Attribution is the Solution

Marketers utilize numerous marketing channels and most of their operating cost goes toward achieving a most effective marketing strategy that caters to their clients. It’s not news that marketers spend a lot of money be it on PPC, email, display, etc. But even after all the effort, it’s hard to get a read on how all these parts work together. Only by seeing the whole picture can marketers gain an accurate sense of what’s working and how to best hone their strategy.

Moreover, marketers have to deal with the challenge of data. There is an abundance of it, multiple systems, platforms and vendors sending numerous reports a day. There is often overlap among these reports, with each vendor vying for recognition.

Attribution is the solution. According to Google, 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. By using attribution models, marketers can analyze their data and clearly see how various touch points drive conversion. There are different attribution models that give different amounts of credit to touchpoints.

Last Interaction attribution model gives 100% of the credit to the last touchpoint.

The Last Non-Direct Click model ignores direct traffic and 100% of the credit for the sale goes to the last channel that the customer clicked through before converting.

The Last AdWords Click is self-explanatory, which gives 100% credit to the last AdWords click.

In the First Interaction model, the first touchpoint receives 100% credit.

The Linear attribution model gives equal credit to all touchpoints in the conversion path.

There is also the Time Decay model, where touchpoints closest in time to the actual sale gets more credit.

Last but not least is the Position Base model, in which 40% of the credit is assigned to the first and last interaction, and the rest is divided equally among the interactions in between.

Marketers can use the Model Comparison Tool to compare how different attribution models impact their marketing channels. It is paramount that marketers experiment with different attribution models since the conversion value for each marketing channel with change according to the model used.