With all the buzz around marketing attribution, we here at LeadsRx are focused and delighted to bring attribution practices to SMBs and enterprises alike. Our following blog post is starting with the basics of attribution, what is it, what is the purpose, and how different attribution models are scored. Up until recently the attribution industry was heavily focused on consulting. The tides are shifting as companies have “SaaS’ified” the once complex and time consuming process. Let’s dig in a bit on attribution.

Marketing attribution, what it is?

It’s the process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or “touchpoints”) that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events. Marketing attribution provides a level of understanding of what combination of events in what particular order influence individuals to engage in a desired behavior, typically referred to as a conversion

What is the purpose of Marketing Attribution?

The purpose of marketing attribution is to quantify the influence each advertising impression has on a consumer’s decision to make a purchase decision, or convert. Visibility into what influences the audience, when and to what extent, allows marketers to optimize media spend for conversions and compare the value of different marketing channels, including paid and organic search, email, affiliate marketing, display ads, social media and more. Understanding the entire conversion path across the whole marketing mix eliminates the accuracy challenge of analyzing data from siloed channels. Typically, attribution data is used by marketers to plan future ad campaigns by analyzing which media placements (ads) were the most cost-effective as determined by metrics such as effective cost per action.

Attribution Models

An attribution model is the rule, or set of rules, that determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touchpoints in conversion paths.  There are several attribution models a marketer can use based on insights they desire.  Being able to dynamically change attribution models in your data is a key aspect to success. First Touch – Assigns credit for the conversion only to the first touchpoint that the visitor encountered Last Touch – Assigns credit for the conversion only to the last touchpoint that the visitor encountered Linear Multi-touch – Assigns each touchpoint a fraction of the attribution. For Example, if a conversion path has 5 touchpoints, then each is given 20% credit or a score of 0.20 Weighted Multi-Touch – First and last touchpoints are each given 40% of the attribution credit and all other touchpoints divide the remaining 20% evenly. Any Touch – Also known as the “Influencer Attribution”.  This model assigns credit to all touchpoints by giving each on a full point.  This basically says each marketing touchpoint played a role in “influencing” a consumer to convert. This does not weigh one touchpoint any more importantly than another. Closer Touch – This model assigns credit for the conversion to the last touchpoint but only if it occurred in a predefined time period.  This time can be adjusted based on the typical buying cycle in your industry. As mentioned previously, until now, marketing attribution was only available to enterprises that spent $100K a year or more on products and consulting.  With shifts to a SaaS model, marketing attribution is now available to every agency and marketer as prices are 10x less than what enterprises are paying and the complexity has been simplified. Please feel free to get in touch with us with any questions on marketing attribution.