Cross-channel attribution can make or break your marketing effectiveness.
After all, without a holistic view of how marketing is impacting the conversion funnel, you’ll be hard-pressed to understand which channels you need to improve, double-down on, or quit entirely.
In this blog, we’ll help marketers understand why attribution is key, what types of attribution exist, and which method we think is best.
3 Reasons to Nail Down Marketing Attribution
While we’ve analyzed the current role of attribution in marketing before, there’s no denying that attribution is a key aspect of a marketing team’s success. The question is, why? What does attribution show that is so important?
Simply put, attribution helps answer these strategic marketing questions:
- How did the customer start the buying journey?
- What led to their conversion?
- What metrics should be tracked to best follow marketing’s impact?
Without understanding what drives the customer’s journey, what marketing efforts impact conversion, and which metrics define success, marketers will find it very difficult to create a strategy that works effectively.
For example, without proper attribution, it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, for marketing teams to prioritize campaigns in an unbiased, systemic way. It also becomes more difficult to determine budget allocations across the marketing organization. Attribution can provide clarity when opinions and preferences get in the way of proven outcomes.
Finally, efficient attribution helps marketing teams align with leadership and across other teams (like sales or finances), translating marketing practices into language that c-suite executives and other departments can understand. This can prevent misunderstandings or budget cuts to essential activities driving impact.
So, what type of attribution models exist, and what should your organization follow, and why?
Attribution Models, Explained
There are two common buckets of attribution models: single-touch and multi-touch (or cross-channel) attribution. While the merits of these two approaches apply in specific cases, let’s break down why multi-channel attribution is quickly becoming the standard for digital marketing teams.
Single-touch attribution
Methods for measuring single-touch attribution typically rely on one metric, like first or last touches, to give credit for the buyer’s conversion. While helpful in some cases, it typically provides an overly simplistic portrait of the conversion story.
Multi-touch attribution
While single-touch attribution relies on two simple methods, multi-touch attribution models are much more versatile and diverse. Multi-touch is a better approach to fully gauge marketing effectiveness across the entire funnel, giving essential insights into what is actually driving conversion and impact.
From linear approaches that give credit to each marketing funnel touchpoint along the way, to weighted first and last touch models, multi-touch models can be customized to meet the needs of any marketing organization.
The Evidence Is in: Multi-Channel Attribution Is Most Effective
Multi-channel attribution, or cross-channel attribution, is our preferred method at Inverta. Why? Multi-channel attribution is the only method that allows you to fully understand your marketing impact as a whole, functioning system.
The data backs this up. The majority of companies — an overwhelming 75% — use a multi-touch attribution model to measure marketing performance. Additionally, multi-channel attribution models can improve marketing efficiency by 15-30%, which can translate to thousands (if not millions!) of dollars in the sales and marketing pipeline.
At Inverta, our experts can provide insight into your marketing attribution models. We help you level up your marketing outcomes by leveling up your marketing data. Reach out to us here.
