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On Tuesday night, Rick Santorum swept, winning all three contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, and pulling ahead of Mitt Romney in the number of states won. But will it do him much good moving forward?

Last month, Santorum surged to a surprise tie with Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses. But instead of coming out of that strong, he faded to the back of the pack for the next four contests. Even when, just before the South Carolina primary, it was announced that he had in fact won the caucuses, Santorum finished in third place with just 17 percent of the vote.

“I think we’ve got to be careful not to read too much into [Tuesday's wins],” Trey Hardin, a Republican strategist, told The Daily Caller.

“The turnout was so low. So little money was spent in all those states. And yes, Rick Santorum deserved the win, but …what does that win really say? That win says that he competed stronger in a state that other people didn’t really compete in,” Hardin said.

However, the wins should help him in terms of fundraising, Hardin added. Indeed, Santorum advisor Hogan Gidley told MSNBC on Wednesday that they were seeing three-times the amount of money rolling in as they did after the Iowa caucus. The influx of donors increased especially right after Santorum delivered his victory speech, he said.

The challenge for Santorum now is to go up against the Romney machine, which already has operations in most states —something that will require a lot of money. The Romney campaign has already begun to attack Santorum, and now that he more of a threat, that is likely to continue, and he may have to deal with an onslaught of attack ads like what Gingrich saw in Iowa and Florida.

If Santorum cannot raise enough money to counter that, emailed Trey Grayson, director of the Harvard University Institute of Politics, “voters will only hear what Romney wants them to hear, i.e. Santorum is an earmarker, Washington insider.”

In part, that is because Santorum has yet to be fully defined as a candidate to the voting public, Republican consultant Alex Castellanos suggested to TheDC.

Voters, Castellanos argued on Monday, are not necessarily looking for the anti-Romney in Gingrich or Santorum: They’re looking for “‘none of the above.’ And that’s who Santorum is right now: ‘none-of-the-above.’”

“Republicans don’t know much about him other than that ‘he’s not one of those other guys covered in mud.’ If Gingrich dropped out today, Santorum would eclipse Romney in a few states, not because he’s loved, but because he is undefined — a blank slate on which Republicans can project their dream candidate,” Castellanos said.

That leaves the Romney campaign with the ability to “define Santorum before Santorum gets a chance to define himself.”

But “the attack itself will create credibility,” Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center, told TheDC.

Last night’s hat trick was “a much bigger boost than Iowa was,” Arlinghaus argued, pointing out that he has now won more states than any other candidate in the race, including Romney. “It’s not just huge momentum and a giant kick in the teeth for both Romney and Gingrich,” Arlinghaus went on, but it also indicates some longevity for the former Pennsylvania senator, and puts Newt Gingrich in a very tough position to pitch himself as the anti-Romney.