• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 27, 2025

Email is supposed to be among the most measurable channels. But that may not be as true as once believed, judging by a new study from Wunderkind: How Marketers Measure, Report, and Prove Impact in 2025.

Case in point: marketers face hurdles in reporting the revenue contributions of email, text and ecommerce to their leadership — 39% describe this as a major challenge. One major obstacle is making it easy to understand.

Many teams probably present raw engagement metrics like open rates and click-through, not tying these metrics to revenue.

Moreover, “17% struggle to align reporting with leadership’s priorities, meaning marketing metrics do not always reflect KPIs executives care about — such as revenue impact, retention, or profitability.”

In addition, 27% cite ongoing attribution challenges. “Many businesses lack reliable models linking email and SMS to purchases, making it hard to quantify their value,” the study says. And 33% claim that leadership prioritizes other channels over email and text. 

In general, 59% of marketers check performance data daily, but struggle to act on it. And while 64% track revenue, only 25% have a clear attribution model. 

Another problem is that 26% waste time pulling data from multiple platforms. And only 13% find it easy to prove return on investment (ROI). No wonder that 53% want AI-powered recommendations to improve insights. 

Still, the top KPIs being tracked are revenue (64%), clickthrough rates (61%), conversion rates (58%) and customer lifetime value (37%). 

Wunderkind surveyed 150 U.S.-based marketers.