Brand Measurement Case Studies
Six examples of brands using Marathon Data to measure, validate, and optimize brand investment against incremental revenue.
Measured Brand Investment Drives Better Results in the Long Term AND the Short Term
Contribution margin (total revenue − product costs − ad spend) measures the dollars your business actually keeps. It’s the clearest measure of whether growth is profitable — and it’s one of the outcomes Marathon tracks against brand activity.
Measurement, Not Theory
- Losing money for six months while waiting for brand to "kick in" is not a luxury any business owner has
- In every case below, Marathon measured short-term business outcomes alongside long-term brand effects
- Customers used Marathon to start conservatively and expand as measured results confirmed
Better Allocation, Not Added Budget
- Identify over-serving to existing customers and quantify the opportunity to reallocate
- Measure which spend is creating incremental new customer growth
- Contribution dollars and margin growth improved within the first month across Marathon customers
Brand IS Better Performance
- These results came from measured brand-building investment — not traditional direct response attribution
- Brand campaigns measured through Marathon drove stronger incremental ROAS than anything on the DR side
- Measurement infrastructure captures brand campaign impact in real time — not quarterly. Every campaign is optimized as data comes in, which is why the results are both large and repeatable
- The data below shows the pattern across customers, in both short and long term
Profitable Growth, Proven — Not Promised
Across the portfolio, Marathon grows the business on the metric that matters — contribution dollars and incrementality — not vanity ROAS. Recent month-over-month profit gains, causal incrementality measurement, and rolled-out CRO wins below. Brands anonymized to category; all figures from client systems of record.
Real business impact — fast.
What changed for four consumer brands in their first ~90 days with Marathon — growth and profitability moving together.
May 2026 vs the Q1 monthly average
in one week — barely 60 days in
Measured incremental lift.
Controlled causal incrementality measurement isolating the incremental return of Marathon-run brand media — the honest measure of whether spend actually drove new demand.
We do CRO, too — and it compounds into the P&L.
Beyond media, Marathon runs a continuous, structured on-site testing program — and only validated winners ship to 100% of traffic. It’s the most under-rated lever in growth, and it compounds harder than any paid-media incrementality test: an incrementality test measures the return on one channel’s spend, while a CRO win lifts the value of every session — paid or organic — permanently, right at the bottom of the funnel where intent is highest. A single win keeps paying across all traffic, from every channel, long after the test ends — and the downside is capped: a test that doesn’t graduate never ships and costs nothing but a sharper read on what does.
Contribution figures combine actual revenue with the brand’s standard variable-cost assumptions. Percentage-point (pp) deltas shown for rate metrics. Pre/post YoY framing isolates Marathon’s engagement period from the same months a year prior. The homepage revenue-per-visitor result is the observed A/B-test lift, not an annualized projection. Brands anonymized to category; all figures from client systems of record.
Are these numbers good?
Brand advertising drives more profitable growth than direct response — and you see it right away, in the number that matters most: contribution dollars.
1.93x – 2.39x iROAS on Brand Campaigns
Brand outperformed every direct-response tactic tested in the same accounts, in the same windows. Measured by rigorous causal incrementality measurement — 90% confidence interval lower bound above 1.0x on one test; 97% probability of positive return on the other. The opposite of what the industry tells you to expect from brand spend — replicated across categories.
Contribution Dollars Rose From Month One
The industry says brand investment means months of losses before any payoff. The data says otherwise. In the engagements we’ve measured, contribution dollars and margin improved within the first month — no trough, no observed revenue drop. We reallocate the least-efficient spend first, so the profit shows up immediately while the business keeps growing.
Why these results are so important: Measured brand advertising can drive more profitable growth than direct response — and it shows up fast. Same accounts, same windows, brand outperformed the DR tactics tested when measured by causal incrementality measurement, and contribution dollars rose from the first month with no trough. Direct response stops when the ads stop. Brand compounds. Marathon makes that measurable.
Results at a Glance — by Brand
These results isolate causal lift from brand-building campaigns — not traditional direct response — alongside the web-revenue work that compounds into the same P&L. Across categories, the pattern is the same: when teams measure the incremental revenue signal, they can see where demand is actually growing.
