Data-Driven Wins: Brands Find Major ROI Amidst Budget Squeezes

AUSTIN, TX – April 13, 2026 – In an economic climate where marketing departments are continually asked to justify every dollar, a new report highlights how major consumer brands are leveraging real-time data to generate millions in new revenue. Real-time marketing firm InMarket today released its annual Breakthrough Outcomes report, detailing campaigns from six brands—including Welch’s, OLLY, and Bob Evans Farms—that successfully converted digital consumer intent into measurable, real-world sales.

The findings showcase impressive results, with individual campaigns driving up to $1.5 million in incremental sales and achieving an incremental return on ad spend (iROAS) as high as $11.43 for every dollar spent. These figures arrive at a critical juncture for the advertising industry, which is navigating intense budget scrutiny and the challenge of reaching consumers who now spend over nine hours a day immersed in a fragmented digital world.

A Blueprint for Breakthrough Sales

According to InMarket, the success of the recognized campaigns, which also featured The Laughing Cow, Monkey Shoulder Scotch Whisky, and Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whiskey, was built on three strategic pillars: precision timing, creative clarity, and data-led personalization. This framework allowed brands to cut through the noise and connect with shoppers at the exact moment of purchase intent.

For example, Welch’s utilized bright, spring-themed creative to promote a new line of sparkling beverages, a timely move that resulted in a reported $1.5 million in incremental sales and a 2.1% sales lift. Similarly, the wellness brand OLLY targeted families during the busy back-to-school season with its “Wellness is in Session” campaign, achieving an identical $1.5 million in incremental sales and a formidable $10.06 iROAS.

Bob Evans Farms demonstrated the power of pairing compelling visuals with clear calls to action. By combining mouthwatering breakfast imagery with a specific aisle directive, the campaign generated $1.1 million in incremental sales and an industry-leading $11.43 iROAS. Even smaller-scale campaigns saw significant impact; The Laughing Cow’s use of its iconic wedge creative and a “Find Store” feature drove a 3.6% sales lift.

“The brands in this year’s Breakthrough Outcomes report prove that in a media environment defined by fragmentation and tightening budgets, performance comes down to meeting the right consumer at the right moment,” said Todd Morris, CEO of InMarket, in the company's press release. “These brands used real-time shopper intent as the foundation of their strategy.”

The ROI Imperative in a Fragmented World

The report's findings resonate deeply within a marketing landscape defined by pressure. Independent industry research confirms the sentiment shared in InMarket's own predictions report, where nearly one-fifth of marketers cite doing more with less as their primary challenge. With corporate leadership demanding quantifiable proof of marketing’s contribution to the bottom line, metrics like incremental sales and ROAS have become the lingua franca of brand management.

This financial pressure is compounded by the sheer complexity of the modern consumer journey. The path from initial awareness to final purchase is no longer linear but a winding, multi-platform experience. Capturing consumer attention requires more than just a clever ad; it demands a sophisticated understanding of when and where a message will be most effective. The successes reported by InMarket's partners underscore a broader industry shift towards performance-based marketing, where campaigns are continuously optimized based on real-world outcomes.

The strategies employed—targeting shoppers during seasonal moments, meal planning, or right before a holiday—are not new in principle. What has changed is the technology that enables this targeting with unprecedented precision, moving from broad demographic segmentation to moment-by-moment behavioral activation.

The Technology and Its Regulatory Reckoning

At the heart of these campaigns is sophisticated marketing technology. InMarket’s Lift, Conversion, & Incrementality (LCI®) platform is designed to connect digital ad exposure to in-store visits and item-level purchases, a capability that relies on vast and complex datasets. The company has long touted its access to mobility data from millions of U.S. consumers and purchase data from a majority of credit and debit transactions, which it feeds into AI-powered systems to predict shopping behavior.

However, the methods used to gather such granular data have not been without controversy. The entire location intelligence industry has come under intense regulatory scrutiny over consumer privacy. In a significant development for the sector, InMarket reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in May 2024. The agency had alleged that the company collected and used consumer location data for marketing without providing adequate notice or obtaining proper consent. The resulting order prohibited InMarket from selling or licensing precise location data and required the company to delete previously collected data unless it obtained affirmative express consent from consumers.

This regulatory action has forced a pivot across the industry, pushing firms to re-evaluate their data-sourcing practices and innovate toward more privacy-centric models. In the time since the settlement, companies in the space, including InMarket, have increasingly emphasized AI-driven predictive analytics that are less reliant on hyper-specific, real-time location tracking, focusing instead on identifying patterns and intent signals from aggregated and anonymized data sources.

A Competitive and Scrutinized Landscape

InMarket operates in a competitive field alongside other location intelligence and marketing attribution specialists like Foursquare and GroundTruth, all of whom navigate the same challenging terrain of proving ROI while adhering to a rapidly evolving privacy landscape. The demand for their services is undeniable; the location intelligence market continues to grow, fueled by the enterprise need for spatial analytics to optimize everything from supply chains to marketing spend.

The results from the Breakthrough Outcomes report demonstrate the powerful potential of this technology. For brands under pressure, the ability to directly link an ad campaign to a 3% lift in unit sales is profoundly valuable. Yet, the path to achieving these results is now paved with greater caution.

As the industry moves forward, the key challenge will be to balance the quest for data-driven precision with the non-negotiable requirement of consumer trust and regulatory compliance. The successes of Welch’s, OLLY, and others show what is possible, but they also serve as a case study for a marketing world where performance and privacy are inextricably linked. The most successful brands will be those that master the art of reaching the right consumer at the right moment, all while respecting their right to privacy.