Let’s face it: advertising today is drowning in data. Every campaign has a dashboard. Every post has a metric. We can track clicks, impressions, scroll depth, bounce rates, cost-per-this and cost-per-that. And when those numbers point in the right direction, it feels like cause for celebration.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: those ads might be working – just not on humans.
Metrics That Miss the Point
Modern advertising is often built to succeed in a machine environment. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Efficiency matters. Algorithms drive distribution. Programmatic tools optimise delivery. A/B tests help refine creative.
But when machines become the ultimate audience, human resonance can quietly slip through the cracks – especially whilst many of the platforms marketers are advertising on continue to come up short when it comes to mitigating this.
The problem isn’t data. It’s what we’re measuring, and what we’re mistaking for success.
We’ve become conditioned to chase numbers that are easy to track but often divorced from real-world impact. Impressions aren’t impressions in the human sense. A ‘view’ might mean a fraction of a second of partial visibility while someone scrolls past. A click doesn’t necessarily mean interest. It could just be muscle memory or a mis-tap. And a high-performing headline might just be bait, not brand-building.
These are machine metrics. They’re helpful, yes. But they don’t tell the full story, especially not the human one.
The Human Element Is Still What Matters Most
At its best, advertising isn’t just seen. It’s felt. It sticks in the memory, becomes a talking point, nudges behaviour, or even reshapes culture. It’s emotional, creative, unexpected. And while that kind of resonance is harder to measure, it’s what builds long-term brand value.
Most people can’t remember the last pre-roll ad they saw. But they can recall the one that made them laugh, the one that felt true, the one that made them think. These are the ads that work, not just because they were served to the right person at the right time, but because they made a human connection.
Rethinking What “Working” Really Means
If we’re serious about creating ads that truly work, we need to rethink how we define effectiveness. Not in terms of raw reach, but real reach. Not in terms of whether an ad was technically delivered and briefly visible, but whether it was memorable, meaningful, and worth sharing.
That requires new ways of listening and measuring through research that tracks recall and emotional impact, through analysis of what people are saying and sharing in their own words, through the time and attention they willingly give, not just what’s captured by an algorithm.
It’s harder to do. But it’s worth doing. Because when you measure for human outcomes, not just machine outputs, everything changes, from the brief to the creative, to the way success is judged.
A Creative Reset
This isn’t about ditching data. It’s about rebalancing. About creating space for work that’s imaginative, emotive, distinctive and, you know… human. Work that delivers human results, like an increase in sales, customer life-time value, basket size or just good ol’ fashioned profit. Afterall, these are the ultimate measures of effectiveness, aren’t they?
The next time the metrics look good, ask yourself a few tougher questions: would a real person care about this? Would they remember it a week from now? Would they talk about it? Would they miss it if it disappeared?
If the answer is no, maybe your ads are working, just not on the audience that matters most. Real, living, breathing people.