Incremental Returns & Web Revenue
97% confidence across Shopify, Amazon, and TikTok Shop. Higher incremental return than every DR tactic tested in the same period.
Causal incrementality measurement at a major retailer proved brand building materially drives wholesale. 2.5x incremental retail partner revenue lift on brand media alone.
Six-month causal incrementality measurement. Platform showed 0.91x blended ROAS for DR during the same period. Revenue lift over 2x higher than all of direct response. Brick-and-mortar lift 2x larger than e-commerce.
Nearly $2M in annualized incremental revenue in the first months from measurement-informed web merchandising and CRO work. Higher revenue per session makes every paid-media dollar scale more profitably.
What We Heard From the Industry — and What the Data Actually Shows
What the Industry Says
- Brand investment means adding budget on top of what you’re already spending
- There will be months of losses before any payoff materializes — it’s a long-term play
- Performance media means direct response — top-of-funnel doesn’t drive measurable returns
- No one has proven this works at scale — results like these are a one-off that cannot be replicated
What the Data Actually Shows
- Top-of-funnel brand campaigns drive stronger incremental ROAS than direct response — proven across multiple brands by rigorous causal incrementality measurement
- Contribution margin improves in weeks because the least efficient DR dollars are reallocated first — no budget added
- Brand searches, new customer acquisition, and community growth respond in days and weeks, not months
- The results have been replicated across multiple brands, categories, and channels — it is not a one-off
Every incrementality result below was measured by direct response standards — the hardest standard there is. The brand perspective upside is additive: while driving incremental revenue, these campaigns simultaneously build audience, brand searches, and baseline. A 2x return on brand spend is fundamentally more valuable than a 2x return on DR spend — the brand version compounds.
The Evidence, Brand by Brand
Every metric is sourced. Every claim is verified.
The Starting Point
Up and down week to week — inconsistent YoY comps with no clear growth trajectory
Significant negative comps on new customer acquisition — the engine of future growth was stalled
A lot of wasted ad spend — heavy investment across Google brand keywords, CTV, podcast, and Reddit with diminishing returns
No contribution margin visibility, no incrementality measurement, budget decisions made on platform ROAS
“It’s not formulaic. It’s a gut decision.” — VP Marketing, December 2025
Smart Reallocation, Not Added Budget
Increasing Reach to New Audiences
Marathon surfaced diminishing returns in retargeting and retention spend, giving the team confidence to reallocate into campaigns designed to reach new people who did not know the brand yet.
Brand-Centric Creative Across the Whole Funnel
The team used Marathon to evaluate creative that reinforced who the brand is at every stage — not generic direct response ads that could have come from any brand.
Systematic Brand Measurement
Brand campaigns were held accountable by contribution margin, brand searches, and new customer revenue — not in-platform ROAS. Weekly Marathon measurement created clear thresholds for scaling.
Same budget, better allocation. Marathon measurement showed where top-of-funnel brand-building campaigns could replace the least efficient DR dollars — not supplement them. The returns compound through brand searches and baseline revenue that no direct response campaign can build.
Contribution Dollars Up Sharply Year Over Year — No Trough
Contribution dollars grew roughly 50% year over year after the least-efficient spend was reallocated into brand campaigns — no added budget.
Contribution-margin rate improved year over year every month of the engagement — from roughly 18% the prior year into the mid-20s%, about a 29% year-over-year improvement in the strongest month.
Total revenue and new-customer revenue grew year over year through the engagement — no short-term drop while margin improved.
DTC e-commerce revenue grew year over year after the team began using Marathon to measure and optimize the allocation, giving the brand-campaign work room to compound beyond one-week paid-click performance.
Weekly contribution dollars ran well above the prior year across the engagement — every month outpaced the prior year.
Weekly contribution-dollar year-over-year growth strengthened through the period, accelerating month over month
No blind trough. No observed revenue drop in this engagement. Marathon measured the impact of top-of-funnel brand-building campaigns — not more direct response spend. Contribution dollars grew sharply year over year while revenue and new customers kept climbing, because the dollars reallocated into brand campaigns were already the least efficient in the account. This was measured, not launched and left to hope.
