Developing
Opinion column with no surveys or numbers; the author's firm sells related consulting.
In 60 seconds
- The author says B2B marketers often struggle to prove revenue contribution, which can lead to underfunding.
- She argues first-touch and last-touch attribution are too simple for multi-touch buyer journeys.
- Reliable reporting depends on four foundations: an influence model, unified data, defined processes and integrated technology.
- She accepts "directional data" for decisions and ends with five diagnostic questions.
Impact Layer
- What changed
- A practitioner restates the case for evidence-based attribution in B2B.
- Why it matters
- Finance leaders ask for proof, and marketing and sales often cannot agree on what counts as evidence.
- Who is affected
- B2B marketing and RevOps leaders defending budgets.
- Martech stack area
- CRM, Analytics
- Stack impact
- Agree an influence model with sales and finance before the next budget round, and list which data you need to support it.
- Business impact
- Low A contributed opinion column on MarTech (owned by Semrush), reviewed by editorial staff. No sources, numbers or case studies are cited, and it reads partly as promotion for the author's consultancy.
- Related technologies
- What to watch
- Independent evidence on influence-based attribution.
Caroline Hodson, founder and managing director of WoolfHodson, argues in a MarTech column published October 2, 2026 that B2B marketing’s trouble is not return on investment but evidence. The page says the opinions are the author’s own.
The argument
- B2B marketers often struggle to prove revenue contribution, which can lead to underfunding and weaker performance.
- Common approaches such as first- or last-touch attribution are too simplistic for multi-touch buyer journeys.
- Reliable reporting depends on foundations: an influence model, unified data, defined processes and integrated technology.
- The author accepts “directional data” for decisions rather than waiting for certainty, and closes with five diagnostic questions.
Caveats
- The claims are asserted, not tested: the column cites no surveys, numbers or case studies.
- It reads partly as promotion for the author’s consultancy.
- Any AI-related claims have no supporting evidence.
Our read
The advice is sensible and general. Use it as a checklist for your own measurement and do not mistake it for research.
Sources
- MarTech: B2B marketing doesn't have an ROI problem. It has an evidence problem. (opens in a new tab)
Source for the column's argument and caveats.