Attribution model gives paid search credit for conversions organic content created. You report paid search ROI. Finance calculates full customer acquisition cost including overhead and sees losses. Board questions whether marketing understands unit economics. Your credibility erodes whilst you defend metrics you know are problematic but cannot change without admitting measurement has been wrong.
The pattern is this. Marketing optimises for what measurement shows. Measurement shows artefacts not truth. Performance declines whilst metrics improve because you are optimising wrong things.
Fix the measurement first. Not the campaign. Because every optimisation decision you make against broken measurement makes the real problem worse faster.
If CFO questions your ROI calculations and you know attribution model is problematic but cannot admit it without undermining credibility, you need an external voice forcing the measurement conversation before the board forces conclusions you cannot control.
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