Yet many Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) still face an uphill battle when trying to convince their Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) that marketing is not merely a cost centre, but a strategic revenue generator. In regions like sub-Saharan Africa, this disconnect is even more pronounced.

With 40 percent of all advertising spending in Nigeria expected to shift to digital channels by 2029, the pressure is on for marketing leaders to demonstrate clear, quantifiable business value.

In my journey working with diverse marketing teams, I’ve found that a handful of targeted, actionable steps can improve communication between CMOs and CFOs.

Here are practical tips and tools that have proven effective in enhancing marketing strategies and demonstrating true business value—turning initiatives into measurable drivers without claiming to have all the answers.

1. Rethinking Measurement: From Clicks to Conversions

For many, the success of a marketing campaign has traditionally been measured in impressions, click-throughs, or video views. While these metrics offer insight into reach and engagement, the action of a video view may not necessarily lead to revenue for the business.

Modern marketing demands a measurement framework that goes beyond surface-level data. This is where a combination of incrementality, attribution, and marketing mix modelling (MMM) comes into play.

Incrementality is the process of determining how much a particular marketing effort boosts sales that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Think of it this way: if you invest in a billboard or an online ad, incrementality testing (using tools like Campaign Experiments, Conversion Lift, or Search Lift) can reveal whether that campaign genuinely contributed to increased purchases or merely captured sales that would have occurred regardless.

Attribution works like detective work. It tracks the steps a customer takes along their journey—from seeing an ad to making a purchase—and assigns credit to each interaction.

Modern attribution models, such as data-driven attribution in Google Ads, help pinpoint which specific ad or interaction influenced the final decision.

This insight is crucial because it allows you to understand which channels or touchpoints are most effective in driving results.

Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) involves analysing a range of data sources to understand how different marketing activities collectively contribute to business goals. Google’s very own MMM solution, set to be available soon to marketers, promises to simplify this process by offering deeper insights into the overall impact of your marketing mix.

When you combine these three elements—incrementality, attribution, and MMM—you create a robust framework that not only measures performance more accurately but also builds a compelling case for marketing as a key business driver.

2. Speaking the Language of Value

Once you’ve set up a modern measurement framework, the next step is communication. Too often, the dialogue between CMOs and CFOs is hampered by jargon or a focus on vanity metrics that don’t directly link to business outcomes. To bridge this gap, marketing leaders must “speak the language of value.”

1. Align Marketing with Business Goals:
   Start every campaign with a clear business objective—whether it’s boosting sales, enhancing brand loyalty. Ensure that every marketing activity, from the platforms you choose to the messaging you craft, directly supports that objective.
2. Clarify ROI at Every Stage:
   Recognise that different stages of the marketing funnel deliver different types of value. For example, while brand awareness campaigns might not yield immediate sales, they lay the groundwork for future revenue by building trust and favourability. Setting clear ROI expectations at each stage helps CFOs understand how early investments translate into long-term gains.
3. Map the Consumer Journey:
   Document the customer’s path from awareness to purchase. This mapping justifies your media choices and budget allocations by clearly linking each marketing action to a step in the consumer journey.
4. Monitor and Report Continuously:
   Keep your CFO in the loop with regular updates that tie marketing activities back to your business objectives. Establish benchmarks from the outset so that performance can be tracked and strategies adjusted as needed.

3. Reframing Your Marketing Strategy for Greater Impact

Despite the best efforts of CMOs, many marketing teams struggle to demonstrate the full impact of their campaigns.

Only 41% of marketing leaders believe their companies are mature in performance measurement, highlighting a significant gap in strategy.

To overcome this, it’s time to reframe your marketing approach from the ground up. Start with your company’s overarching business objective and then translate that into measurable key performance indicators (KPIs).

This top-down approach ensures that every campaign, whether it’s on Search, YouTube, social media, or other digital channels, is designed with the end goal in mind.

For instance, if your company’s objective is to increase market share, your marketing strategy should include targeted campaigns that focus on both broad brand awareness and specific conversion metrics.

Each channel should have tailored messaging and clearly defined ROI metrics that can be easily explained to your finance team.

In practice, this means understanding the unique characteristics of each platform. For example, the audience on YouTube might respond to engaging, visual storytelling, while users on Search might be more responsive to direct calls-to-action.

By framing your marketing strategy around clear business goals and measurable outcomes, you transform marketing from a cost centre into a proven revenue driver.

