“Attribution is important. Do what you can to measure the results and impact of your advertising, but understand that not everything is accurately measurable. Not everything is linear because the way people make purchasing decisions isn’t linear either.”

“Rather than directly attributing every advertising channel or consumer behavior, try to get the mix right. It’s akin to a financial asset allocation.” - Mario Schulzke, COO

Many marketers push the notion of utilizing a wide breadth of digital touchpoints that engage users and cause them to convert. 

However, when conversions finally come in, marketers need help to identify which audience touchpoints are responsible for the final sale. Did the original search and display ads make the user convert? The retargeted search ad? Social media ads? This data is important, so we look to attribution.

This article talks about attribution, from what it is, why you should use it, and what to expect. 

In digital marketing, attribution is pinpointing which marketing touchpoints are making the users complete a desired outcome, such as making a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, etc. 

The demand for attribution in marketing comes from the fact that almost every marketing team uses an integrated, omnichannel marketing presence, meaning they use a combination of ad methods like display, dynamic search, audio, video, CTV, or native. In addition, they may also have a website, social media, and earned media.

Attribution is implemented by connecting multiple touchpoints, like landing pages and ads, to a tracking platform like Google Ads. Then, the technology determines which specific touchpoint(s) caused the final conversion.

The goal of attribution is to see which touchpoints have the most significant impact on conversions. So, most marketers use platforms like Google Ads, Hubspot, or IBM Watson Studio to track this data. 

These platforms look at every customer interaction prior to converting and assign credit to each. The more significant the contribution, the more credit. Although we say credit, this means identifying the interactions that boost conversion revenue. There are multiple models that the ad software follows to assign credit.

Attribution reports visualize the paths customers follow to complete conversions, while also offer insights into how your various advertising campaigns interact to produce conversions. For example, you can see whether certain keywords assisted conversions that eventually happened through other keywords.

Digital attribution models are rules that determine how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touchpoints in digital conversion paths. For example, the Last Touch model assigns 100% credit to the final touchpoints (i.e., clicks) that precede sales or conversions.

There are three categories of attribution models: 

Single-touch attribution models assign credit to only one touchpoint.

For example, a user interacts with three touchpoints before converting: a display ad, a search ad, and the landing page of the product they purchased. 

Google Ads rewards credit to only the first touchpoint, saying that the display ad was the single source that drove conversion. Conversely, Google Ads could focus on the last touchpoint the user visited before conversion, indicating that the landing page was the last click that caused the sale conversion. 

Multi-touch attribution gives credit to more than one touchpoint.

Using the example above, if the user interacts with the display ad, search ad, and landing page, Google Ads may credit both the first and last touchpoints saying the display and landing page had equal contributions to the conversion. 

Algorithmic attribution differs from single and multi-touch attribution models because it uses more machine learning to assign credit based on the data instead of a set rule. The technology uses a different attribution model for each conversion to calculate credit to each touchpoint. This is a complicated and expensive method. However, if used correctly, it is super powerful.

The most common iterations of single and multi-touch attribution models are first touch, last touch, last interaction, position-based, recent decay, linear, U-shaped, and  W-shaped.

First Touch gives full credit to the first touchpoint that caused the initial user engagement. If the user clicks on a display and search ad and converts it to the landing page, the display ad is credited. 

Last Touch Attribution gives full credit to the second to last touchpoint before conversion. Users see a business' Instagram post, visit their bio, click their listed website link, and convert. The Instagram bio page is credited because it was right before the final website conversion. 

Last Interaction Attribution gives full credit to the previous touchpoint at conversion. Users see a business' Instagram post, visit their bio, click their listed website link, and convert. The landing page is credited because it was the ultimate point of conversion. 

First and Last Attribution, AKA Position-Based credits the first and last touchpoint before conversion. If the user clicks on a display and search ad and converts to the landing page, both the display ad and landing page are credited. 

In the recent decay model (time-decay attribution), credit is awarded to the last touchpoint, and the remaining credit is regressively rewarded to the primary touchpoints. 

If users click on a display and search ad and convert to the landing page, the landing page is rewarded the most credit, while the search ad comes in second and display in third. 

Linear attribution gives all touchpoints equal weight and credit.  If a user visits five touchpoints, each is given an equal share of the credit. 

U-Shaped gives 40% of the credit to the first touchpoint and the touchpoint that created a user contact. The remainder is evenly distributed to the other touchpoints. 

If the user clicks on a display and search ad and converts to the landing page, the display ad and landing page get 40% of the credit each, while the search ad gets 20%. 

W-Shaped gives a 30% portion of the credit to the first, middle, and last touchpoints, while the remainder is distributed evenly across the mid-funnel section, considering this section the time that a user is a lead. 

If the user clicks on a display and search ad, engages with an email marketing newsletter about the product, and converts on the landing page, the display ad, newsletter, and landing page get an equal share of the credit. In contrast, the search ad receives the rest.

Organize media mix with a purpose and lean into high-earning touchpoints

Using attribution analysis helps marketers better understand which touchpoints engage users and push them to convert. Many teams choose their marketing mix by the gut, but attribution will tell them specifically which landing pages and ads are pulling customers in. Thus, helping eliminate ad spend waste and highlighting the most influential touchpoints.

