Lower funnel is over invested, marketers should rebalance marketing mix now: Mutinex

Mutinex has urged marketers to rebalance their marketing investment away from channels like paid search and affiliates in its updated Marketing ROI Index report released today.

The report analyses a pool of over $2 billion in marketing investment up to and including May 2024 and highlights a strong trend of marketers dumping upper funnel investment in favour of lower funnel activations in an environment of constricted budgets and flat marketing ROI.

The trend has seen investment in search and affiliates surge at the expense of online video and OOH.

“Marketers really can’t be faulted for trying to drive as much revenue as quickly as possible in the lower funnel in these tough economic conditions,” says Mutinex global CEO and co-founder, Henry Innis.

“We see the imperative to deliver results. But the numbers indicate that the short-term gains of that strategy are basically played out at this point.”

The report reveals that despite a small bump in marketing ROI during Q1 2024 driven in large part by increased investments in paid search and affiliate marketing, overall performance is tapering as those channels become more competitive and the general economic malaise continues.

“Marketers need to stop trying to simply “wait it out”, advises Mutinex director of marketing science, Will Marks.

“When the economic conditions are not in your favour, it’s tempting to think that if you hunker down and harvest demand that can see you through until the tide turns. But the reality is that the bottom of the funnel is very hot right now. If you don’t want to get burned then you need to buck the investment trend and diversify.”

The full Mutinex MROI Index Report Q3 2024 is available here.