outcomes, like driving in-store visits or sales.
Attribution ensures your decisions are defensible. In high-pressure environments, marketers who can prove impact are the ones who retain and grow their budgets confidently, not with anecdotes but with outcomes.
“Working Media”? Prove It.
In budget-cut environments, we often hear a common phrase: “Let’s pull back on attribution so we can focus on working media.”
However, without attribution, you’re not strategically allocating resources based on performance data; you’re merely guessing. Attribution is not simply about validating your assumptions; it’s about uncovering insights that can drive continuous improvement.
By analyzing campaign performance, you can see what’s resonating, what’s falling flat, and how to optimize. That might mean shifting budget to stronger channels, refining your creative, or improving your targeting to reach more audiences who are actually in-market.
At Foursquare, 64% of our campaigns show lift, and a Forrester study found that brands using Foursquare Attribution saw an 80% increase in incremental visits for every ad dollar spent.
Pulling attribution during tough times is like driving without a dashboard in a storm. It’s precisely when you need data the most—not just to confirm what’s working, but to stop investing in what isn’t.
Trusted Location Intelligence for Real-World Impact
Location bridges the gap between digital engagement and real-world consumer behavior, making it a critical component in measurement. By leveraging location, marketers can gain actionable campaign insights into how and where customers interact with their brand, allowing for more accurate attribution. In fact, 89% of marketers using location data report higher sales, and 78% have seen an increase in their customer base.
Location intelligence has become an essential tool for marketers, offering precise targeting, enhanced personalization, and measurable campaign performance.
88% of marketers believe location-based marketing will be crucial to their strategies in the next three years. Whether your focus is short-term ROI or long-term growth, location intelligence helps you navigate uncertainty with clarity, confidence, and data-driven performance reports.
At Foursquare, we help brands convert attribution into a competitive edge, not an expense. We provide accurate and reliable attribution that becomes a decision-making engine for brands.
For over 15 years, Foursquare’s omnichannel attribution solution has empowered marketers with the metrics they need to prove the impact of campaign effectiveness across all channels.
What Sets Us Apart:
- Precise POI data
- First-Party data
- Ability to measure transactions & sales
- Custom campaign reporting
- Trusted by 100% of the top 50 national advertisers
- Integrated with 550+ partner platforms across all channels
- #1 in Location Intelligence (CB Insights)
- 500% ROI delivered through FSQ Attribution (Forrester)
How to Leverage Foursquare’s Location Intelligence:
- Build custom audiences based on real-world intent with Foursquare Audience
- Reach consumers where they are in real-time with Foursquare Proximity
- Measure visits and sales with precision with Foursquare Attribution to:
- Understand the customer journey
- Optimize your media mix in-flight
- Prove ROI to every stakeholder
In a high-pressure environment, guesswork won’t cut it. Proving performance is the key to protecting — and growing — your marketing investment and we are here to help.