New-Customer Acquisition Turned the Corner
For the first time this year, new-customer acquisition revenue is trending up — driven by brand and direct demand, not paid-click attribution. The growth showed up within weeks of the brand work starting, not quarters later.
From ~2 new followers/day in January to 683/day by March
22 shares/day → 161 shares/day in two months
This is what an immediate inflection looks like: new-customer acquisition turned positive within weeks of the engagement — no trough, no waiting two quarters for brand to “kick in.” Marathon measured these results from top-of-funnel brand-building campaigns. DR spend buys a click that disappears tomorrow. Performance brand-building builds compounding demand that keeps lowering acquisition cost long after the campaign ends.
Contribution Margin +37% YoY, Revenue +20% — In Under Two Months
Contribution-margin dollars growing at +37% year-over-year while the brand campaigns scale
$1.49M weekly revenue, trending up every week since engagement start
Current results from an engagement that started mid-January 2026 — not projections. Margin and revenue grew immediately, with no trough.
The Marathon measurement period started in mid-January 2026 — less than two months before this readout. Contribution margin was up 37% YoY and weekly revenue up 20%, climbing every week since we started. These were current results — not projections — with no trough on the way up. Unlike direct response, the demand brand-building creates persists and compounds long after the spend.
1.93x Incremental ROAS — Proven by Six-Month Causal Incrementality Measurement
Every $1 of brand spend returned $1.93 in proven incremental revenue. 90% CI: 1.45x – 2.41x — entire range above breakeven.
Brand incremental ROAS was 2.1x higher than the blended in-platform DR ROAS (0.91x) during the same period. Brand outperformed DR by every measure.
Brand is profitable in e-commerce, but twice as profitable in building wholesale. Incremental retail lift was 2x larger than DTC — revenue you cannot reach with direct response ads.
January 2026 — the full business grew nearly 30% year-over-year while brand campaigns scaled
This is a 6-month causal incrementality measurement — the most rigorous approach available. These were exclusively top-of-funnel brand-building campaigns. The platforms said 0.91x. The measured incremental return was 1.93x. And here’s what makes this fundamentally different from DR: while generating that 1.93x incremental return, these brand campaigns were also building brand searches, growing the audience, and lifting retail sales in channels with zero ad targeting. No direct response campaign does that. Marathon made the gap measurable.
The Results Replicate Across Categories and Channels
Both results below came from top-of-funnel brand-building campaigns only — no DR. Both outperformed direct response on the measured standards in these tests. Two more data points showing the pattern across categories. More case studies are being added continuously.
Causal incrementality measurement of brand campaign impact on wholesale sell-through at a major outdoor retailer, excluding all DTC channels. Brand building materially drives wholesale — revenue you cannot reach with direct response.
6-month causal incrementality measurement across Shopify, Amazon, and TikTok Shop. 97% statistical confidence that spend is profitable.
The Marathon causal incrementality measurement showed a higher incremental return than every DR tactic they ran incrementality studies against. Four independent tests — the Marathon brand measurement, one in-platform DR incrementality test, two CTV lift studies. Brand outperformed DR across the board.
How Measurement Gets Started
- Data audit — validate billing, tracking, revenue, and ad-platform inputs before modeling.
- Define the audience and segment views needed to measure incremental new customer growth
- Map channel mix, campaign structure, and revenue sources so Marathon can read the business correctly
- Top & upper-mid funnel campaigns are tagged and monitored across Meta, YouTube, and TikTok
- 30-day model trainer with causal measurement data completes the tuning of the Marathon brand model with causal data
- Creative is classified across the whole funnel so Marathon can identify which assets build demand
- Marathon model goes live — fully populated with causal and statistical data, retraining weekly, updated daily
- Brand budgets can start conservatively and scale as they earn more budget — backed by the data to support every dollar
- Creative feedback loop shows what drives incrementality and Brand Value at every funnel stage
- Identify what works — validated by volume growth, organic sessions, and behavioral confirmation
- Inform creative iteration with true diversity — more shots on goal, not just DR variations
- Track the larger funnel as demand capture improves — more people who already know and trust the brand
By day 60, the team can see whether the auction is becoming less important — because Marathon tracks the growing body of people who proactively seek the brand out before they ever see a direct response ad. The data is clear: this does not have to be a sacrifice. Across Marathon customers, contribution margin improved in weeks, not months. The full funnel performed better than bottom-funnel spend alone.
