The A-Z of digital
marketing attribution.

What is digital marketing attribution?

There is both a short and long answer here. Put simply, Digital Marketing Attribution analyzes which marketing campaigns led to conversion. But in reality, this is a more complex question. It looks at the (many) touchpoints a customer is likely to have on their path to purchase, and includes multiple channels, campaigns, and even takes other elements like time into consideration.

Why is digital marketing attribution important?

Attribution is crucial for performance marketers as it allows them to ensure each customer interaction across different channels is accounted for, and properly weighted. It allows marketers to see exactly which touchpoints led to interactions, and more importantly, conversion. This means that not only can you identify the sources of leads and conversions, but you can also optimize your marketing spend/budget in the process.

Digital marketing attribution challenges.

In the age of social media, marketing campaigns include multiple channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google, TikTok and more. This tends to complicate things, creating a few challenges. The following are top of the list for most digital marketing attribution experts:

first list
Lack of clarity

Many attribution efforts lack clarity, making it difficult for marketers to track every channel and see the lead's full lifecycle, across channels and campaigns. Skipping a single step in the buyer’s multi-channel attribution journey makes a huge difference, and as described by sales expert Romain Baert, “The first visit is just as important as the last visit, so why exclude it from your performance analysis?”

second list
What to measure

They say that when you measure everything, you get nothing. It’s essential to track the entire lead journey on the one hand without including irrelevant data on the other. Learning which metrics and touchpoints have the most influence on customers is an art form not all teams and technologies master, but is crucial to optimize your marketing spend.

third list
Lack of transparency

As advertising platforms often count conversions differently, there is a risk here that the data can be skewed, making the results somewhat biased.

forth list
Lack of integrity

You can think of social ads as silos – For example, Facebook does not know about your LinkedIn ads and vice versa. And as there is a lot of touchpoints in a digital customer's journey, it is hard to get the full picture by relying on siloed advertising platforms data.

fifth list
Lack of precision

As data is often not integrated, it is almost impossible to accurately calculate ROAS, CPA and other very important conversion metrics while simultaneously accounting for each channel's impact on the customers' path to conversion.

sixth list
Lack of affordable results

Specific attribution software is the only way to get precise data, however such software can be very expensive.

seventh list
Timely insights

Captain Hindsight is the questionable hero of many attribution tools, letting brands know what worked (or didn’t) when it’s too late to make any changes and adjust the campaign accordingly. This is particularly problematic when promoting time-sensitive offers such as seasonal campaigns, where the lack of timely insights into campaign(s) performance is both costly and frustrating.

The continued evolution of marketing attribution also leads to new challenges that require strong data analysis capabilities and lots of creativity to unlock common trends and possibilities for improvements. This is because:

The benefits of attribution.

When they are accurate and analyzed correctly, attribution strategies provide an impressive range of marketing insights:

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Common attribution models.

While social media channels have their own built-in performance tracking features, most do not cover all the relevant data needed to assess results and the reasons behind them, and struggle to aggregate data across properties. Multitouch journeys that include several networks often get lost in a sea of data. That’s why digital marketers approach the critical task of accurately measuring campaign performance from different angles or touchpoints.

Last click

This model gives all the credit to the last interaction with a lead and does not take into account the many interactions that led to that conversion. It is more common to see this model used in low-cost campaigns, and chances are that it will be perfectly accurate only when impulse buys are in question. Otherwise, we already know that it takes multiple touchpoints to make a sale, and most customers learn about the brand via other channels before making their final decision.

First click

This time, the model only considers the first interaction instead of taking into account the entire process that helped bring the sale to fruition, including any online research that followed the initial click. The problem with this strategy is similar to last click, with conclusions based on partial information, since there could have been critical additional interactions.

Position-based

This model gives a considerable percentage of the credit to the first and last interactions, dividing the rest of the credit between the interactions in the middle. Here, we start to see a more holistic approach with a broader view of the purchasing journey. Still, there’s no real reason to assume that the middle touchpoints were less impactful, as the model suggests.

Linear

The linear attribution model doesn’t discriminate, assigning an even amount of credit to each interaction in the journey, including the first and last clicks. While this approach makes every part of the funnel visible, it also makes it harder to know which elements significantly drove sales. Essentially, this approach gives more information with less meaningful insights.

Time decay

A model that considers different touchpoints and adds the timing factor. Interactions closer to the sale receive more credit compared to others that occurred long before the purchase. Teams focused on short customer experiences may gravitate towards this approach. The issue here is that earlier interactions may have triggered the purchasing journey, a fact that gets lost when timing plays such a deciding role.

Data-driven

This digital marketing attribution model is often associated with Google Analytics, but represents a broader approach. The model assigns credit to each interaction based on the engagement rate it demonstrates, thus connecting performance with results. While this is a smart approach, it also demands a closer look at the data over time and campaigns. Not all companies can afford that.

