How are you evaluating the value of your marketing materials? There are traditional methods and there are tomorrow’s methods. We’ll show you how to improve how you look at and analyze your data using multi-channel attribution.

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How do businesses traditionally rate the value of their marketing materials?

• Companies traditionally evaluate the value of their marketing materials by the warm and fuzzy metric of brand awareness. 
• They also tend to review engagement of select assets. This shows if a blog post or white paper, for example, performed well by earning views, clicks, comments, etc.
• They may also tend to look at attribution, but likely not in great detail. Perhaps they examine attribution equally or at first and last touch, which is somewhat helpful, but not granular enough to understand what’s really happening across the buyer journey. 

Why is this approach outdated?

• We have deep level insights into the many channels of marketing and can know which ones or combinations are outperforming with our particular audience target along their individual buyer’s journey. Marketing is no longer about one asset or one campaign, but the whole suite of marketing activities and how they impact an organization’s revenue. 
• Data has removed much of the guesswork from marketing. We can objectively know the quality of our campaigns, for example, by looking at open rates, click-through rates, and conversion percentages.  
• ROI - We can know on a granular level how much what we pay for delivers in revenue. This is wonderful news for marketers because it empowers us to be able to show how we are directly impacting revenue.

What is multi-channel attribution?

• Multi-channel attribution in marketing defines how marketers and organizations assess the value (specifically the ROI) of the different channels that connect them to potential customers.
• These channels may include, for example, paid media, website conversions, organic growth, a specific email marketing campaign, public relations, etc.

What are some multi-channel attribution models can you start using today?

• Linear - Gives equal credit to each and every marketing touchpoint
• Time Decay - Gives equal credit to each marketing touchpoint but diminishes credit to touchpoints the further back in time they occurred.
• U-Shaped - Gives credit to marketing touchpoints that occurred first and last. So, this model measures the first asset that attracted a potential customer and the last asset that converted the audience member to a customer.

What are some downsides to be aware of?

• • It’s important to be cautious of certain marketing activities that could accidentally skew data in a direction that may actually be an outlier event. These might include bot website traffic, enhanced email open rates that are due to firewall security or a spelling mistake in your subject line, an atypical client revenue gain, mislabeling, false date ranges, mis-correlations, etc.
  • Measurement - Every marketing asset and campaign must be tied to a data source in order to capture a complete picture of what’s happening. If this is not the case, your team will be reviewing data that will likely not be accurate.

What are some multi-attribution services worth using?

• Adjust - With a focus on mobile marketing, Adjust provides insight to the user’s entire journey and how behaviors compare across cohort audiences. Adjust tracks mobile, mobile web, in-app ads, TV, OTT, and organics. (*OTT = over-the-top. This includes live streaming channels like Netflix)
• Appsflyer - Delivers real-time performance analytics that delivers all campaigns and audience segments in a unified dashboard.  Appsflyer offers customized solutions for a variety of industries: ecomm, health, food and bev, financial services, etc.
• Attribution - For B2B and B2C organizations, Attribution automates data collection, builds custom attribution models, manages affiliate marketing channels, and delivers actionable reporting with intuitive dashboards.

Learn More About Smart Data Reporting:

• Effective Data Reporting Requires Storytelling. Here’s Where to Start.
• Data Worth Tracking for Top-of-Funnel Audiences
• Data Worth Tracking for Middle-of-Funnel Audiences
• Data Worth Tracking for Bottom-of-Funnel Audiences

Check Out Our Podcast for More Growth-Focused Discussions

This content is from a recent episode of Growth Marketing for Martians, a podcast dedicated to discussing tomorrow's business growth tips -today!

Hosted by Rogelio Rodriguez and Jeff Lambert, these marketing Martians share an intergalactic love for learning and sharing with other podcast space travelers.

Tune in for new episodes each week! Until then, keep reaching for the stars!