How to apply attribution

Marketing attribution, fractional attribution, or multi-touch attribution (MTA) are terms defining the same concept:

"The process of identifying a set of user touch points that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events."

The underlying methodology and algorithm, however, are not universally agreed upon. 

A philosophy 

There are multiple types of attribution models. An organization needs to decide which model to utilize and even within a model, there are more options which reduce the consistency.

Here are a few to consider: 

• First-touch

• Last-touch

• Equal distribution

• Position-weighted

• Decay model

• Algorithmic

The best I've seen thus far is where all touch points and the attributes within them (frequency, time of day, creative, publisher, etc...) which lead to a conversion and those that do not are evaluated. By looking at negative outcomes as well as positive ones, the algorithm can better pinpoint the value of that touch point.    

Getting buy-in

The concept of marketing attribution is not universally adopted. Some organizations are skeptical in how marketing is measured and the credit attributed to each touch point marketing claims.

Aligning with Finance can help if the team is willing to dig deep into how marketing efforts are being tagged and tracked, and understanding the methodology for assigning credit. 

Implementing a solution 

Once you've gotten buy-in, adoption is another hurdle. It requires metrics collection discipline and governance. If each marketing tactic is tracked and collected in separate systems, assigning credit will be impossible.  

You can leverage an ad server, utilize an attribution modeling company's third-party pixel to piggy back on all your tactics, or there are some newer technologies that provide this unified tracking platforms.  

To outsource or not

There are third parties that provide an out-of-the-box solution. Gartner has provided their assessment of the landscape in their Market Guide for Attribution and Marketing Mix Modeling. 

While a huge undertaking, if you have a robust data science discipline within your organization, it might be worth evaluating whether your internal resources have the skills and cycles to undertake the effort themselves. 

The outcome

Whatever route you take, you'll find that implementing a marketing attribution solution will aid in better understanding how your marketing affects the bottom line and can aid in budget allocations and decisions.