📊From Vanity Metrics to True Growth: The AI & Incrementality Revolution🚀

Weekly briefing for AI-first marketers. News, tactics, and tools that move the whole funnel.

Author

Rohit Maheswaran
June 04, 2025

Hey Funnel Friends🤗👻,

This week, we're laser-focused on the symbiotic relationship between AI-fueled creative and the measurement that matters: incrementality. It's time to kill the vanity metrics, ditch the misleading attribution reports, and build a growth engine powered by AI and cold, hard truth. Let's dive in!🔥

On the Menu📃👀

  • 🎨 AI Creative Factories: Building systems for rapid, data-driven creative iteration that lift ROI.

  • 📈 X's Bold Move: Challenging WhatsApp and the "Everything App" Future 🚀

  • 🎯 Saturation Mailing: Blending Broad Reach with Smart Targeting

  • 🔮 MMM 2.0: Modernizing Marketing Mix Modeling to predict the future, not just the past.

  • 🎙️ Podcast: Cracking the Growth Code: Future-proof Marketing with Incrementality ft. Ben Dutter

  • 🚨 Tool Spotlight: YouScan’s AI-powered social listening.

🎨 AI Creative Factories: Building Systems that Lift ROI

AI isn't a magic wand for instant ads; it's the engine of a creative factory. This is about systematizing creative production and optimization for sustained ROI.

Key Elements:

  1. Algorithmic Variation: AI generates purposeful ad variations (not just cosmetic changes) based on performance data.

  2. Autonomous Testing: Automated testing frameworks that learn and adapt, not just A/B tests.

  3. Real-Time Feedback Loops: AI dynamically adjusts creative based on incrementality, not just clicks.

  4. Performance-Driven Iteration: The system continuously refines creative strategy, not just individual ads.

Try this: Map out your current creative workflow. Where are the bottlenecks? Where could AI inject speed and data-driven decision-making?

Takeaway: Systematize creative production with AI for continuous optimization and a clear path to higher ROI.

📈 X's Bold Move: Challenging WhatsApp and the "Everything App" Future 🚀

Elon Musk's X is launching XChat, a major revamp of its DM system built on a "whole new architecture," to directly compete with WhatsApp and Telegram. This move is part of Musk's larger vision to transform X into an "everything app," similar to China's WeChat.

Why it matters:

  • Enhanced Security & Features: XChat introduces end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, universal file sharing, and cross-platform audio/video calls without needing a phone number. Musk mentioned "Bitcoin-style encryption" for added security.

  • Direct Competition: These features position XChat as a direct challenger to WhatsApp, aiming to capture a share of the messaging market.

  • "Everything App" Vision: XChat is a key step in integrating messaging, peer-to-peer payments (via "X Money Accounts" and Visa), and AI (like Grok) into one platform.

The success of XChat against WhatsApp will depend on user adoption and trust, especially as it rolls out primarily to paid X subscribers. However, if successful, it could redefine how users interact with a social platform as an all-in-one digital utility.

Try this: Monitor XChat's evolution closely. For marketers, an integrated "super app" could offer new avenues for conversational commerce, in-app payments, and direct brand engagement beyond traditional social media

Takeaway:  XChat's launch signifies X's aggressive push into the "everything app" space, directly challenging WhatsApp with enhanced, secure messaging and integrated functionalities.

🧠 Winning Millennials: Beyond Personalization with Predictive AI

Millennials expect personalization, with 46% willing to share data for relevant experiences. However, true engagement means anticipating their next move, not just reacting to past behavior. Predictive AI shifts personalization from cosmetic to proactive.

Why it matters:

  • Anticipate Needs: Predictive AI forecasts future actions, enabling timely and relevant outreach.

  • Purposeful Personalization: It identifies high-likelihood converters and optimizes messaging and channels based on predicted behavior.

  • Maximize ROI: Meeting millennial expectations with relevant messages boosts response rates and lowers acquisition costs by avoiding wasted spend on low-likelihood segments.

For example, a debt consolidator using predictive AI could identify lapsed millennial customers most likely to buy in the next 30 days, segment them by persona, and optimize mailer creative/timing.

Try this: If targeting millennials, use predictive AI to forecast conversion, churn, or repeat purchase likelihood among existing customers/leads. Tailor your next campaign's message, creative, and channel based on these predictions for proactive, impactful outreach.

Takeaway: Proactive retention, powered by predictive AI, is far more cost-effective than acquisition and boosts CLTV by identifying and intervening with at-risk customers before they churn.

🔮 MMM 2.0: Predictive Power

Revolutionize your marketing strategy with AI-powered MMM: Forecast future scenarios, optimize budgets dynamically, and integrate granular insights for real-time decision-making.

MMM Evolution:

  1. AI-Powered Forecasting: Use AI to model future scenarios and optimize budget allocation proactively.

  2. Granular Data Integration: Incorporate creative-level data, economic factors, and competitive intelligence for richer insights.

  3. Dynamic Optimization: Adjust marketing spend in near real-time based on MMM predictions (requires robust data infrastructure).

  4. Unified Measurement: Combine MMM with incrementality testing in a platform like Lifesight for maximum accuracy.

Try this: Leverage AI-powered MMM to move beyond historical reporting, proactively forecast optimal budget allocation, and dynamically adjust marketing spend with granular insights for real-time optimization.

Takeaway: Modern MMM, unified with incrementality testing, is the closest you'll get to a crystal ball for marketing ROI.

🎙️ Listen to our latest podcast episode ft. Ben Dutter:

Listen to Ben Dutter (CSO, Power Digital) as he joins Rohit at Full Funnel to share how incrementality helps you crack the growth code and measure what truly matters. Discover actionable insights to move beyond guesswork.

Check out the full episode below 👇

🧰 Framework of the Week: AI-Powered Creative & Incrementality

  1. Automation – AI Creative Factories

  2. Experience – The Incrementality Imperative

  3. Impact – Lifted ROI & Accurate Budget Allocation

🚨 Tool Spotlight: YouScan

Uncover game-changing customer insights with YouScan’s AI-powered social listening.

  • What it is: YouScan is an AI-powered social media listening platform that provides text, image, and audience analysis capabilities to help businesses analyze user opinions and manage their online reputation.

  • Why it's hot: YouScan's Insights Copilot, powered by ChatGPT, offers AI-driven social media analytics, enabling brands to extract valuable consumer insights efficiently.

Try this: Leverage YouScan's visual analysis to monitor brand mentions and sentiment across social media platforms, informing your marketing strategies.

🛠️ Featured AI Toolkit for the week

What it does: Flair AI enables brands to design branded content by simply describing what they want to see.
Fast payoff: It helps create visually appealing content quickly, streamlining the design process.

What it does: Looka uses AI to help businesses create logos and brand identities.
Fast payoff: It offers a fast and cost-effective way to get professional-looking branding materials.

What it does: Simplified is an AI-powered platform that helps with various marketing tasks, including content creation, social media management, and graphic design.
Fast payoff: It saves time and resources by providing an all-in-one solution for marketing needs.

Giveaway of the Week 🎁

Marketing Measurement Maturity Calculator, a powerful tool that quickly assesses your business's measurement readiness. In just a few seconds, benchmark against industry best practices, receive a score pinpointing your position on the marketing measurement readiness curve, and discover actionable steps to take before investing another marketing dollar. Try for FREE

See y’all next week 👋

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— Full Funnel Team 📨