A lack of confidence in the ability to measure the performance of cross-channel campaigns is stopping most marketers from adopting them, according to new figures.

93 per cent of marketers would run more cross-channel campaigns if they were guaranteed the ability to measure their effectiveness and reach, and better understood how the cross-channel marketing programs justified the higher investment they required.

The figures come from a study conducted by Forrester Consulting for Acxiom and 4Info of 100 US digital marketing decision makers from consumer-facing brands. Only 13 per cent of those interviewed felt confident in their ability to accurately measure cross-channel campaigns, with 42 per cent citing the inability to target the same users across multiple channels as the top challenge for cross-channel platforms.

The lack of confidence in cross-channel reflects larger apprehensions about mobile, with only 18 per cent of marketers feeling very confident about measuring the ROI of their mobile efforts. However, this lack of confidence is not holding back adoption, with 86 per cent of those surveyed planning to increase the number of cross-channel campaigns they run this year.

“The consumer has already voted with their eyeballs and wallets, and their attention span on their mobile devices,” said Josh Herman, vice president of partner and product strategy at Acxiom. “The key now is helping the advertiser catch up to that ubiquitous consumer behaviour in a way that gives them empirical confidence that the mobile ads they bought found their audience and impacted sales.

“The ability to both successfully identify the same consumer across channels and accurately measure the return on ad spend of cross-channel efforts will be essential for marketers as advertising spans across mobile and beyond.”