Beyond the Bottom Line: How to Measure Marketing That Actually Builds Brands

Brand building is bigger than ROI.

In boardrooms and budget meetings, one question still dominates: “But how many sales did it generate?”

Sure, sales matter. But when every marketing activity is judged only by how fast it fills a cart, we miss the bigger picture. Because marketing isn’t just about closing a sale. It’s about opening the door to future ones.

It’s about building mental availability, nurturing brand love, driving engagement, and earning loyalty. And while those things are harder to quantify, they’re far more predictive of sustainable brand growth.

So if sales isn’t always the KPI, what is?

Not All Objectives Are Built for Sales Metrics

Your strategic objectives should come directly from your marketing strategy. They reflect the big-picture business outcomes you’re trying to achieve — whether that’s entering a new market, improving brand perception, or increasing customer lifetime value.

From there, you break it down:

Strategic Objective → Marketing Goal → KPI

Here are a few real-world examples:

Strategic Objective	Marketing Goal	KPI
Grow brand presence in a new market	Increase brand awareness in QLD	% uplift in aided recall, new visitors by location
Build long-term emotional connection with consumers	Improve perception and salience of brand values	Brand sentiment, engagement rate on storytelling content
Improve ROAS while maintaining growth	Optimise paid channel mix	CAC reduction, ROAS uplift, cost per incremental conversion
Reduce churn in a subscription-based business	Improve onboarding and post-purchase communication	Churn rate reduction, time-to-second-order, email open/click rates
Launch a new product line with minimal cannibalisation	Drive distinct awareness and value perception	% awareness of new line, share of product page traffic
Deepen brand affinity with younger audiences	Increase engagement across Instagram and TikTok	Saves, shares, video completion rate, comment sentiment

This kind of clarity helps avoid that all-too-common trap: judging every marketing activity on whether it generated immediate sales — even when that was never the objective in the first place.

Without that clarity, you risk running campaigns with mismatched goals and KPIs — and wondering why “nothing works.”

What the Research Says: Byron Sharp, Binet & Field

Byron Sharp: If They Don’t Think of You, They Can’t Buy from You

Sharp’s work in How Brands Grow argues that mental availability — the likelihood a consumer will think of your brand in a buying moment — is key to growth. But it doesn’t happen overnight.

You need:

• Time (consistency across years, not weeks)

• Broad reach (don’t just speak to existing customers)

• Distinctive brand assets (logos, colours, taglines — used consistently)

Implication: You have to invest in brand building before the buying moment — otherwise, no one’s thinking of you when the moment arrives.

Les Binet & Peter Field: The Long and the Short of It

In their landmark study, Binet & Field showed that long-term brand investment yields higher ROI, but the payoff is often delayed. They recommend:

• 60/40 split between brand and activation for most brands

• Brand campaigns should be evaluated using long-term metrics like awareness, share of voice, and recall

• Activation (performance) campaigns can be judged on short-term metrics like conversions and ROAS

  
  

  

  John Lewis Christmas Ads

  
  

Example: John Lewis Christmas Ads

The UK retailer consistently ran emotional, high-production Christmas campaigns that didn’t necessarily spike sales immediately — but over a 5-year period, they saw:

• Increased brand salience

• Improved NPS

• A 23% increase in market share over 4 years during peak season

Lesson: Emotional brand campaigns pay off — just not always this quarter.

Case Study 1: Koala – Built on Brand, Driven by Performance

Koala entered a sleepy category (pun intended) and shook it with bold branding and no-BS copy. Their infamous “NO tools, NO worries” campaign didn’t just sell a mattress — it sold a lifestyle.

Their blend of cheeky OOH, laser-focused performance ads, and distinctive visual identity helped them:

• Grow revenue from $13M in 2016 to $73M in 2020

• Expand into Japan, South Korea, and beyond

• Maintain a direct-to-consumer model without relying on heavy discounts

KPI Framework:

• Brand: Unaided recall, direct traffic

• Engagement: Social sentiment, comment volume

• Sales: AOV, ROAS, repeat purchase rate

In 10 years, Koala has expanded beyond beds into furniture.

💄 Case Study 2: Adore Beauty – From First Order to Forever

Adore Beauty has long championed customer experience and education — think beauty podcasts, skin guides, and extensive review systems. Their goal wasn’t just acquisition; it was stickiness.

And it’s worked:

• In FY22, 60% of revenue came from returning customers 

• Their average customer orders 2.4x annually

• They’ve consistently achieved $180M+ annual revenue, with a focus on LTV over short-term blitzes

KPI Framework:

• Engagement: Time on site, click-through from blog

• Retention: Repeat rate, days between purchases

• Brand: Customer sentiment, podcast listenership

Visual example: Their Beauty IQ blog and podcast consistently rank on Google and in beauty circles:

Adore Beauty's Beauty IQ Podcast.

What Attribution Is Trying to Do (and Why It Falls Short)

Let's talk about the elephant in the room. Marketing Attribution sounds nice, but in reality, it's flawed. Marketing attribution is the process of determining which touchpoint in a buyer’s journey contributed to a conversion (e.g. email, paid search, TikTok, billboard). It’s meant to help marketers prove impact and optimise spend.

Why It’s Flawed:

• People switch devices, browsers, and identities — data is messy

• Many touchpoints are not trackable (TV, word of mouth, organic influence)

• It often gives disproportionate credit to the last click

Why That Matters:

If you’re measuring success only by what gets credit in your attribution model, you might:

• Undervalue brand-building work that creates future demand

• Over-invest in bottom-of-funnel performance marketing

• Treat marketing like a slot machine instead of a long-term growth engine

  
  

Better approach: Use attribution as a directional tool — not a single source of truth. Pair it with brand tracking, sentiment, and LTV to see the whole picture.

The Elba POV: Measure What Matters Most

At Elba Marketing, we don’t just plug in generic dashboards and hope for the best. We build measurement frameworks that align with your actual strategy — not just what’s easy to track.

Because what gets measured gets managed — but only if you’re measuring the right things.

So whether your goal is building an unforgettable brand or squeezing more out of your media spend, we help make sure your KPIs reflect what matters most — not just what’s most visible.