As brands increasingly prioritize real-time metrics, do marketers truly understand what drives sales? The latest Advertiser Perceptions study suggests that while perceptions are improving, many advertisers still miss the mark on the power of great creative.
The survey, conducted in February 2025 via the Cumulus Audio Active Group, polled 301 brand and agency professionals on the perceived contribution of five key factors, brand, creative, reach, recency, and targeting, to overall sales impact. Respondents were asked to assign a percentage to each, totaling 100%.
While creativity has long been established as the heart of effective advertising, marketers and agencies continue to undervalue its impact. Participants attributed just 21% of sales results to creative. Yet research from NCSolutions‘ Five Keys to Advertising Effectiveness study, based on nearly 450 sales effect studies, finds that creative is responsible for a staggering 49% of incremental sales – more than double what marketers believe.
However, this is a slight improvement over last year’s results, which said 19% of sales impact is tied to creative.
The gap highlights a persistent blind spot: creative is consistently underestimated, while targeting is consistently overvalued. Marketers surveyed ranked targeting as the number one sales driver, assigning it 23% of total impact. But NCSolutions’ data shows targeting generates only 11% of sales, ranking a distant fourth behind creative, brand, and reach.
The 2025 Advertiser Perceptions study also shows that both marketers and agencies are largely aligned in their misconceptions. They similarly undervalue creative, exaggerate the role of targeting, and misjudge the influence of reach and recency. Only a brand’s sales contribution, which was placed at 21%, was accurately estimated.
As advertisers chase ever-narrower audience segments, it’s encouraging that more and more are realizing that memorable, emotionally resonant creative still carries the greatest weight when it comes to delivering results, yet there’s still more work to be done.
