Pallas Pharma: Every Channel Claims the Same Sale

Marketing
medium40 min0 submissions
Bain
Scenario

Pallas Pharma sells specialty pharma in US. Last quarter it spent $81 M across three channels: brand (23%), paid search (30%) and paid social (47%).

The company recorded 27,834 conversions. Added together, the channel dashboards claim 41,473 — about 1.49x the real number.

Paid search reports the best return and the search team wants more budget. Brand reports the worst and is under pressure to justify itself. Attribution is last-click. Nobody has run a holdout test.

Supporting data

conversions

actual recorded
27834
overclaim multiple
1.49
sum of channel claims
41473

measurement

model
last click
holdout tests run
0
total spend m81

spend split pct

brand
23
paid search
30
paid social
47
Your task

Advise the CMO. Your answer should provide:

  1. Analysis — what the reported numbers can and cannot tell you, quantified.
  2. Risks — what happens if you reallocate on last-click alone.
  3. Recommendation — a budget decision and the experiment that would prove it.

State any assumptions you make.

Ready to move forward? Up next: Driftwood Hotels: Every Channel Claims the Same SaleNext question
How you'll be graded

80 points, 60% to pass.

  • recommendation15
  • market analysis25
  • risk assessment20
  • financial analysis20
Hint
Reveal suggested structure

Separate correlation from incrementality. Last-click credits the final touch; demand generation appears worthless under it. Design a holdout before reallocating.