Creating marketing strategies relies on strategic thinking, careful planning, and data analysis to understand what works and what doesn’t. But in an increasingly online world, this level of data analysis is even more crucial. Being able to fully understand your customer journey is the key to campaign success. But how do you do that?
Traditional attribution models are typically less reliable when measuring the impact of multiple interactions with potential customers. This is where data driven attribution (DDA) comes into play. This attribution model provides a deeper, more nuanced understanding of assigning value across the various stages of the customer journey.
Here, we’ll go into detail about what data driven attribution is, how it works, and the benefits it provides for your strategies.
What Is Data Driven Attribution?
Data driven attribution is a technically advanced approach to marketing attribution which relies on algorithms and data to analyze and evaluate the customer journey. It assigns ‘credit’ to the various touchpoints, based on the contribution to conversion.
Unlike traditional attribution models — which rely on rules such as first-click or last-click — data driven attribution uses historical data and machine learning to better understand a sequence of events or interactions, as well as their importance in achieving a conversion or sale.As mentioned in The Adtech Book by Clearcode, attribution “allows advertisers and marketers to make improvements to their campaigns by understanding which touchpoints are working and which ones aren’t.” A data driven approach provides clarity on what’s working well and where marketers should be placing their focus.
How does the data driven attribution model work?
Imagine your customer sees a display ad for your product, then clicks on a social media post, visits your website, and finally receives an email offering them a special discount, which leads them to making a purchase.
A traditional attribution model like last-click would give all the credit for the conversion to the email. On the other hand, a linear attribution model would split all the credit equally between the display ad, social media post, website session, and the email. However, the reality is that each touch point plays a different, crucial role in guiding the customer to the website and nurturing their interest.
Data driven attribution models take the entire sequence of interactions into account, assigning each with a credit based on its overall contribution to the final conversion. These credits are based on unique pattern observation and data analysis, ensuring an accurate representation of the customer journey.
For example, the display ad might receive 30% of the credit, due to it being the brand awareness efforts that led to the social media post and website visit (25% and 20%, respectively). Finally, the email would then be attributed with 25% credit, giving a better understanding of the customer journey.
Benefits Of Data Driven Attribution
A data driven approach brings with it a number of advantages. Here, we’ll go through the key benefits.
Improved ROI through better resource allocation
By understanding how your audience interacts with touchpoints, you’ll be able to effectively allocate your resources, ensuring that you’re boosting your ROI and audience engagement.
For example, if your data shows that social media ads are driving high-quality leads, you’ll be able to shift your budget and focus on boosting these ads to strengthen engagement.
With this type of attribution, you can manage your budget, focusing the money on what’s driving conversions to reduce wasteful spending.
Deeper insights into customer journeys
Traditional attribution models are focused on linear paths, without considering the often complex research and shopping activities that customers usually take. By capturing each touchpoint in the user journey, you can better understand where and how customers interact with your brand, digging deeper into what drives engagement — and where you might be losing them.
This allows you to create a more personalized and effective approach, that’s tailored to your target audience which, in turn, boosts conversion rates.
Enhanced marketing performance and optimization opportunities
Having more granular insights into how well each marketing channel is performing provides you with the opportunity to optimize your strategy and improve overall marketing performance. Data driven attribution means that you can quickly shift gears if certain touchpoints aren’t working as well as you’d hoped. By refining your targeting efforts, you can construct better campaigns that deliver tangible results.
Best Practices For Implementing Data Driven Attribution
If you’re looking to get the most out of a data driven attribution strategy, it’s a good idea to follow some best practice tips. Here are our handy steps to consider:
Start with clean and comprehensive data
Making the most out of data driven attribution means you need accurate, complete data. Properly tracking each touchpoint ensures that credit is correctly assigned throughout the customer journey. With clean and accurate data, you’ll be equipped to make informed decisions that optimize your marketing strategy.
Integrate with attribution platforms
To make the most out of data driven attribution, you need to be appropriately integrated with an analytics platform. Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are examples of platforms you can use to clearly see the customer journey and gain actionable insights. Both provide detailed, real-time performance reports, allowing you to shift strategies quickly and efficiently, so you’re always gaining the most return on your investments.
Regularly evaluate and adjust for changes
Consumer behaviour is constantly evolving and it’s crucial that you’re agile enough to respond to these changes. By regularly assessing the data gathered from your attribution models, you’ll be able to ensure that your marketing strategy remains accurate and relevant.
Address and react to challenges
Despite the many benefits provided by data driven attribution, there are still some challenges that you’ll need to be aware of — and respond to. One of the most common challenges associated with this type of attribution is managing data silos. This is when data is isolated within different systems or departments.
You can prevent this from happening by keeping your data in one central location, which will also give you a comprehensive view of the entire customer journey.
Another challenge to be aware of is ensuring that you’re tracking across multiple devices. Audiences are increasingly using multiple devices that can supply them with ads for your business — and you need to be aware of which devices and ads drive the most success. Implementing cross-device tracking can improve the accuracy of your customer journey.
Get Started With Data Driven Attribution With Grapeseed
As we’ve discussed in this article, data driven attribution is a very powerful tool for marketers who are looking for maximum returns on campaigns. By implementing the right approach and strategies, you’ll gain valuable insights into your customers’ journeys and be able to optimize your strategies appropriately.
If you’re interested in taking your marketing efforts to the next level with data driven attribution, but you’re not sure where to start, we’re happy to help. Our team of programmatic navigators are here to guide you — whether you’re just getting started or if you’re looking for ways to refine your current approach.
Get in touch with our team to find out more, or contact our GrapeBot for guidance.