The Information Is Public. The Measurement Was Missing.
The case for brand-building is not new. Binet & Field, Les Binet, Byron Sharp — the academic evidence has existed for decades. Share of search predicts share of market. Brand investment compounds. The research is public.
- Top-of-funnel reach drives brand search, and brand search drives revenue
- Brands that stop building eventually pay more to acquire the same customers
Most brands know brand matters. Almost none can measure it in a way that justifies the investment to a CFO — so they keep defaulting to what's measurable: direct response. The measurement gap is the budget-allocation gap.
- Without measurement, brand budgets are defended by opinion, not data
- Without measurement, no one knows whether it's working until it's too late
Marathon closes the measurement gap. Every campaign is held accountable by contribution margin, brand searches, and causal incrementality — not in-platform ROAS. That's what makes the decision framework different.
- Results are visible in weeks, not quarters — because we measure what moves first
- Every dollar can scale because the data says it should, not because someone thinks it will
This is better performance — not a tradeoff. The measured incrementality on brand campaigns consistently exceeded DR in every account measured with Marathon. Creative diversity brought in full-price brand buyers instead of discount shoppers and built a compounding demand engine that no direct response campaign could replicate. Marathon productizes the measurement and optimization loop so teams can prove where brand investment is creating value.
What This Builds
What We Measure
We are triangulators. That’s our job.
- Brand Value & Incrementality — iROAS on new audiences, conversion lift, exposed vs. unexposed
- Reach & New Audiences — spend to new audiences, cost per thousand accounts reached, reach growth
- Brand Searches — branded organic search volume, the leading indicator of compounding demand
- Engagements Across the Funnel — brand actions, community growth, engagement rate by funnel stage
Creative That Compounds
Immediate signal on what drives both incrementality and brand value. More toward brand value at the top, more toward demand capture at the bottom — but we want both working at every stage.
The Compounding Effect
Every dollar of brand investment creates people who come to you without ever seeing or clicking a direct response ad. They search the brand. They memorize the URL. They come directly.
This stream of revenue grows and compounds over time — reducing dependence on the auction, increasing optionality, and growing owned audiences.
One client saw contribution dollars up 60% in 80 days. Another hit seven consecutive weeks of CM$ growth with no decline. This isn't a long-term bet — it pays out in weeks.
What Success Looks Like
A fundamentally larger funnel of people who already know and trust your brand — less dependence on the auction, more control over your own growth.
That means: More demand to capture, less cost to capture it, higher margins, and a growth engine that keeps compounding after the holiday.
The Results Are in the Data.
Across Marathon customers — denim, wellness, footwear, food & beverage, outdoor gear, beauty — the pattern is the same. Top-of-funnel performance brand-building campaigns measured through Marathon drove stronger incremental ROAS than anything on the DR side. No short-term loss. No trough. Results in weeks. These results were surfaced by rigorous measurement and real-time optimization, not by waiting months to see whether brand spend worked. More case studies are being added continuously.
Early Improvement
These Marathon customers saw contribution margin, revenue, and new customer acquisition improve from the first weeks — measured against top-of-funnel brand campaigns, not more DR spend
Protected Near-Term Health
In this case-study set, we did not observe a revenue drop or contribution-margin decline while the media mix shifted. That is the point to prove before brand investment gets scaled.
Brand Outperformed DR in These Tests
1.93x–2.39x incremental return on brand campaigns alone — higher than every DR tactic tested in the same accounts, proven by rigorous causal incrementality measurement with statistically significant positive lift (90% CI lower bound above 1.0x on one; 97% probability of positive return on the other)
Measured Across Customers — More Coming
This is not a one-off. The results have been proven across multiple categories and channels. More case studies are being added continuously.