Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.
In this episode, Elena and Rob dig into a two-and-a-half-year experiment with a semiconductor company's ads. Every ad dollar brought back about $12 in revenue, but less than half arrived within three months. They cover why existing customers drove most of the payback and how to match your measurement window to your sales cycle.
Topics covered:
[01:50] "Long Lags and Large Returns: Experimental Evidence from Advertising to Businesses"
[02:30] Why B2B buyers are a tough crowd
[03:20] Switching ads on and off across U.S. markets for two and a half years
[04:00] A return on ad spend of 12, and the payback lag
[05:10] Existing customers returned $34.60 per ad dollar, new ones $1.40
[06:00] The approved vendor list and why paperwork slows new buyers
[06:50] What marketers should do about the lag
To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.
Resources:
Thomas, M., Goic, M., & Kalyanam, K. (2025). Long lags and large returns: Experimental evidence from advertising to businesses. Management Science. 71(10):8750-8766.
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.02661 Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
