When it comes to marketing, organizations are always interested in knowing what works and what doesn’t to focus their efforts where they will have the most significant impact. In the past, marketing decisions were often made based on intuition and personal experience, which can be costly and ineffective.
With attribution modeling, marketing professionals can prevent wasted money and outsmart their competition. Here are several examples of attribution in marketing, including single-touch, multi-touch, time-decay, first-touch, and single-source attribution.
Most Common Forms of Attribution in Marketing
Single-Touch Attribution
A powerful tool for marketing and essential for measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
A single-touch attribution provides a single source of truth for all exposures to a particular ad or message, allowing marketers to measure media’s effects on a consumer’s purchasing decision across multiple media channels. This information can be used for various purposes, including identifying which media types are most effective for particular audiences.
Single-source attribution can be used to attribute the first or last touchpoint of the customer’s journey. While it is essential to take other channels into account, single-source attribution is most useful when focusing on a single touchpoint.
For example, if a prospect signs up for an email newsletter from a specific brand, they will likely visit the company’s website. Once they’re on the website, they’re more likely to purchase. Because single-source attribution assigns credit to a single touchpoint, it’s important to remember that it is only one part of the story.
Attribution is essential to measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies. By measuring the ROI of marketing efforts across multiple touchpoints, marketers can make informed decisions about which marketing tactics are most effective. For instance, they can measure the effectiveness of social media ads, email marketing, and search engine marketing.
Multi-Touch Attribution
A complex process requires collecting data from multiple touchpoints and optimizing channels.
Multi-touch attribution in media requires hours of manual work. To streamline the process, analytics software can be utilized. Peel is a retention analytics platform providing insights to grow and nurture customers and is available in the Shopify App Store with a 15-day free trial
A multi-touch attribution model also called a funnel model, assigns more credit to marketing activities before a customer’s transaction. It also assumes that all touchpoints play a role in driving the conversion.
Multi-touch attribution helps marketers analyze which campaigns perform best and are worth the investment, as it can shorten the sales cycle as considers multiple touchpoints. On the other hand, single-touch attribution focuses on the first or last touchpoint before a conversion.
This method needs to account for other factors, such as pre-existing brand awareness and demographics. Multi-touch attribution, however, is a more comprehensive solution that provides insight into the consumer’s journey.
The multi-touch attribution model also uses a time-decay attribution model, which gives more weight to touchpoints close to the conversion point. The logic behind this approach is that touchpoints close to the conversion are more likely to influence a customer’s decision.
However, this method is more complex than linear attribution, which splits conversion credit equally across each touch point or interaction along a customer’s journey. It also requires tracking all touchpoints leading to the conversion.
Time-Decay Attribution
A powerful marketing tool that assigns more value to the last touch before a customer makes a purchase.
Time-decay attribution gives the most credit to the last touch, such as a social media post, and less to the first touch, which is helpful if your goal is to build a relationship with your customers.
The time-decay attribution model effectively takes the customer’s journey from curiosity to a call to action. While it has its limitations, it is an excellent choice for long-term marketing campaigns.
First-Touch Attribution
This model can help gauge the success of brand-building and awareness-building campaigns.
First-touch attribution is an effective way to understand the reach and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. This model also helps young businesses understand which channels reach their customers. Young organizations are usually in acquisition mode, so tracking the various touchpoints and understanding how to optimize their campaigns is essential.
First-touch attribution only counts leads who have not visited your website before or have not viewed your ads in the last 90 days. This type of attribution gives you a better idea of allocating your marketing budget. It’s the ideal metric for filling the top of the sales funnel.
What companies offer attribution services?
Several companies offer attribution services. Some of the most popular include:
- Google Analytics: Google Analytics offers an attribution feature that allows businesses to track and analyze the effectiveness of different marketing channels. It provides a range of metrics, such as clicks, impressions, and conversions, and can be integrated with other Google tools, such as AdWords and Google Ads.
- Adobe Analytics: Adobe Analytics provides a comprehensive attribution solution that allows businesses to track and analyze the effectiveness of different marketing channels. It offers a range of metrics, such as clicks, impressions, and conversions, and can be integrated with other Adobe tools, such as Adobe Experience Cloud.
- Acquisio: Acquisio is a marketing performance management platform offering business attribution solutions. It tracks and analyzes the effectiveness of different marketing channels, including social media, email marketing, and search engine marketing. It can be integrated with other platforms such as Google Analytics and Salesforce.
- Omniture ( Adobe Marketing Cloud): Omniture, now known as Adobe Marketing Cloud, is a cloud-based marketing software solution that offers attribution capabilities. It allows businesses to track and analyze the effectiveness of different marketing channels and can be integrated with other Adobe tools, such as Adobe Experience Cloud.
- Marin Software: Marin Software is a digital advertising platform offering business attribution solutions. It tracks and analyzes the effectiveness of different marketing channels, including social media, email marketing, and search engine marketing. It can be integrated with other platforms, such as Google Analytics and Salesforce.
These are just a few examples of companies that offer attribution services. There are many other vendors in the market, and the best one for a particular business will depend on their specific goals and target audience.
How to utilize attribution in media to ensure the success of your marketing efforts? Here are some tips.
Attribution in media is a powerful tool that can help marketers understand how different touch points along the customer journey contribute to conversions. Marketers can optimize their media mix and allocate their budget more effectively by using attribution.
Here are a few tips on how to effectively use attribution in media to your advantage:
- Use multi-channel attribution models: Last-click attribution is a popular method, but it needs to consider other touch points’ influence on the customer journey. Multi-channel attribution models, such as linear, time decay, and data-driven attribution, provide a more accurate picture of how different marketing channels influence each other.
- Utilize metrics from different marketing channels: Attribution allows marketers to understand how other marketing channels, such as social media, email marketing, and search engine marketing, contribute to conversions. Marketers can track the effectiveness of different marketing channels by using metrics such as clicks, impressions, and conversions.
- Use UTM parameters: UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are tags that can be added to links in ads, emails, and other marketing materials. These tags allow marketers to track the source of the traffic and conversions and provide valuable insights into which marketing channels are most effective.
- Test different attribution models: Each model has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best model for a particular business will depend on their specific goals and target audience. Marketers should test different models and compare the results to determine which one is most effective for them.
- Continuously monitor and optimize: Attribution is not a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process. Marketers should constantly monitor their attribution data and make adjustments to their media mix as needed. This can include testing new marketing channels, adjusting ad targeting, and optimizing ad copy.
By adequately utilizing attribution in media, marketers can make data-driven decisions and improve their media strategies. Not taking advantage of the power of attribution is a mistake any marketer shouldn’t make.
Remember that with significant data comes great power.
