Here’s a problem with a lot of technology companies: they have terabytes of marketing metrics but they’re just not understanding the true value behind the data and how to best allocate their marketing dollars. One of the key reasons is their outdated approach to marketing attribution (i.e. the methods used to credit marketing channels like PPC, SEO, display, email, etc. and the role they play in converting customers to sale).
It’s too often the case that our clients use “last click” attribution, whereby they give the last marketing touch all of the credit. In addition, they give all conversions the same level of value, ignoring the source of the sale, the profile of the buyer, the products purchased and good old Life Time Value (LTV). All this has led to marketers focusing on the bottom of the funnel (i.e. those activities that are nearest to the point of sale) and ignoring those awareness activities nearer the top of the funnel. In reality, last click attribution effectively eliminates attribution at the top and devalues certain types of marketing activity e.g. online display and SEO.
So, what to do? Well, first you need to adopt an analytics platform that can leverage and join-up tags and cookie-level information to get better insight into online campaign performance. These platforms provide a real picture of the importance of first, second and third touches and calculate their true contribution to marketing and sales conversion. And, by looking at the paths customers typically take through our marketing communications, we’ll be able to attribute the bulk of our revenue to a specific number of well-performing marketing channels.
To ensure you’re effectively implementing marketing attribution, you need to establish how it’s currently being done within your organisation. You must then decide the value of specific opportunities, the difference between customer types, budget allocation, etc. Then based on this research, you can change the way you assign value to specific marketing activities. Finally, you’ll need to ensure that you have a platform that can track all of the required touch points and build an accurate attribution model. Good examples are Convertro and MarketShare.
A great attribution model is one thing, but implementing change within your organisation is another. Form our experience with technology companies, change can be fraught with danger. There are a number of personnel responsible for specific marketing activities. Some of these activities might be based in Europe, whilst others might be managed globally from headquarters in US or Asia. It’s a difficult political exercise to get them to accept the changes to the perceived value of their marketing contribution. But, by adopting a more analytical approach, the proof will be there to implement change and replace that outdated last click attribution with a more balanced approach.
Once you get attribution working smoothly across all of your online activities, you’ll then be able to look at ways to encompass offline metrics e.g. event attendance, print in the form of QR codes and outdoor advertising.
IMHO — Effective marketing attribution will mean you can recognise the following improvements to your marketing:
- Greater visibility and efficiency across all of your online marketing activities.
- Shifting budgets between marketing channels to ensure an optimal mix
- Give less focus on marketing channels that get the last click.
- And, give more focus to those that contribute at earlier points in the funnel
- Finally, you’ll be able to prove performance and the role marketing plays in Revenue Performance Management (RPM)
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