---
id: "action-link-ads-to-transactions"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Performance Accountability Is Not Optional Anymore"]
tags: ["analytics", "reporting"]
related: ["concept-performance-accountability", "concept-vanity-metrics"]
action: "Provide near real-time reporting that directly links ad exposure to incremental product sales."
outcome: "Earn long-term supplier participation and justify ad pricing in tighter budget environments."
speakers: ["Remko Van Hoek", "Stephanie Thomas", "Rodney Thomas"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
source_title: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
sources: ["attention"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-attention"
originDay: 4
articleStem: "hbr-foci-71-retail-media-networks-trust"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
sourceTitle: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
---
# Link ad exposure directly to transactions

**Action.** Abandon [[concept-vanity-metrics]] (impressions, basic CTRs) and *modeled guesswork*. Instead, provide near real-time reporting and standardized metric definitions that quantify **incremental sales** by directly linking ad exposure to actual purchases.

**Expected outcome.** Earn long-term supplier participation and justify ad pricing in tighter budget environments. This operationalizes [[concept-performance-accountability]] — **Pillar 2** of the [[framework-five-pillars-of-rmn-success]]. Enrichment note: practitioners often pair this deterministic linking with incrementality testing and marketing mix modeling (MMM).