“If you aren’t getting digital right, you’re getting marketing wrong.” It seems simple, but the reality is that digital has taken over the everyday lives of consumers, and marketers are still scrambling to understand and take advantage of the opportunities that an evolving digital landscape provides.

This statement opens the study Getting Digital Right 2015, Millward Brown Digital’s second annual look at the state of digital marketing. The study, based on input from more than 400 U.S. marketers spanning brands, media companies and agencies, uncovered the primary challenges and opportunities facing marketers today.

Three key findings emerged that marketers need to address in order to get digital right:

Only 14% of marketers stated confidence in their team’s use of big data.
Consumers are generating multitudes of data, but marketers
are struggling with how to use it. Marketers agree: “utilizing big data to create actionable insights” is the top opportunity facing marketers today. However, most aren’t confident in their organization’s usage – only 14% of marketers stated confidence in their team’s use of big data. Even further, that represents a significant drop in confidence from the Getting Digital Right 2014 study, where 39% of marketers expressed confidence.

The volume and complexity of data is clearly causing marketers heartache. In order to be successful, marketers need to determine the right mix of research tools for their business or clients, and work with partners who can assist in combining that data with internal and third-party data to create insights that can fuel growth.

Approximately half of media and agency marketers, and only 25% of brand marketers are confident in their media mix. As digital evolves, so do consumer behaviors. Cross-device media consumption has complicated the way in which marketers reach consumers. Naturally, these changes impact media budget and resource allocation. Since the 2014 study, the biggest increases in channel usage have occurred in the digital space, with Mobile up 4%, Social up 2%, and Search up 1%. But still, marketers aren’t sure they have it right – only about half of media and agency marketers are confident they have an optimized media mix, while even fewer brand marketers do – only about 25%. Instead, they shared what their ideal mix of budget and resource allocations would look like:

To capitalize on the opportunities at hand, marketers need to understand where and how to reach the dynamic, changing consumer by examining the wide array of consumer journeys that exist and the impact of multiscreen consumer behaviors.

Over 70% of Marketers would increase resource allocation to Mobile, Digital, and Social channels if ROI measurement improved. Accountability is a requirement, and tactics that can’t prove their effectiveness will be pushed to the wayside in lieu of digital channels that can provide a wealth of data and ROI measurement capabilities. In fact, nearly 50% of marketers indicate “an ability to demonstrate ROI” as a top criterion for determining media budget allocations. For publishers, this can mean a big impact to their business – over 70% of marketers indicated they would increase their media spend with Mobile, Digital, and Social channels if ROI tracking for those tactics improved; conversely, only 47% stated they would increase spend in traditional advertising with improved ROI measurement. Given the need for marketers to provide proof of success, working with partners to measure the impact of marketing activities for individual channels, as well as the varying combinations of channels to maximize ROI measurement is essential.

In the end, it’s no longer a question of whether to include digital in your marketing strategy; instead, the questions have shifted to when, where, and how much? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. Marketers need to begin by finding the right mix of KPIs within their available data, understanding the dynamic consumer and the touchpoints they engage with, and the resulting impact on their brand.

Feel free to download a copy of Getting Digital Right 2015 if you are interested in learning more.