Paints a picture of the entire customer journey 

Multi-touchpoint attribution analysis provides marketers insight on the path users took through the marketing funnel. This data puts the marketer in the user's shoes and allows them to optimize and expedite the process. This may be by eliminating a touchpoint step in the customer experience or reshifting info to the top of a page. 

Attribution modeling is modern tech-friendly 

Attribution is usually done using Google Analytics, Hubspot, or a different platform that utilizes machine learning and artificial intelligence technology. This modern tech constantly tracks and optimizes attribution data.

Attribution models aren't perfect

Every attribution method has flaws. If the marketer only gives credit to paid search ads, they'll miss out on future paying customers. The last-touch attribution model used to be the standard but marketers got smarter. For example, it is possible that someone clicked on a social ad, visited the site, clicked on a retargeting banner, and ultimately clicked on a search ad before making a purchase.

Marketers must look at their blended conversion rate metrics, and the overall cost per conversion needs to align with the investment they can justify. If they want to dig deeper, they should look at the different attribution models to find further insight. 

The digital world does not equal the real-world

Attribution methods are limited to tracking digital touchpoints. Digital attribution software doesn't account for indirect or offline activities, like word of mouth, digital out-of-home (DOOH), or even physical ads. So, the marketer may think a particular touchpoint is responsible for converting the customer when the customer may have already had the intention to purchase because of a non-digital interaction.

Reading between the lines

Many marketers extrapolate attribution data and assume there is a particular pattern or pathway that users follow. The problem is that every user's behavior is distinct, and we need to generalize and always know what pushes users over the finish line to convert. By misinterpreting the data, marketers may spend money on a touchpoint that doesn't help drive much traffic. 

Instead, attribution modeling should serve as an additional layer of info to consider when making marketing decisions. Marketers shouldn't use them as a golden road map. 

Tracking the wrong locations

Many attribution tracking platforms require marketers to provide a webpage link or tag code of the touchpoints they want to track. A problem is that marketers need to provide correct pages and links to follow, primarily where the conversion point occurs. 

For example, a clothing website might accidentally choose the 'check out the page' as the conversion point, but sometimes, users drop off mid-purchase. This would cause anybody who puts a product in their digital shopping cart, clicks on the 'purchase button' and drops off before providing credit card info to be counted as conversions. This is obviously a problem. So instead, the website should track the 'order complete' page, where orders are 100% complete. It is little things like this that can cause big problems.

When determining the suitable attribution model consider the following: 

What platforms should be used for attribution?  

Marketers should consider what platforms they currently use that could help them perform attribution. If they use Google Ads, they should keep using this platform and take advantage of its attribution feature, offering a specific list of models. 

However, if the marketer is not currently tied to any platform, they can use any attribution platform. There are tons of them offering different models and capabilities. However, before subscribing, marketers should research and find a reputable platform that meets their needs before subscribing. These attribution tools really boost ease of use in this entire process. 

It is an option to manually track attribution. For example, eCommerce websites can look at which web pages the user visited and even count the checkout page as a last interaction attribution. This is good to know; however, they risk missing the big picture and knowing which of their other touchpoints contributed to this ultimate user conversion – something a multi-touch attribution model could fix. 

What touchpoints does the marketer want to track?

The marketer must consider all the touchpoints they currently implement, including webpages, ads, and other media users may bump into online. These touchpoints should also be easily tracked or integrated into an attribution-tracking platform. 

What is the current marketing strategy implemented? 

For marketing teams that utilize multiple marketing and ad methods, it can be a good idea to use a multi-touch method. This gives the marketer a bigger picture of all the little or significant contributions each touchpoint has on conversions. Conversely, a single-touch attribution may be ideal for a marketer who operates in a few channels and only has a few touchpoints or gets most of their business in one place. 

What is the average speed for users to move through the marketing funnel? 

Single-touch attribution is suitable for businesses and clients with users who quickly make purchases and only click on a few touchpoints. This may be a hotel that only fields a search ad and has the user click immediately on their landing page to book a stay. In this case, the hotel may only need to reward credit to the ad or landing page that made the user convert. 

Multi-touch is vital for businesses and clients with longer marketing funnel cycles. The users, in these cases, may take more time and engage with more touchpoints before converting. So, in this case, it is a good idea to utilize a multi-touch attribution method to consider all the touchpoints with which the user interacted over time. 

As Pathlabs, we typically take a "portfolio" approach to attribution. Some channels are super attributable (like paid search), while others might be less directly attributable and more supportive of the overall effort. 

Success is when the portfolio performs as a whole.

Attribution is an extremely helpful tool for marketers. Although it may be daunting to navigate the many different attribution models, this data could eliminate wasted ad spend on a touchpoint that doesn't drive conversions.

Those ready to amp up their attribution analysis should remember that they will not be able to measure everything. And that is okay. In addition to seeing what channels are driving results, they should look at the overall mix of strategies and understand what they're yielding as a blend. 

Marketers tend to be on two extremes with attribution. They are either ignorant about it or treat it like a full-time job. It doesn't have to be this way. The best approach is finding a balance between the two: using attribution to softly guide decisions while relying on strategic and holistic measures.

Curious about the advantages of working with a media execution partner? Reach out to Pathlabs to discover how we can become an extension of your team.