The Measurement Paradox

Why marketers’ confidence in their own numbers has flatlined—and what it means for budgets, trust, and the future of the industry

Here’s something odd. Marketers have more data than they’ve ever had. More tools, more dashboards, more ways to track every click and conversion. You’d think they’d be brimming with confidence about what’s actually working.

They’re not.

New research from EMARKETER and TransUnion based on a survey of 196 US marketers conducted in July 2025—reveals a profession stuck in neutral. Yes, 62% say they have some confidence in their performance metrics. But that’s where the good news ends. More than half (54%) report no change in their confidence year-on-year. Worse, 14% say it’s actually declined.

Think about that for a moment. We’re living through an era of unprecedented technological sophistication in marketing. The tools keep getting better, the data keeps flowing. Confidence should be climbing. Instead, it’s flatlining. In some cases, going backwards.

Too much of everything

The problem isn’t lack of data. It’s fragmentation. Nearly half of marketers (49.5%) point to siloed or incomplete data a…