{"id":93318,"date":"2026-04-28T05:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/?p=93318"},"modified":"2026-04-28T05:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:24:07","slug":"its-true-you-really-do-need-to-spend-money-to-make-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/its-true-you-really-do-need-to-spend-money-to-make-money.html","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s true: You really do need to spend money to make money"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advertising is a commitment. It can also be expensive. And while we know that brands are prioritizing their brand awareness<\/a> efforts in the coming year, there isn\u2019t a marketer on the planet who\u2019s not focused on the tangible returns that their spend delivers. And given that focus, it\u2019s not uncommon for brands to pull back when the returns aren\u2019t there. Somewhat counterintuitively, however, that\u2019s usually not a good strategy. <\/p>\n

The knee-jerk reaction to reign in spending when returns are lackluster is logical. Why continue\u2014or even increase\u2014spending if it\u2019s not generating positive results? As odd as it might sound, the answer is because you\u2019re likely not spending enough to get the returns you want. In fact, there\u2019s a spending threshold to generate the best returns, and if you don\u2019t hit that, the returns will likely be underwhelming. And if you pull back, the problem could worsen.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re not spending enough on advertising, you\u2019re not going to get the returns you\u2019re looking for<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a recent deep dive into an array of cross-channel media plans, we found that 50% of marketers\u2019 media investments are actually too low to drive maximum payback. And in terms of amount, they\u2019re 50% below what they should be to generate the best possible results. When marketers embrace the premise of spending more to earn more\u2014by committing to the ideal amount\u2014they could boost their return on investment (ROI) by as much as 50%.<\/p>\n

Armed with an understanding that maximum ROI depends on specific spending levels, marketers can dive into determining what the right spending amount is. Said differently, in order to get the best ROI, brands need to know how much they need to spend to break through.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example: In a recent analysis, we found that when a brand spent too little, the vast majority of the audience (87%) were exposed to the campaign less than three times. This group accounted for 68% of the delivered impressions. That means that nearly 70% of the impressions might not have been as effective as they could be.<\/p>\n

In a separate example where a brand spent a medium amount, approximately 40% of the audience was exposed at least three times, and only a small portion of the audience (8%), saw the ad eight or more times in a week, which suggests potential ad waste. In the example where ad spending gets very large, 75% of the impressions are attributed to the audience members who see that ad more than eight times, but even in this example,32% of the campaign audience saw the ad only once or twice.<\/p>\n

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In addition to looking at a few specific cases, we wanted to better understand\u2014at a global level\u2014how frequently brands underspend and in which channels. Through our analysis of ROI observations, we focused on three key questions to understand what spending and ROI looks like\u2014as well as what opportunity is being left on the table:<\/p>\n