As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we are exploring the critical components of long-term demand. If you missed our last post breaking down the performance plateau, we highly recommend starting there. And as always, if you are finding this series helpful, subscribe to receive the rest of our insights directly in your inbox. Now, let us address a phrase that has done more damage to brand building than almost anything else in modern marketing

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we're exploring the mechanics of long-term brand health. If you missed our last post on how brand health actually lowers the cost of your performance media over time, we highly recommend starting there. And as always, if you are finding this series helpful, subscribe to receive the rest of our insights directly in your inbox. Now, let's tackle one of the most frustrating experiences a marketing team will

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we're exploring the critical role of brand health. If you missed our last post explaining why brand awareness alone is not the goal, we recommend starting there. And if this conversation is helpful, subscribe to receive the rest of the series directly in your inbox. Now let's talk about the financial reality of brand memory. The Financial Reality of Memory Many organizations view brand marketing and perf

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we are shifting our focus to brand health and long-term signals. If you missed our last post on why light buyers matter more than heavy buyers, we recommend starting there. And if this conversation is helpful, subscribe to receive the rest of the series directly in your inbox. Now let’s talk about a metric that gets a lot of attention but is often misunderstood. Brand Awareness Is Only the First Layer Wh

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we're exploring household penetration and why expansion is the key to durable growth. If you missed our last post on why household penetration is the most underused growth metric in CPG, we recommend starting there. Now let’s talk about a scenario that often hides in plain sight and causes major headaches for marketing and finance teams down the road. The Danger of Masked Fragility It's one of the most d

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’ve spent the last several posts unpacking performance metrics and incrementality. Now we're shifting from efficiency to expansion. Because if growth is the goal, there is one metric that deserves far more attention than it typically receives. Household penetration. What Penetration Actually Measures Household penetration measures the percentage of households in a defined market that purchase your brand

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’ve been unpacking the strengths and limitations of ROAS. We’ve discussed how it’s calculated, why high-intent channels tend to dominate it, and why cross-channel comparisons can be misleading. Now we need to address a newer evolution of the metric. Incremental ROAS. At first glance, it sounds like the solution to everything, but like most measurement tools, it deserves careful scrutiny. What Incrementa

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’ve been unpacking how performance metrics can quietly shape strategy. We’ve discussed why ROAS is useful but incomplete, and why high-intent channels often “win” in the dashboard. Now let’s address a common habit that creates false clarity. Comparing cross-channel ROAS as if they're directly interchangeable. It sounds logical. But, it often isn’t. Not All ROAS Is Calculated the Same Way At first glance

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’ve been unpacking how different metrics shape strategy. In our last post, we explored why ROAS is useful but often over-weighted. Now let’s look at a related pattern most teams have seen firsthand. Some channels almost always appear to outperform the rest: Paid search Retailer onsite ads Sponsored products Instacart placements Their ROAS is higher, conversion rates are stronger, and their dashboards lo

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’re now shifting back into performance metrics. We’ve covered incremental lift, velocity, and how to respond when shelf performance softens. Now we return to one of the most widely used, and misunderstood, metrics in modern marketing. ROAS. Return on Ad Spend isn’t a supervillain… but it is addicting. A byproduct of the e-commerce boom, ROAS has become a messy metric for products sold in-store. What R

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’ve been unpacking how velocity works and why retailers prioritize it over your internal marketing metrics. Now let’s walk through a moment every brand team eventually faces. You’re in a retailer meeting. The buyer looks at the numbers and says: “Your velocity is soft in several regions.” This is where many brands overreact. They shouldn’t. Velocity is a signal. It is not a verdict. Step One: Validate t

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’re continuing our exploration of retailer-facing metrics. In our last post, we discussed why retailers care about velocity, not your ROAS. Now we’re going one level deeper into a scenario that creates real tension inside organizations. Sales are up. Velocity is down. At first glance, that feels impossible. It’s not. How This Happens There are a few common ways total sales can increase while velocity we

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’re shifting from advertising validation to retail reality. We’ve covered incremental lift, why it takes time, and why it measures the portfolio rather than individual channels, which you can click here to read. Now we need to zoom out from dashboards and step into the buyer meeting. Because once you sit across from a retailer, the conversation changes. Retailers aren't asking about your ROAS, they are

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’re continuing our deep dive into incremental sales lift. We're big fans of lift studies at Left Hand Agency. Lift studies show us how brand investment is driving demand and new customer acquisition. But, more than once after a lift study we’ve had a brand ask us: which media channel drove the most new customers? Our answer? We don’t know. That wasn’t the question the study sought to answer. This is n

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we are continuing our deep dive into incremental sales lift. If you missed our last post explaining what incremental lift actually measures, we recommend starting there. Each post builds on the last. And if this conversation is helpful, subscribe to receive the full series directly in your inbox. Now let’s address the question that makes most leadership teams uncomfortable. Why does lift take so long? The

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we are now moving from measurement philosophy into specific tools. If you’ve been following along, we’ve covered defining growth, the CMO vs CFO tension, why no single metric works alone, and the risks of optimizing for the wrong question. Now we begin breaking down individual measurement approaches, starting with one of the most important. Incremental sales lift. Attribution Is Not the Same as Incrementa

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’re unpacking how measurement shapes strategy, often in ways teams do not fully realize. If you missed our earlier posts on defining growth we recommend starting there: What is Growth? The CMO vs CFO measurement tension Why no single metric can measure growth Now let’s talk about something even more subtle. Sometimes the problem is not the metric. It is the question behind the metric. When I worked i

As part of our ongoing series on growth and measurement for CPG brands, we’re breaking down the most common misunderstandings that shape marketing decisions. If you missed our earlier posts on defining growth and understanding the CMO vs. CFO measurement tension, we recommend starting there. And if this conversation is helpful, subscribe to receive the rest of the series directly in your inbox. Now let’s address one of the most common mistakes brands make when evaluating perf

If you’ve worked inside a CPG brand long enough, you’ve probably seen it happen. Marketing presents a plan built around reach, creative, and long-term brand investment. Finance asks how quickly it will pay back. Marketing shares brand lift projections. Finance asks about margin and cash flow. Marketing highlights awareness gains. Finance asks where the incremental revenue is.

This is the first installment in a series of blog posts around business growth and measurement for CPG brands. It’s one of the most misunderstood and miscalculated areas of measurement for brands, and we’re hoping to fix that.