A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Attribution

Providing effective and efficient marketing is key to developing your business, regardless of industry or sector. Your business is only as good as its customers allow it to be. If your customers are continuously engaging with your business, and indulging in every marketing touchpoint, your potential for increased sales and Return on Investment (ROI) is limitless. In contrast, poor engagement can prove highly detrimental.

With customer engagement being at the forefront of every successful business, you must be aware of how to optimize this engagement through your marketing. The key to achieving this is to implement, and successfully execute marketing attribution.

Read on to find a complete beginner’s guide on marketing attribution, including what it is and how it operates in a business.

What is marketing attribution?

Marketing attribution is the process of gathering and analyzing data on every touchpoint in a customer journey. A customer can interact with your business through one, or several, different points of contact – such as clicking ads, opening emails, or calling. These touchpoints form the entirety of the customer journey.

The main goal of every business is to ensure every customer journey is leading to, and finishing with, a sale. To do this, each touchpoint must be cleverly designed, to stimulate this journey.

Marketing attribution analyses, and provides extensive data on, these touchpoints, so that you can clearly see the volumes, outcomes, and quality of engagement at each one.

With this information, you’ll have all you need to begin creating more effective marketing strategies, which provide the best touchpoints for lead and sales generation.

Marketing attribution, however, can be completed using a variety of different models, each one providing emphasis on different aspects of a customer journey.

Types of marketing attribution models

There are three main models used in marketing attribution. They are as follows:

First touch attribution

First touch attribution is designed to emphasize the very first touchpoint in a customer journey. This is the initial interaction a customer makes with your business.

The attribution model provides data on this touchpoint alone and does not include data on further interactions. This is ideal for understanding top-of-funnel behavior and see how to give the best introduction of your business to customers.

Last touch attribution

Last touch attribution, like the first touch, focuses on only one touchpoint. This time, however, it’s the very last interaction a customer makes with your business. This could be either a purchase or possibly a simple interaction that never progressed. By understanding this data, you can ensure the majority, if not all, of your customer journeys, end with the former.

One final touchpoint could be, for instance, a phone call. To elevate the leads and sales generated by this touchpoint, you could consider something like call tracking.

This will reveal the entire customer journey surrounding a phone call, as well as multiple keywords picked up in the conversation. With this information, refining your phone conversations and increasing sales couldn’t be easier.

For more information, you can consult with an expert and trusted provider, such as Mediahawk call tracking software.

Multi-touch attribution

Multi-touch attribution, unlike the first two, provides data on every touchpoint in a customer journey, each with a different value of emphasis.

This type of model is split into four different forms:

Linear attribution – This model provides data on every touchpoint, with equal value for all of them. This is great for understanding the entire customer journey, and seeing clearly how they’re engaging with your business, from the first touchpoint to the last.

U-shaped model – This model puts a higher value on the first and last touchpoints of a customer journey, with limited focus on the in-between. This helps reveal what’s most effectively hooking customers in, and what’s sealing the deal at the end of their journey(arguably the two most crucial points in a journey for sales).

W-shaped model – This model puts more value on the first and last touchpoints, but also an equal amount on the middle touchpoints. The remainder has limited consideration. This is great for showing how effectively a customer is funneled from their first touchpoint to their last. Stimulating engagement is crucial to the sales process.

Time decay attribution – This model assigns the first touchpoint with the lowest value, and increases the value as the touchpoints progress, with the final touchpoint having the highest value. This operates under the belief that customer engagement becomes more pivotal to a sale, as the journey moves along. Refining this journey can help you improve your conversion rates and progressively entice customers.

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Once you have decided on the most appropriate model, you are fully equipped to begin improving your marketing strategies, and rapidly increasing your sales and ROI.