Many marketers struggle to understand how to accurately measure the impact of each and every touch point that individual consumers are exposed to, across all devices, channels, and campaigns, both online and offline. And according to e-marketer, only 60% of marketers use accurate measurement tools to evaluate their channel performance. Of that group, most track each channel on its own and then optimize performance evaluations and spend based on channel-specific results. Only 20% use attribution modeling to gain a clear picture of how each touch point is working together to create a holistic marketing mix, leaving the majority of marketers in the dark.
The Drum beautifully explains why that 20% needs to increase: “the primary objective of attribution modeling, is to provide holistic, accurate information about the financial return [all your marketing] activities are delivering so you can refine them, adjust what you’re doing, and use the same budget to deliver more value to your business and customer.”
Taking the first step toward attribution modeling:
Before you can begin seeing the big picture of how your marketing campaigns are working together, you need to have the right data collection tools in place. Online tracking tags are a great place to start when measuring digital activity, but don’t forget your offline channels as well. Use customizable promo codes and loyalty programs to start understanding offline behavior, then consider partnering with big data providers from reliable third party sources to round out the big picture. A trusted agency partner, like BIGEYE, can help you understand which data is most important to your brand and how to find what you’re looking for in the sea of data providers. Our attribution services blend your data with external data to round out your blind spots and make your attribution models more accurate.
Choosing the right methodology:
Once you’re tracking the right information … what do you do with it? This is where most marketers fail. It’s easy to get information about how each channel is performing based on the KPIs and success goals for that channel. It’s less simple to link the value of performance on one channel to another and evaluate how they are supporting each other. Attribution marketing is the first defensible, mathematical methodology to begin cracking that question. While attribution may not be able to answer every question perfectly yet, it is still a more nuanced and intelligent way to understand your customer journey and make informed decisions about your marketing mix. You wouldn’t make an accounting or revenue decision with only half the information — why should marketing decisions be any different?
The trick is choosing the right attribution model to frame your analysis. If you’re just starting the journey toward attribution marketing, we can work with you to understand your business and choose which model makes the most sense for your business type. Typically, we recommend some form of weighted, curved, or machine learning approach that gives credit to each of your channels as customers move between devices and media formats along the path toward a sale. Unlike first or last touch attribution, which gives credit to the channel where customers either start or end their purchase journey, we believe that a weighted model more accurately mirrors the non-linear path most people take from discovery to point of sale.
Putting learnings into action:
Use attribution to support your existing testing and analytics programs to make statements about your ROI rather than what’s happening along the way. Your CEO and finance department will thank you for this later, we promise. Click here to learn more about our attribution services and how you can start understanding you data in new, more meaningfully ways.
