Media Attribution: Understand the concept and avoid the most common mistakes
Media attribution is a practice that helps companies evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. It is a process that aims to understand and assign the correct value to each marketing channel used in a campaign. The aim is to determine which channels are most effective in generating conversions and thus optimize companies’ resources and efforts to obtain the best return on investment (ROI).
In the past, attribution was often given only to the last channel the customer interacted with before making a conversion, be it a purchase, filling in a form or other desired action. However, this simplified attribution model doesn’t always reflect the complexity of the consumer’s decision-making process and can lead to misguided resource allocation decisions.
We know that there are dozens of points of contact that occur between the user and the brand or product until the purchase decision is made. Correctly attributing the weight of that touchpoint in the customer journey is fundamental so that media decisions can be made more assertively.
Today, marketing professionals recognize the importance of a more comprehensive approach to media attribution. Attributing value to each touchpoint the customer has with the brand throughout their journey is key to understanding how each channel contributed to the final conversion. This involves an in-depth structure for tracking and analyzing customer interactions on various channels over time, such as emails, social networks, organic search, website visits, paid ads and even offline ads.
There are different pre-defined attribution models that can be implemented in your business, such as last click, first click, data driven, among many others, each with its advantages and disadvantages. To learn more about these models, we recommend reading this article: The First Steps to Media Attribution.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Media attribution is a fundamental part of modern digital marketing. It allows companies to understand how different channels and tactics contribute to the success of their campaigns, helping them to target investments more effectively. However, even with advances in technology and data analysis, many companies still make common mistakes that undermine their media attribution efforts. That’s why here are some of the most common mistakes made when building an attribution vision and some tips on how to avoid them.
1. Ignoring the Complexity of the Customer Journey
One of the most frequent flaws in media attribution is oversimplifying the customer journey. Attributing all conversions to the first or last click, for example, can underestimate the impact of channels and interactions that were present earlier in the journey. The customer journey tends to have a certain complexity, with multiple touchpoints before conversion.
To avoid the mistake of oversimplifying your journey, try to adopt more sophisticated attribution models that take into account all the touchpoints and their respective relevance in the user’s journey.
2. Failure to Segment Properly
Inadequate audience segmentation is an extremely common problem when it comes to media attribution. If segmentation is not done correctly, it is likely that conversions will be wrongly attributed to channels that are of little relevance and had no real influence on the customer’s decision. It’s important to make sure that your audience is being segmented based on relevant criteria, such as behavior, number of touchpoints, location and demographics. This will allow for more accurate and efficient attribution.
3. Disregarding Data Integration
Data integration is a huge challenge for the marketing and media operation as a whole and therefore ends up being a very common mistake when it comes to media attribution. If the data from your online media campaigns isn’t integrated with your customer relationship management (CRM) system and other data sources relevant to understanding your user’s journey, you could miss out on valuable information about the customer lifecycle. Data integration is essential for a complete view and proper construction of the attribution model.
4. Failing to Monitor the Conversion Funnel
Companies often focus only on the final conversions and ignore the earlier stages of the conversion funnel. This can lead to an incomplete analysis of campaign performance by disregarding relevant touchpoints. Tracking all the stages of the funnel, from your customer’s first contact with the brand, is a very important process for understanding how each channel contributes to the progression of customers towards the final conversion.
5. Not Assigning the Right Value to Different Channels
Finally, the last mistake we brought up is related to the weight given to each channel within the journey. Assigning the same value to all channels can lead to distorted investment decisions. Ideally, the choice of attribution models should take into account the real impact of each channel on conversion and allocate resources accordingly, paying attention to the relevance that each has in your user’s choice and assigning them the weight measurement rules that make the most sense for your business.
How DP6 can help you
Attributing media effectively requires a careful and sophisticated approach. Avoiding common mistakes, such as simplifying the customer journey or failing to integrate data, is essential to making informed decisions and targeting your investments effectively. By adopting sound media attribution practices, your company will be better positioned to maximize ROI and achieve success in digital marketing campaigns.
DP6 is a consultancy specializing in marketing data analysis, which is why we can play an essential role in media attribution by helping companies choose the model best suited to their needs and objectives. In addition, we can also help you use advanced data analysis tools to collect and interpret the relevant information, providing valuable insights into the contribution of each marketing channel in your journey, as well as helping you build the entire data integration process and structure.
In short, media attribution is an essential practice for understanding the value of each marketing channel and making informed strategic decisions. By taking a comprehensive approach and considering the complexity of the customer journey, companies can optimize their marketing efforts and achieve more effective and successful results.
Profile of the Author: Jane Thais Oliveira | Bachelor of Science and Technology from the Federal University of Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys, Physics Engineering student also at UFVJM. Passionate about data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. She currently works as a Data Engineer at DP6.
Profile of the Author: Larissa Rangel | Undergraduate student in Textiles and Fashion at the University of São Paulo, working at DP6 as a Business Analytics intern.
