Attribution

Why does attribution matter?

Advanced marketing attribution programs require marketing teams to aggregate and normalize consumer data from across channels to ensure each interaction is properly weighted. For example, if a consumer is exposed to a display ad and an email campaign, but only converts after seeing a special promotion in the email, marketers can note that this piece of collateral played a bigger role in driving the sale than the display ad. They can then commit more resources to creating targeted email campaigns.

Marketing Attribution Models:

Assign value to marketing campaigns through statistical analysis at the user-level. This is in contrast to models such as marketing mix modeling that use aggregate data. This person-centric approach is why attribution models are more typically applied to digital campaigns than those conducted offline, such as print advertising.

Benefits of Attribution Models:

Attribution Models can become very complex when various marketing tactics factor in to a given goal. The benefits are always worth the extra math and mapping though! Some benefits being: Optimized Marketing Spend Increased ROI (Return on Investment) Improve Product Development Optimized Creative

Optimized Marketing Spend

Attribution models give marketers insights into how marketing dollars are best spent by showing touchpoints that earn the most engagements. This allows marketing teams to adjust the budget and media spend accordingly.

Optimized Creative

Attribution models that can evaluate the creative elements of a campaign allow marketers to hone messaging and visual elements in addition to better understanding how and when to communicate with users.

Increased ROI

Effective attribution enables marketers to reach the right consumer, at the right time, with the right message

Single-Touch: First + Last Touch Attribution

First-Touch: assumes that the consumer chose to convert after the first advertisement they encountered. Therefore, it gives full (100%) attribution to this first touchpoint, regardless of additional messaging seen subsequently. Last-Touch: gives full attribution credit to the last touchpoint the consumer interacted with before making the purchase, without accounting for prior engagements.

Improved Personalization

Marketers can use attribution data to understand the messaging and channels preferred by individual customers for more effective targeting throughout the customer journey.

Improve Product Development

Person-level attribution allows marketers to better understand the needs of their consumers. These insights can then be referenced when making updates to the product to target the functionality consumers want.

Multi-Touch Attribution: Linear

Records each touchpoint engaged with by the consumer leading to purchase. It weighs each of these interactions equally, giving each message the same amount of credit toward driving the conversion.

Short Definition: What is Marketing Attribution?

The analytical science of determining which marketing tactics are contributing to sales or conversions.

What do we learn from attribution models?

The insights provided by these models into how, where, and when a consumer interacts with brand messages allows marketing teams to alter and customize campaigns to meet the specific desires of individual consumers, thus improving marketing ROI.

Long Definition: What is Marketing Attribution?

The practice of evaluating the marketing touchpoints a consumer encounters on their path to purchase.

Types of Attribution Models:

There are Two main categories of models 1.) Single-Touch Attribution 2.) Multi-Touch Attribution Within each of these categories there are a few different core models/methods that can be used.

Examples of attribution models:

There are several popular attribution models used by marketers today, such as multi-touch attribution, lift studies, time decay, and more.

Multi-Touch Attribution: W-Shaped

This model uses the same idea as the U-Shaped model, however it includes one more core touchpoint - the opportunity stage. Thus, for the W-Shaped model the touchpoints credited with first touch, lead conversion, and opportunity creation each receive 30 percent of the credit. The remaining 10 percent is divided amongst the additional engagements.

What is the goal of attribution?

To determine which channels and messages had the greatest impact on the decision to convert, or take the desired next step.

Multi-Touch Attribution: U-Shaped

Unlike linear attribution, the U-Shaped attribution model scores engagements separately, noting that some are more impactful than others on the path to purchase. Specifically, both the first touch and lead conversion touch are each credited with 40 percent of responsibility for the lead. The other 20 percent is divided amongst the touchpoints engaged with between the first and lead conversion touch.

Multi-Touch Attribution: Time Decay

Weighs each touchpoint differently on the path to purchase. This model gives the touchpoints engaged with closer to the conversion more weight than those engaged with early on, assuming those had a greater Impact on the sale.

The most effective attribution models will provide insight into:

Which messages a consumer was exposed to and on what channel, Which touchpoint had the greatest impact on their decision to purchase, The role brand perception played in the decision to convert, The role of message sequencing, Which messaging gets the best results from each consumer, and The impact of external factors (e.g. how gas prices affect car sales)

Single-Touch Attribution or Multi-Touch Attribution?

Within Programmatic advertising, and mainly any advanced marketing campaign, Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) should be used. That said, there are some advertisers/industries, that still feel Single-Touch is the most accurate for their goals.