Last click

This model gives all the credit to the last interaction with a lead and does not take into account the many interactions that led to that conversion. It is more common to see this model used in low-cost campaigns, and chances are that it will be perfectly accurate only when impulse buys are in question. Otherwise, we already know that it takes multiple touchpoints to make a sale, and most customers learn about the brand via other channels before making their final decision.

First click

This time, the model only considers the first interaction instead of taking into account the entire process that helped bring the sale to fruition, including any online research that followed the initial click. The problem with this strategy is similar to last click, with conclusions based on partial information, since there could have been critical additional interactions.

Position-based

This model gives a considerable percentage of the credit to the first and last interactions, dividing the rest of the credit between the interactions in the middle. Here, we start to see a more holistic approach with a broader view of the purchasing journey. Still, there’s no real reason to assume that the middle touchpoints were less impactful, as the model suggests.

Linear

The linear attribution model doesn’t discriminate, assigning an even amount of credit to each interaction in the journey, including the first and last clicks. While this approach makes every part of the funnel visible, it also makes it harder to know which elements significantly drove sales. Essentially, this approach gives more information with less meaningful insights.

Time decay

A model that considers different touchpoints and adds the timing factor. Interactions closer to the sale receive more credit compared to others that occurred long before the purchase. Teams focused on short customer experiences may gravitate towards this approach. The issue here is that earlier interactions may have triggered the purchasing journey, a fact that gets lost when timing plays such a deciding role.

Data-driven

This digital marketing attribution model is often associated with Google Analytics, but represents a broader approach. The model assigns credit to each interaction based on the engagement rate it demonstrates, thus connecting performance with results. While this is a smart approach, it also demands a closer look at the data over time and campaigns. Not all companies can afford that.

And now, for the million-dollar question: Which model is the best one to follow? The answer is that digital marketing attribution models all offer certain benefits and specific challenges. The more straightforward models are simple to implement and can be translated into quick wins. Complex models, on the other hand, provide a holistic view of shoppers’ behavior, but may demand additional resources.

Combining each model’s strong suits builds a comprehensive and accurate attribution puzzle that tells a story. As stated by data-driven marketing attribution expert Jörn Grunert, “Effective marketing requires a holistic view. To successfully establish marketing attribution in a company, silos must be dissolved, and teams merged.

Dmytro Bilash
Product Manager
@ Paragone
“There are a couple of important challenges with attribution. Such as how can we measure conversion and CPA? This is problematic as, unfortunately, the social media platform native data often isn’t reliable. This is why accurate attribution is so important to making correct budget optimization decisions.”
The benefits of attribution.

When they are accurate and analyzed correctly, attribution strategies provide an impressive range of marketing insights:

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

Increased ROI

Accurate attribution provides data-backed insights into which specific campaign and channel provided the most value and ROI, without solely looking at the often misleading native metrics displayed on social media channels. This provides greater overall impact, and is invaluable in budgeting decisions.

The technology:
How Paragone makes life easier for digital marketers.

Digital marketing attribution software becomes marketers’ BFF by offering these advantages:

Clear insights

Attribution should lead to conclusions, not vague data you have to process and analyze for it to make sense. The chosen software must deliver these insights during every step of the journey, from the very first interaction to the final purchase.

Connecting the dots

Paragone’s attribution platform ties various behaviors on social media with marketing conversions to tell a story. This is a much deeper level of context that considers the logic behind customers’ choices, and is made possible thanks to AI.

Data structure

No matter which attribution model was chosen for a specific brand, the Paragone platform delivers information based on your attribution model preferences. In other words, the attribution software should always work with your chosen strategy, not the other way around.

Thanks to these capabilities, marketers who use Paragone can achieve the following goals:

Focusing on meaningful parameters

This includes measuring the actual revenue coming in from ad spend instead of relying solely on social media platform data which may be misleading. This can be done for cross-channel marketing activities, allowing an in-depth drill down.

Identifying reasons for underperformance

In addition to leads and sales, it’s important to track activities that didn’t yield the right results and campaigns that didn’t go as expected, so you can adjust your marketing budget accordingly and build a solid digital marketing strategy per channel.

Validate your budget decisions

Paragone enables you to easily identify difference between social media and Google Analytics data, all in a user-friendly interface that is easy to set up and edit as needed.

Digital marketing attribution is a fascinating world of options, advantages, and trials. Everything marketers need to succeed is within reach, it’s all a matter of making the right choices.

To learn more about the
recipe for attribution success,
download our eBook.

To learn more about the recipe for attribution success, download our eBook.

Not sure which is the most effective attribution model for your performance marketing?
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