On October 14, we hosted a live webinar with Winterberry Group to unveil The State of Unified Marketing Measurement 2026, a research report from Winterberry Group, presented by Lifesight. Jonathan Margulies, Managing Partner at Winterberry Group, walked us through the research, and Tobin Thomas, Co-founder and CEO of Lifesight, joined him for the discussion.
If you missed it, the full replay is now available. Here’s a quick look at what we covered.
The headline finding
The finding that set the tone for the hour: 83% of brands call unified marketing measurement a leading priority, but only 9% say they can currently practice it “extremely well.”
Three themes from the research
Brands have moved well beyond last-click
Only about a third of brands still use last- or first-click attribution. Far more now use marketing mix modeling (71%), data-driven attribution (62%) and incrementality testing (52%). On average, respondents deploy nearly five distinct measurement approaches, which the report reads as both measurement sophistication and the lack of one unified solution.
Unified measurement is the top priority, with the widest capability gap
Asked to name their top three measurement needs, 40% of brands chose unified measurement to optimize cross-channel spend, more than any other need. Optimizing spend across paid and owned channels also showed the widest gap between priority and capability of the five areas measured: an average of 6.1 for priority versus 5.2 for capability on a 7-point scale.
AI and outside partners are supporting the work
79% of brands use AI for measurement, but only 16% say it plays a central role, and poor or inconsistent data quality is the top barrier to acting on AI-generated insights (55%). Resources are tight too: only 18% say they have the manpower and expertise they need and use both effectively, and 74% say they need external help to expand their measurement capacity.
What it means for marketers
In the second half, Jonathan and Tobin discussed four questions that came straight out of the data:
- Brands have moved past last-click. Why is optimizing across channels still so hard?
- Platform reporting is everywhere. What does an independent view add?
- Where is AI helping measurement today, and where do people still lead?
- What should brands prioritize in the next 12 months?
The report’s own answer to that last question points to three priorities: building a data-driven culture and infrastructure, finding strategic partners that provide an objective view, and aligning stakeholders across marketing, analytics, finance and operations on what they measure and why. You can hear Jonathan and Tobin’s full take, plus their answers to audience questions, in the replay.
Watch the replay and get the report
Thank you to Jonathan, Tobin and everyone who joined us live and asked such good questions.
Download The State of Unified Marketing Measurement 2026
Source: The State of Unified Marketing Measurement 2026, a research report from Winterberry Group, presented by Lifesight. Survey of 121 U.S. enterprise marketers (VP+), July to August 2026.
