Regardless of your industry or sector, high quality marketing is key to your business’ development.
If your customers are continuously engaging with your business through effective marketing, you could see an increase in sales, thus improving your return on investment (ROI).
So how do you optimise this engagement through your marketing?
The answer: marketing attribution.
But what it is and how it can be used in your business?
Read on, to find out more, as we guide you through marketing attribution.
Marketing attribution explained
Marketing attribution is the highly important process of gathering and analysing data on every touchpoint in a customer journey, using detailed reports.
Through this you can see the volumes, outcomes, and quality of engagement at each one.
With this information, you can begin creating more effective marketing strategies, which provide the best touchpoints for lead and sales generation.
Clicking ads, opening emails, or calling your company are just some examples of the different ways a customer can interact with your business.
These touchpoints and detailed reports 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.
What are the different marketing attribution models?
Marketing attribution can be categorised into different models, each one providing emphasis on different aspects of a customer journey.
There are three main models used in marketing attribution:
- Last touch attribution
Last touch attribution focuses on only one touchpoint – the very last interaction a customer makes with your business.
By understanding this data, you can ensure the majority, if not all, of your customer journeys end with a purchase.
One final touchpoint could be a phone call, for example. In this case, you could consider something like call tracking, to improve the leads and sales generated by this touchpoint.
Call tracking software, and the reports you can access, can reveal the entire customer journey surrounding a phone call, as well as multiple keywords picked up in the conversation using speech analytics.
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.
- First touch attribution
First touch attribution, on the other hand, is designed to emphasise the very first touchpoint in a customer journey. This is the very first interaction a customer makes with your business.
This attribution model only focuses its analysis on this first touchpoint, and pays no attention to any other interactions.
This is ideal for understanding top-of-funnel behaviour, and seeing how to give the best introduction of your business to customers.
- Multi-touch attribution
Multi-touch attribution, provides data on each and every touchpoint in a customer journey.
This type of model is split into four different forms.
W-shaped model puts value on the first, middle and last touchpoints, with little consideration for the remainders. This is great for showing how effectively a customer is funnelled from their first touchpoint to their last.
Linear attribution provides equal data on every touchpoint. This helps to understand the whole customer journey, and how they’re engaging with your business, from the first touchpoint to the last.
U-shaped model puts higher value on the first and last touchpoints of a customer journey, with limited focus on the in-between. It can reveal what’s drawing customers in, and sealing the deal at the end of their journey.
Time decay attribution assigns the first touchpoint with the lowest value, and the final touchpoint having the highest value, increasing the value as the touchpoints progress.
For this model, as the journey moves along, the customer’s engagement becomes more pivotal to a sale. Refining this journey can help you improve your conversion rates and progressively entice customers.
Applying the correct attribution model to your business is crucial to the overall success of your marketing activity.
Achieving this goal will not only improve your ROI, but allow you to duplicate the process to provide more effective strategies for the future.