Introduction

Most top-of-funnel campaigns get judged by sales. ROA shows how much attention you’re actually earning -and why that matters.

What's the problem it solves?

Marketers often use ROI to measure all campaigns, even ones that aren’t made to sell right away. This leads to wrong conclusions about what's working. ROA gives a better way to measure early-stage marketing that focuses on awareness and attention, not direct sales.

Quick Summary

Return on Attention (ROA) is a way to measure how well your marketing grabs people’s attention, especially in the early stages of the buyer journey. Unlike ROI, which focuses on how much money a campaign brings in, ROA looks at things like views, listens, or time spent. It’s about asking, “Did we make anyone notice us?” not just “Did they buy something?”

This helps with top-of-funnel efforts where people are just starting to learn about your brand. ROA works well with things like blog posts, videos, social content, and podcasts. Even if they don’t lead to sales right away, these efforts often plant the seed for future buying. By tracking attention gained per dollar spent, marketers can improve their campaigns and make smarter decisions about where to put their budget.

Using ROA alongside other metrics like ROE (engagement) and ROI (revenue) gives a clearer view of how the full marketing funnel is doing. It allows marketers to mix creativity with data, build trust earlier, and avoid being trapped by short-term sales targets. Brands like Mailchimp and Wistia have already shown how powerful this attention-first thinking can be.

Key Takeaways from the article

• ROA tracks attention, not sales -perfect for top-of-funnel campaigns
• Attention can be measured by views, listens, scrolls, or time spent
• ROI isn’t useful for “dark funnel” channels that don’t show direct clicks
• Use ROA to measure early interest, ROE for engagement, ROI for revenue
• Attention-focused marketing lets you be more creative and human
• Big B2B brands have used ROA strategies to win millions of impressions
• Small tests and creative ideas can get huge results when attention is the goal
• Set clear rules for what counts as “attention” and track it the same way every time
• ROA helps you know what works -even when you can’t tie it to a sale yet

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