20Growth: How Wix Built a $100M Marketing Machine | Why LTV is BS and Why Time Return On Investment is the Most Important Metric | How to 10x Your Growth: What is the Next Great Channel with Omer Shai, CMO @ Wix

Wix is buying two Super Bowl ads this year, making Base44 , a company they acquired just five months ago , potentially the youngest company ever to advertise during the big game. The timeline reveals something fascinating about modern marketing strategy: Omer Shai, Wix's CMO, texted his media buyer about securing the slots on July 2nd, just weeks after announcing the Base44 acquisition in mid-June.

This isn't reckless spending. It's a calculated bet that reveals how sophisticated companies think about brand investment versus performance marketing, and why the conventional wisdom about measuring marketing ROI is fundamentally broken.

Shai argues that marketers obsess over the wrong metrics entirely. While most companies chase lifetime value calculations and immediate conversion spikes, Wix measures something different: relevant traffic increases over time. "Eventually I would like to see spike in the traffic to our side," Shai explains. "If we don't see people coming, relevant users, okay? I will add the word relevant. Relevant audiences who are coming to our site. If we didn't do so, we don't need to invest at the marketing activity that we're doing."

This approach flips traditional performance marketing on its head. Instead of tracking direct attribution from a Super Bowl spot to immediate signups, Wix looks for sustained increases in qualified traffic flowing to their website. The distinction between any traffic and relevant traffic matters enormously , it's the difference between vanity metrics and business impact.

The Super Bowl strategy exemplifies this philosophy. Shai acknowledges you can measure immediate spikes on game day, but warns that smart marketers need to look beyond that narrow window. "You can see impact on, like, the spike at the day of the spot, but you need to be smarter in the way you measure," he says. The real value comes from the sustained brand recognition that drives ongoing organic discovery.

Consider what Shai means when he talks about the Super Bowl as more than advertising. "NFL and Super Bowl particular is like a celebration and, especially in The US, but it's became more and more famous globally. And just to be part of that is to be there," he explains. For Wix, being present during this cultural moment sends a signal about the company's confidence in its product and its users' success.

This confidence signal matters because it creates a feedback loop. When potential customers see Wix advertising alongside major brands during the most expensive media moment of the year, it communicates stability and success. That perception makes prospects more likely to consider Wix when they eventually need website building services, even if they don't convert immediately after seeing the ad.

The Base44 inclusion adds another layer to this strategy. By featuring their newest acquisition in a Super Bowl spot, Wix is essentially fast-tracking Base44's brand recognition in a way that would take years through conventional marketing channels. It's a masterclass in leveraging acquisition synergies for marketing velocity.

This approach requires a fundamental shift in how marketing teams think about measurement and budget allocation. Most performance marketing relies on tight attribution windows and direct response metrics. But Shai's framework suggests that sustainable growth comes from building systems that consistently attract qualified prospects over months and years, not just driving immediate conversions.

The implication extends beyond Super Bowl advertising to any brand marketing investment. Companies should focus less on proving immediate ROI from brand activities and more on tracking whether those activities generate sustained increases in relevant audience attention. This means measuring brand marketing success over quarters, not days or weeks.

For marketers watching Wix's approach, the lesson isn't necessarily to buy Super Bowl ads. It's to develop measurement frameworks that capture the long-term impact of brand investment on qualified traffic flow. Start tracking organic traffic quality and search volume for brand terms over extended periods. Build attribution models that account for longer consideration cycles. Most importantly, resist the temptation to kill brand programs that don't show immediate performance marketing returns.

The companies that master this balance between brand building and performance marketing will dominate the next decade of growth. Wix's willingness to bet big on brand moments while measuring the right long-term metrics shows exactly how that balance works in practice.