In a nutshell, attribution helps you learn what specific marketing actions are affecting your customers' decisions to buy and which marketing channels are driving the most sales. Once you know how you're influencing your customers, you can create more personalised customer experiences, impactful ads and better manage your marketing budget. Whether you have attribution nailed down or are just getting started, follow these four steps to help measure your campaigns more effectively:
1. Determine the attribution model that works best for your business
There are many ways to assess attribution. Before choosing the model that works best for you, it’s important to consider your marketing goals and competitive environment. Here’s a look at some of the most common attribution models:
First-click attribution: First-click attribution gives all credit to the first marketing channel a user encounters on the path to conversion—such as a search engine like Google.
Last-click attribution: Last-click attribution gives all credit to the last marketing channel the user touches before converting.
Linear attribution: Linear attribution distributes credit equally to each marketing touchpoint the user encounters.
Position-based attribution: Position-based attribution gives 40% of the credit to the first touchpoint, 40% to the last, and 20% to the remaining touchpoints.
Algorithmic attribution: Algorithmic attribution uses data and statistical modeling to assign credit to effective touchpoints.
2. Use analytics to enhance your attribution
The best way to improve the effectiveness of your marketing attribution is to pair it with data-backed analytics. Data helps you strengthen your campaigns by showing you the performance metrics of the ads that convince your users to convert. Using both data and analytics enables you to manage how your user comes into contact with your brand—ensuring you reach customers in the right place and at the right time.
3. Find your baseline
Many brands are already using analytics to assess their marketing efforts and find out which ones are actually working. If you are not using attribution, or if you are looking to improve on your current method, ask yourself the following questions to find your baseline before proceeding:
Am I taking into account all of my marketing touchpoints, or just the first or last one?
Will attribution help me spend my marketing budget on the campaigns that drive results most effectively?
Am I duplicating my efforts by getting attribution insights from multiple different solutions?
4. Rely on cookies to feed your attribution efforts
When someone visits your website, a tracking cookie—or pixel—is placed on their browser. This allows you to track where that user goes online once they leave your site, including social media and mobile, and helps you serve ads as the user moves through the consideration cycle. Once a customer converts, you can use your cookie data to see the path they took to go from visitor to buyer.
As I mentioned above, once you know how you're influencing your customers, you can create more impactful ads that will drive more sales to your products/services.