How to know you’re making the most out of your marketing investments

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Attribution is a tricky area for marketers. You know you need

to do it, but it can be complex, confusing and often a costly

investment in time, resources and technology. Here’s the real

deal: If you’re not measuring the impact of your marketing

efforts—especially in today’s world of fragmented devices and

touchpoints—you are likely missing out on ROI opportunities

and wasting spend on channels, strategies and audiences that

aren’t performing well. Plus, getting attribution right helps you

maximize your learnings to make better business decisions over

time. This guide will provide an overview of the what, why and

how of attribution in today’s marketing landscape.

Programmatic done right is attributed based on impact on true business goals, and it lets marketers see through channels and partners to the consumer behind all of those screens.

JOE ZAWADZKIMediaMath CEO

–

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ATTRIBUTION• The act of saying what the origin or cause of something is

• How much of a customer’s decision can you attribute to a certain channel?

• Ex: Joe bought these jeans because he saw this media...

MULTI-TOUCH ATTRIBUTION• Quantify the influence each advertising

impression has on a consumer’s decision to convert by assigning a credit value to each touchpoint

• Ex: Joe bought these jeans because he interacted with us 7 times and each piece of the marketing gets x% credit...

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123

Deeper customer understanding, including the ability to respond to a customer’s behaviors…

…which enables a better and differentiated customer relationship…

…and improved marketing optimization, meaning increased sales and decreased costs.

UNIQUE VALUE PR

OPO

SITI

ON

PRICE & ASSORTMENT

CUST

OMER EXPERIENCE

WINNING

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DIGITAL ENGAGEMENTDATA MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY

Created in the Last 2 Years*

of the world’s

data

Data is revolutionizing our ability

to truly understand our customers’

behaviors, psychographics, emotions,

intent and context.

Customer behavior is changing and moving

towards digital engagement at even faster

rates than predicted. Global numbers

range from 60-80%.

Improvements are happening with cognitive

computing capabilities, data connectivity,

real-time learning and activation,

programmatic consumer engagement

and the ability to close the loop.

Digital Influenced

of in-store retail sales**

of U.S. companies

Use Digital Attribution^

*10 Key Marketing Trends For 2017, IBM Marketing Cloud**Navigating the new digital divide: Capitalizing on digital influence in retail, Deloitte

^ Attribution Is Becoming More of a Priority for Marketers, eMarketer

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We’re no longer browsing on a single device. We switch from laptops to tablets to desktops to phones and, depending on the device, we interact with different browsers. Likewise, we’re no longer stuck in a single marketing channel—we’re privy to TV ads, emails, Facebook ads, social media and more. In the multi-device and multi-channel world we’re living in today, it’s too big of a risk to look at your marketing campaigns in a single dimension. You have to look at them through the lens of the least common denominator—the person, the individual engaging with your business across all channels, devices and browsers.

Global digital consumers own an average of 3.64 DEVICES*

Contamination and distortion of results and duplicative media spend becomes highly likely at the cookie and device level

Some browsers don’t accept cookies

Users delete cookies

Digital media consumption shifting from web to in-app

CONTROL

TEST

*GlobalWebIndex

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PRIMARY ATTRIBUTION MODEL USED BY THEIR MARKETING TEAM TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE ACCORDING TO THE US B2B MARKETERS, OCT 2016

15.1%

13.3%

12.2%

10.5%

8.2%

5.0%

1.8%

34.1%

Lead Conversation Touch (Contact Created)

Last-Touch (Opportunity Created)

Multi-Touch - Weighted (e.g., U- or W-shaped)

First-Touch (First Website Visit)

Multi-Touch - Linear

Multi-Touch - Custom (e.g., Algorithmic)

Other No Attribution Model

% of respondents

Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding; *78.7% of respondents were US-based and 90% were from B2B companies. Source: eMarketer.com, Bizible, Heinz Marketing Radius, ReachForce and Uberflip, “State of Pipeline Marketing 2016,” Nov 9, 2016

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Numerous internal “organizational roadblocks” can make it very hard to convince senior executives of the long-term gains of attribution over the short-term high costs.

3 Hard to convince senior executives of its value

3 Involves internal process changes

3 Requires change to incentive structures

3 Technology limitations

3 No clear methodology winner

3 Complex and confusing

TACTICS THAT OCCUPIED vs. WILL OCCUPY THEIR TIME/RESOURCES ACCORDING TO US DIGITAL

MARKETING MEDIA PRACTITIONERS, 2015-2017

WILL OCCUPY IN 2017

OCCUPIED IN 2016

OCCUPIED IN 2015

Cross-channel measurement & attribution 35.4%

50.5%

45.5%

27.3%

47.5%

33.3%

48.8%

33.3%

26.2%

52.4%

57.1%

47.6%

42.9%

40.5%

40.5%

Programmatic media buying for established formats

Cross-channel audience identification/matching

Advertising content/experience optimization

General audience analytics

*% of respondents | Source: The Outlook for Data 2017: A Snapshot Into the Evolving Role of Audience Insight, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Winterberry Group

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WALKCRAWL RUN FLY

Customer Behavior

Key Performance Indicator

Attribution Model

Attribution Window 1, 3 or 30 Days

First- or Last-Click

CTR, CPC

Post-Click Post-Click + Post-View All Digital Touchpoints

First- or Last-Click/View

CPA, ROI Incremental ROAS

Industry Average

Multi-Touch Attribution (Time Decay)

All Omnichannel Touchpoints

Custom Machine Learning Attribution Model

Incremental ROAS+ Customer Lifetime Value

Industry Average Your Average Customer

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Multi-touch attribution is a more ideal model because it enables you to better understand true marketing impact. By letting you see exactly what led a customer to convert at all points—both online and off—on the road to purchase, you can immediately act upon what’s working and what’s not and give appropriate credit to advertising partners.

