Marketing ROI numbers reported to leadership are taken as facts but rarely tested for defensibility. This tool gives marketing leaders a private way to assess where their numbers will hold up under scrutiny.
Five defensibility dimensions
Attribution model transparency: is the model documented and consistent over time? Counterfactual robustness: how is incrementality estimated? Cost completeness: are agency fees, technology, and people costs included? Time horizon: is the measurement window appropriate to the customer journey? External validity: have results been triangulated against MMM or in-market tests?
Scoring scale
Each dimension scored one to five. Aggregate scores below 15 are not boardroom-ready. Scores between 15 and 20 are defensible internally but should not be quoted publicly. Scores above 20 can survive analyst scrutiny.
Improvement priorities
Counterfactual robustness is almost always the lowest-scoring dimension and the most expensive to improve. The fastest improvements come from cost completeness and time horizon, both of which are usually documentation problems rather than measurement problems.
Last updated May 2026 · Filed under Tools