Liam Anderson
Designer, Photographer, and Director in Malmesbury, United Kingdom
Attribution Model Digital Marketing
Digital marketing agency - Digital Marketers use Attribution Models to assign value to the different digital marketing channels and how much has led to the conversion target on their website.
It is not enough to say the last ad channel the user saw before converting was the sole reason for buying and therefore the cost per acquisition was simply the cost of that ad airing (the Single Touch model). For each user journey to conversion there are likely to be several channels, ads and site mentions seen by the user before his/her enters the website and converts, including remarketing advertising after the user leaves.
Each of these ads and site mentions needs to have a value assigned so that the cost per acquisition metric calculations are more accurate, ROI is correctly measured and marketers have the right data to decide going forward the opimal mix of marketing activitiy to maximise revenue and future growth.
So let's explore Attribution Models in more detail and look at recent developments in this field.
Single versus Multi Touch Attribution Models (MTAs)
Single Touch Attribution Models simply give 100% of the credit for a conversion either on first click or last click, or sometimes the mid click in the user journey. Multi Touch looks at more of the journey of ads the user experiences. But different models of Multi Touch assign values differently:
- Linear attribution: Gives equal credit to each and every touchpoint
- Time-decay attribution: Assigns more credit to touchpoints closer to conversion
- U-shaped (position-based) attribution: Emphasizes first and last touchpoints
- W-shaped attribution: Highlights first, middle, and last touchpoints
- Algorithmic (data-driven) attribution: Uses machine learning to determine credit distribution
Which MTA to use?
It's an interesting question, and will ultimately be driven by the nature of the user's behaviour and the products/services being offered by the company.
But how do marketeers know accurately which model to use?
With the growth of AI and improvements to data processing techniques, more are turning to the Algorithmic model option, using data processing techniques to understand what is driving the biggest conversion successes and the optimum mix of ad creatives, spends, mixes of channels etc.