If you use marketing to generate leads and sales for your business, it’s always helpful to know which marketing technique is proving the most successful. This is especially the case since marketers now interact with customers on more platforms than ever before.
Marketing attribution models allow marketers to measure and optimise their campaigns to understand what’s working along with what’s not. The process shines a light on the customer journey to break down each of the steps a customer may go through (customer touchpoints) before a purchase decision is made.
As digital marketers here at Imaginaire, marketing attribution is one of the many aspects we can use to ensure your marketing strategy is on point.
But first, here is an overview of what marketing attribution is along with the benefits the process can bring to your business.
Marketing Attribution: An Overview
Marketing attribution can seem like a confusing term. But when we break it down, to attribute something means whatever we are referring to is the result of a particular thing. For instance, saying that it’s cold outside because it’s winter.
So when it comes to marketing attribution, we are simply relating any success to a particular marketing platform or technique. This could be getting lots of link clicks through Facebook, or direct sales through Google Shopping along with the reasons why these particular methods have worked so well.
In other words, marketing attribution asks what is driving clicks, engagements and sales to a business, based on the marketing efforts that have been employed so far.
Marketing Attribution Terms To Know
First-touch attribution: Determines the first interaction that a customer had with the business.
Last-touch attribution: Considers all of the touchpoints a customer may have had, but focuses on the last interaction which actually resulted in the conversion.
Linear attribution: Gives credit to all customer touchpoints which resulted in a conversion.
Time decay attribution: Gives more kudos to interactions which happened more recently, rather than initial touchpoints the customer interacted with a long time ago.
How To Do Marketing Attribution
To be able to measure which customer touchpoints are most effective for your business, you first need to establish what these actually are. This includes all possible digital and offline channels where customers may discover your business, products or services.
With this list in mind, you can then apply the attribution models which we mentioned in the previous heading. For instance, what was the first interaction a customer had with your brand, and which channel led to the actual conversion?
Analytics tools such as GA4 (plenty more exist!) can help determine the tangible answers to these questions. That’s because analytics tools can track and trace how people found your website along with their wider customer journey until the sale was made. Building this overall picture is how marketing attribution is made possible, as the performance of customer touchpoints is revealed thanks to the data provided by analytics tools.
Why Is Marketing Attribution Important?
The reason why marketing attribution is undertaken is so that marketers can gain a better understanding of their own tactics, along with what the key drivers are for success. Since it costs time, money and effort to do marketing, it’s essential that the process is carried out effectively, and this is exactly what marketing attribution looks to ensure.
Marketing attribution tracks the entire customer journey, which again can help marketers to understand all of the steps a customer may take before a sale is made. This includes the initial touchpoints through to the touchpoints which get customers over the line.
Marketing Attribution Benefits
- Ability to adjust marketing tactics to eliminate or improve weak points
- Better understanding of the customer journey
- Data-driven marketing decisions
- Increased ROI
- Informed marketing strategies
- Justification of marketing budgets for successful tactics
- Optimised marketing budgets
In summary, they say knowledge is power, and that’s exactly what marketing attribution looks to bring across multiple aspects of a marketing campaign.
By having a clear understanding of the impact of all marketing efforts, including how each technique connects with another, marketing budgets can be put to the best possible use.
Imaginaire – Digital Marketing For UK Businesses
Are you a business owner wanting to gain a better understanding of your marketing efforts?
Imaginaire is a Nottingham-based marketing agency, and we work with businesses from across the UK. There are lots of ways we can help your business succeed online, whether you want to launch your business from scratch or improve previous campaign performance.
Let us know more about your business and commercial objectives by filling out our contact form.
You can also give us a call on 0115 697 1221 or email us at [email protected].
