Marketing Attribution: How To Measure The Effect Of Marketing On Sales

Published on: 2022-2-14

The success of your business depends on its ability to grow in revenues and sales. Have you been thinking of how to grow your business and take it to the next level? If so, Marketing is the best way to sell your brand, convert your customers to a sale and grow. Keep in mind that the business world is changing, and so are the modern customer's behaviours. Today's customers engage with different companies before making the final buying decision.

So, how does your digital marketing campaign personalize your customer's buying journey? Suppose you convert them into sales; which channels do you assign credit to?

Marketing attribution is the process of giving credit to a consumer's interactions. It involves knowing the value of the channels that influence them to buy your brand. As a marketer, your work is to identify these channels then pick a suitable campaign. Next, customize and alter the campaign to meet your consumers' needs to drive sales. After that, measure the effectiveness of your chosen campaigns. Finally, divide the budget to each campaign, and watch your marketing ROI improve.

Marketing Attribution Models

Assume you know your consumers, how do you measure, and pick the most effective channel? What adjustments will you make to your campaign to suit your desired need? Marketing attribution models are strategies you use to analyze and credit users' actions. The models have rules that dictate how Campaigns, group Ads, and keywords get credits. The designated credit depends on; Ad's placement, role, and time. The benefit of it is that you will get information about:

Ads that best convert your customers to sales.
The model that suits your business needs best.
How to reach your consumers and convert them quickly.
Which keywords optimize your site for more traffic and sales.
The criteria used in distributing commission and credit to each channel.
Finally, how to conduct online marketing and the cost.

This is where Google, Facebook, Youtube, Email, In-App, In-Games, PPC, Pinterest, Reddit, etc. Ads come in. They are digital advertising for optimizing or promoting your business. In summary, these Ads assist you in Campaigning, starting, and completing conversion actions. The Conversions include Phone calls, Lead, Sale, Sign up, App Install, Store visits, etc.

Online Ads Attribution Modeling Matters

Using Attribution models for your online marketing campaign may take time to pay off. But if you do it effectively, you will reap many benefits, some of which include:

You will understand how to maximize Ad groups, Campaigns, keywords for conversions.
Besides, you also get to control the credit distribution. The best way to do it is by determining the campaign, Ad Group, and Keywords that suit your business needs.
In the Epsilon poll, 90% of respondents found brand personalization attractive. Another 80% say they are more likely to buy from companies with a personalized experience. Customized campaigns help you reach the right consumer leading to more conversions/sales.
You will know the touchpoints with the most conversions. This helps you choose the most effective Ad groups, campaigns, and keywords for your brand. As a result, you will get value for your investment.

Types Of Marketing Attribution Models

Attribution models fall into two major groups: Rule-based and Algorithmic attribution models. Let's look at each of them, their pros, cons, and differences.

Rules-Based Attribution Models

This category assigns Conversion clicks to Ads based on specific rules. Examples of this model include:

First click. The first Ad clicked, and its corresponding keywords take all the credit. It is easy to install and best suited for new brands that want to create brand awareness. But, it fails to recognize the consumer's other interactions after that. Hence it downplays the effectiveness of other channels.
Last click. It gives credit to the last Ad and keyword that led to the conversion. It disregards any other contribution made before the last click. The model is fit for fast-moving consumer goods without consideration to consumer's interactions.
Time decay. Assigns more credit to the ads clicked by the buyer closer to the conversion time. Thus, a click on the conversion day gets a 50% credit. At the same time, the consumer's other interactions take 25% credit each if they are two. It works for time-sensitive promotional campaigns to understand the customer's behaviour. However, its setback includes minimizing the effect of the top-of-the-funnel marketing techniques.
Linear. This model divides credit among all the customer's inner interactions leading to conversion. If the touchpoints are three, each gets a 33%credit. It provides the most balanced marketing strategy, giving equal importance to all actions. Even so, it doesn't outline the most effective plan that stands out.
Position-based / U-shaped. It gives prominence to two touchpoints; the prospect's initial and last interaction. So, the first and the last keywords will share 80%, i.e., 40% each. The ad clicked in the conversion paths gets the remaining 20%. It favours businesses with many interactions but only focuses on giving credits to two.

Algorithmic Attribution Models

Here, you will assign credit to Ads based on a particular algorithm. An example of this model is :

Data-Driven. Uses a predictive algorithm to forecast a customer's ability to complete a sale. It Maps out a user's buying history and behaviour with precision. It then distributes the credit among touchpoints using its Intelligent Algorithm. The model integrates a consumer's interactions, awarding credit to touchpoint leading to conversion. Unfortunately, it only suits businesses with large accounts.

Selecting channels is a significant action to successful digital marketing campaigns. So, how do you know if they are productive? Tracking websites metrics is crucial to identifying valuable channels and traffic sources. It tells you your consumer's interests, how they access it, and the media to invest in.

How Does Website Tracking Work?

First, ensure you have a tracking platform for your website metric. Many solutions offer easy to set-up plugins for common CMS platforms, like WordPress. Otherwise, you will need some basic HTML skills. Having in-house engineers will make this easier but is far from necessary. Next, get to know the components that lead to the realization of a tracking's potential. Some of them are:

Tracker Scripts. A piece of code responsible for generating and recording events based on visitors' behaviour.
Tracking Pixel. Similar to tracker script but without executing additional code in the visitor's browser. Not capable of tracking complex user interactions.
Cookies. It is possible to track browsing behaviour via cookies, tiny bits of information stored in visitors' browsers.
Data Layer. Organizes metadata such as product's category, price, ID. Later, it sends it back to an analytical platform, thus giving you an idea of what's happening.

What's The Importance Of Website Tracking In Online Marketing?

If you decide to install website tracking for your campaign, it is best to put it into practice. By starting to analyze your website visitors today, you will realize that you can:

Know who your visitors are, their locations, and their perception of your brand. This helps you optimize traffic sources, improving your strategies and user experience.
It guides your campaign by giving you an overview of where to invest for more benefits.
Finally, have a planned campaign because you'll focus on leads that convert to sales.

You can easily and effectively track your website traffic with Wide Angle Analytics.

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