This shift not only helps in gaining the trust of CFOs but also sets the stage for more strategic decision-making across the organisation.

4. Leveraging the Right Tools for Performance Tracking

No modern measurement framework is complete without the right set of performance tracking tools. Having accurate and timely data is paramount to demonstrating marketing effectiveness.

Tools to improve your conversion tracking right now:

• Track conversions, such as website purchases, form submissions, or event registration, using Google Ads Conversion Tags, Floodlight Tags and Google Analytics Key Events. These tools not only track the conversion, but also other details about the customer, such as the path to purchase, location, if they are a new or returning customer, or if the conversion met a value-based goal.

• Add offline conversion tracking to include the data from conversion events that can be harder to track otherwise, for example in-store purchases, interactions with call centres, or events on the way to a conversion such as moving through the sale process for car insurance.

Why measurement is a necessity for marketers in sub-Saharan Africa in 2025

The industry’s current climate feels like shifting tectonic plates: marketing budgets are shrinking, customer interactions across marketing channels are increasing and changing, and consumer behaviour is ever-evolving.

CMOs in sub-Saharan Africa have an opportunity to rebrand themselves as business critical in the eyes of the C-suite with a renewed ability to prove that marketing is aligned with business goals.

By embracing this transformation, you’ll not only earn your CFO’s confidence but also establish a future where every marketing decision is grounded in data, insights, and clear business value.

Drawing on a sample of 1.1 billion app downloads and 20,000 apps, the report reveals a growing trend in finance app installs, reflecting the region’s strides toward economic recovery following a general rise in inflation and macroeconomic instability.

According to data, while overall app installs continued to grow in 2024, finance apps stood out, highlighting an impressive 34% increase in downloads between Q1 and Q3, when compared to the same period in 2023.

iOS emerged as the primary contributor to this trend, experiencing a twofold increase in finance app installs during Q1 2024, compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Financial Search Trends in Nigeria and South Africa 

Leveraging Google Search trends, the report uncovers key trends and purchasing interests within the financial services sector, one of the most-searched categories in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In Nigeria, Google Searches point to an overall growth in financial services interest between January 2023 to August 2024, with “Naira” “dollar” “naira to dollar” and “loans” as the most searched terms, indicating a growing apprehension about the country’s currency devaluation.

Financial searches also reached a high between February and April, in line with the Naira falling to a record low in February.

On the other hand, finance related searches have remained relatively static in South Africa, with spikes in January and August, coinciding with seasonal peaks such as educational expenses, holiday financial expenses, and other cultural activities.

2025 Outlook for Marketers

While the finance sector faced a challenge in Q1 to Q3 2024, with Android installs dropping 27% due to reduced app install ad spend, in-app purchase (IAP) revenue from finance apps is showing strong growth across the region, indicating a shift toward more consistent in-app spending.

Figures on IAP revenue from finance apps in sub-Saharan Africa have shown a boost in Q3 with a 46% increase compared to the same quarter in 2023.

This also aligns with an overall growth trend of 28% between Q1 – Q3 as a whole.

In Nigeria specifically, iOS has seen a 51% jump in IAP revenue from finance apps compared to Q1 – Q3 of the previous year.

Marketers can look forward to continued growth in Sub-Saharan Africa’s mobile landscape, fueled by rising installs and in-app purchase revenue from finance apps.

This momentum is further supported by a promising 9% increase in ad spend recorded in Q4 2024, compared to Q3.

Commenting on findings gathered from the report, Netta Lev Sadeh, managing director EMEA SANI, AppsFlyer stated,

“Our partnership with Google has allowed us to gain valuable insights into the dynamic financial services landscape. As one of the most exciting sectors in the region, the findings of this report underscore the crucial role of mobile phones and apps in continuing the advancement of financial inclusion, helping to bridge a critical gap across Sub-Saharan Africa. We are excited to see the steadily growing trend in IAP revenue from finance apps, which signals a promising and optimistic outlook for the region’s economic future.”

Lorraine Landon, head of Advertising Products and Solutions – SSA for Google, added

“This report from AppsFlyer is a must-read for brands and advertisers targeting the African market. The data clearly shows a huge opportunity to connect with consumers through mobile apps, with engagement growing significantly year-over-year. We are proud to once again partner with AppsFlyer on this report, which reflects our commitment to supporting businesses in this dynamic market and serves as a great starting point for unlocking success.”