If you’re a marketer, you’re likely constantly navigating how to drive profitable return with your media investments and in turn, prove the channel’s impact. And, in an industry that’s become increasingly focused on omni sales—not just ecommerce sales—your measurement strategy holds even more weight. So, how do you measure the holistic impact of your brand’s channel investments?

Your Holistic Measurement Solution

We’ve got the answer: Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR). Ovative’s Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR) framework, powered by EMRge^TM technology, provides a holistic approach to measuring media’s impact on total omni performance—not just digital outcomes. This approach empowers marketing and cross-functional business leaders to confidently shift toward planning, buying, and measuring media in a way that impacts retailers’ revenue, customer, and brand outcomes.

While the result may seem like magic, we calculate a channel’s EMR by incorporating four key components: online and offline revenue, future customer value, incrementality, and profitability. If you’re tired of wasting budget, it’s time to release ROAS from your vocabulary and fully embrace EMR.

The Paid Media 2025 Power Rankings

Now revealing: the 2025 EMR Power Rankings. These rankings were calculated using real brand data to determine the paid media channels driving the highest returns for marketers. Use these power rankings to determine which channels are right for your brand. Then, contact our experts to craft your customized media strategy.

But wait! We’ve got a few notes on how to read the EMR Power Rankings:

1. Rankings are based on three EMR components and scored on a scale of 0-100: online sales, offline sales, and future customer value
2. Adjusting for scale and diminishing returns, a weighted average is calculated
3. The higher the score, the stronger that channel or tactic is in driving EMR or a specific component of EMR

Curious how these compare to last year’s results? Check out last year’s rankings here.

The Big Movers

We all know there were some major developments in paid media marketing this past year. So, which channels experienced the biggest surge or dip?

TikTok: Bans can’t slow them down

Despite a looming ban, TikTok effectiveness has continued to rise, especially in-store. Our experts continue to successfully increase budgets and deepen understanding of the channel’s value. Increased in-market tests have allowed us to confidently recommend TikTok channel investment as a strong digital diversification opportunity. Interested in even more granular details? Read our recent article on TikTok’s hidden value here.

Retail Media: Still on the verge

An increasing number of brands are catching on that retail media is worth the investment. As the industry grows, our experts have a stronger ability to measure the channel’s returns and validate the accuracy of said returns.

Retail media is (still) on the verge. Expect its continued increase in value within the media measurement landscape. Just like TikTok, we’ll be able to better pressure test its value over time. As recently as June 2024, retail media had ranked at #15 in the EMR Power Rankings, having risen by four spots YoY. The channel continues its rise. Now, it’s coming in hot at #8, an increase of seven spots in less than nine months. And, we anticipate its ranking to continue rising.

Connected TV (CTV): Dealing with saturation

While still ranking (barely) above traditional Linear TV, CTV experienced the most significant drop in rankings. In our previous EMR Power Rankings, CTV landed at a solid ranking of #6. Now, it’s ranked at a meager #16. Why? It’s likely due to an increasingly saturated streaming market. It has become much more difficult for consumers to determine which streaming services to invest in. In turn, it’s more difficult for marketers to determine which platforms their key audiences live in.

Conversely, the impact of web-based video and audio has held flat, as platforms like YouTube and Spotify continue to invest in improvements to ad solutions.

Upper Funnel: Driving more in-store sales

This year, TikTok, audio, and Facebook upper funnel saw strong improvements in driving store sales. This validates that investment in these channels is worth the effort of longer creative lead times. Plus, stay tuned for more tools that platforms like Meta are developing to help brands drive more omni sales.

Ecommerce and In-Store’s Big Winners

Before you go, we’re gifting you with one more resource: the biggest ecommerce and in-store sales drivers. Depending on your business, these top-ranked channels may need to be your focus in 2025.

Take Action, Marketers

Time to take action. In your next strategy meeting, pull up these EMR Power Rankings to help you make informed decisions. If you’re getting stuck, help us help you exceed your goals! Ovative can help your brand close the gap in your current marketing measurement and drive transformative business growth. Connect with our experts to ensure your marketing is reaching its full potential!