BENEFITS OF MOVING AWAY FROM LAST-TOUCH:

3 Better understand true marketing impact

3 See exactly what led a customer to convert at all points—both online and off

3 Give appropriate credit to all your marketing channels

3 Immediately optimize budget and strategy based on what’s working and what’s not

AVERAGE CUSTOMER ONLINE INTERACTIONS PER CONVERSION (BY INDUSTRY)

All

1.0

0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

Fash

ion

Appar

el

Gifts

Hobby

, Leis

ure

Home,

Fur

nitur

eHea

lth &

Bea

uty

Food B2B

N= 2,914,484 coustomer online interactions | Source: MarketingSherpa, NetElixir

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LAST-TOUCH MODELThe last touchpoint receives 100% credit for the sale

LAST ADWORDS CLICK MODEL The first and only click to the paid search channel receives 100% credit for the sale

LAST NON-DIRECT CLICK MODELAll direct traffic is ignored and 100% of the credit goes to the last channel that the customer clicked through from before converting (paid or owned)

LINEAR MODELEach touchpoint in the attribution window receives equal credit for the sale

FIRST-TOUCH MODELThe first touchpoint in a given attribution window receives 100% credit for the sale

TIME DECAY MODEL (MULTI-TOUCH) The touchpoints closest in time to the sale or conversion get most of the credit, with each touchpoint in the attribution window receiving less credit than the one that occurred after it

POSITION-BASED MODEL40% credit is given to both the first and last touchpoints, with the remaining 20% split between all other touchpoints in the middle

This option gives you the best bang for your buck in terms of accuracy vs effort put in until you are ready to move to your own custom attribution (which we recommend be based initially on time decay).

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When selecting the best attribution window, start with industry averages and later customize to your specific customers. Attribution windows should reflect your customers’ shopping habits (seven to 10 days in the past). If you select the right window, you don’t need different windows for clicks and views.

PRODUCT CATEGORY• Average windows for apparel shopping are eight to

10 days *

• 97% of conversions occur in the first 10 days and

the remaining 3% take 20 more days to complete **

• Conversions are bi-model with two peaks at 1-2

hours and 1-2 days ^

DATING YOUR CUSTOMER• On average, consumers engage with a brand

seven times before purchasing †

• 1/3 of mobile purchases are impulse buys *

ATTRIBUTION MODELS• Given what we learned about serial clicks and the

value of clickers, we advocate for not prioritizing

clicks over views

• Consider all attribution models with regards to

recency, behavior and frequency—time decay

gives you the best model

* Browsing and Buying Behavior by Category: 2016, Hooklogic

** Click to Conversion Time & Your Revenue Attribution Window, Search Engine Land

^ Study: 40% of mobile clicks are accidental or fraudulent, Trademob

† Multi-Channel Attribution Modeling: The Good, Bad and Ugly Models, Occam’s Razor

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WHAT ARE ALL OF THE SIGNALS, DEVICES AND

BEHAVIORS THAT ROLL UP TO THIS CUSTOMER?

WHAT ARE ALL OF THE MEDIA TOUCHPOINTS THAT COULD HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO A

CUSTOMER’S BEHAVIOR(S)?

HOW MUCH INCREMENTAL BENEFIT VS COST DID I

DERIVE FROM THAT MEDIA?

WHAT IS THE RELATIVE VALUE OF EACH OF THOSE PIECES

OF MEDIA? MICRO AND MACRO CONVERSIONS?

CONTROL

TEST

COST

SALES

SALES

COST

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Make no mistake—multi-touch attribution requires an investment in cost, time and expertise.However, you can take steps toward shifting your marketing organization’s mindset about attribution.

Run a data assessment. The results of any attribution exercise are only as useful as the data is accurate, completed and connected across silos.

Prepare to activate and optimize in media. The attribution model and product you use should allow you to decision on the variables that are influential in your conversion goals. Some technology companies offer real-time integration with multi-touch attribution vendors that makes this process simpler and faster to execute on in media.

Lean on (and learn from) the experts. Rely on your agency or technology partners for support in implementing the right solution.

Have internal meetings to help qualify budget, anticipated goals and expected ROI, infrastructural and technological elements to consider and how multiple systems might need to hook together.

Choose the right data matching partners, which often comes down to the best match for the type of CRM data (email vs phone numbers, for example) and best practices around data hygiene, including ongoing data cleansing. The more conversion data you have to look at, the fuller the picture of attribution across channels and online-to-in-store sales.

Learn more at www.MediaMath.com