For digital marketers, knowing how your audience interacts with campaigns is crucial. Understanding the user journey means you can adjust your campaigns to improve their effectiveness and improve engagement. An attribution model helps marketers better understand the various touch points in a campaign is called an attribution model.
Attribution models allow you to analyze campaign effectiveness, showing exactly where and how your target market is using your campaigns and websites. They are designed to highlight which touchpoints in a customer journey contribute to conversions.
Amongst the various attribution models available, the linear attribution model provides a clear, balanced approach by assigning equal credit to each touchpoint.
In this article, we’ll go into what exactly the linear attribution model is, when it’s necessary to use it, and the benefits it offers.
What Is A Linear Attribution Model?
A linear attribution model allocates the same level of credit to each touchpoint of a customer interaction before the conversion takes place. So, if your customer first encounters your brand through an ad before visiting the website, then signs up for the newsletter, or clicks on a follow-up email, each step will be attributed with an equal share of the credit for an eventual conversion.
This is different from other attribution models, such as data-driven or first-click/last-click attribution, which assigns credit to just that one touchpoint (the first or last-click).
The linear attribution model provides a much more holistic view of the customer journey by giving deeper insight into the interaction with each touchpoint before making a purchase. Spreading this credit between each touchpoint, rather than just one specific click, allows you to analyze omnichannel engagement.
When To Use A Linear Attribution Model
The linear attribution model is most effective when:
- Each touchpoint is significant: You may consider each engagement valuable. The linear attribution model allows you to analyze each touchpoint equally.
- There are long customer journeys: If you have a lengthy sales cycle with various engagement opportunities, the linear model provides a balanced view of the value of each touchpoint.
- Running nurturing-focused campaigns: Campaigns involving multiple steps — such as drip campaigns or retargeting — would benefit from a linear attribution model. This style reveals how the customer is engaged with each touchpoint in the journey.
Using omnichannel strategies: If you’re creating a consistent experience across various channels, from social media to email, the linear attribution model can evaluate the effectiveness of each touchpoint.
How Does The Linear Attribution Model Calculate Costs?
As we’ve previously discussed, each touchpoint of a linear attribution model receives an equal portion of ‘credit’ for the eventual conversion. To calculate the costs, you would divide the total conversion value by the number of touchpoints the customer engaged with prior to the purchase.
Example of a linear attribution model
Let’s say that a customer has interacted with five different marketing channels — such as a social media ad, a newsletter, a website visit, a display ad, and then a retargeting ad — all before making a purchase. Each channel will be credited with 20% of the conversion value. Setting this allocation means you’re able to see which channels are particularly helpful at delivering conversions and producing a high return on investment (ROI) for your business.
Benefits Of A Linear Attribution Model
There are many benefits to utilizing a linear attribution model. Here, we’ll go through a few:
Data-driven decisions
Offering an equal distribution of credit amongst the various touchpoints allows you to make informed decisions that are backed by data. The linear attribution model highlights a comprehensive view of your customer’s interactions with various campaigns, which can help when identifying where you should focus budgets.
This is especially helpful with programmatic campaigns, where you’re publishing ads across multiple screens alongside other marketing strategies. By knowing which particular touchpoint is driving more engagement, you’re able to tweak and amend ads and campaigns to better target customers.
Clear customer journey viewpoint
A linear attribution model provides a clear view of your customer’s journey before making a conversion. Giving each touchpoint an equal weighting within the journey gives a balanced view of how the various channels contribute to conversions, allowing you to see which channels contribute to more conversions.
Improved return on investment
A linear attribution model can provide you with a better ROI by highlighting the effectiveness of each channel — and not just the ones at the start or end of your customer journey. Analyzing data behind each channel makes optimization opportunities within the journey easy to spot, potentially increasing the number of conversions and improving your cost efficiency.
Having a clear understanding of how your ads are performing allows you to optimize them in real time. This is especially helpful alongside automated bidding strategies, such as programmatic ads, as you’re able to drive conversions at the same cost-per-acquisition. This can help you increase sales without compromising too much budget, improving your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Consistent engagement
This model is best suited for businesses that are focused on providing consistent customer engagement, as it highlights each channel equally. This allows you to carefully strategize the customer journey in order to focus on creating a solid customer experience and relationship.
Strategic planning
Analyzing the data gleaned from a linear attribution model allows you to carefully strategize and streamline the customer journey. Effective channels are highlighted within the data, ensuring that you’re able to drive resources to the touchpoints that are performing well, while optimizing any channels that aren’t driving as many conversions.
Constantly maintaining and tweaking the customer journey allows you to optimize each channel so it performs as best as it can, driving customer engagement and conversions.
Setting Up Linear Attribution With Grapeseed Media
Using a linear attribution model alongside programmatic ads, you’re able to create targeted and effective campaigns that drive engagement among your customers. This can help generate conversions, leading to a higher ROI.
If you’re looking to get started with tracking campaigns with a linear attribution model, Grapeseed Media has you covered. Our programmatic professionals are experts at strategizing and managing campaigns with customized tracking solutions to provide clear, actionable insights.
Get in touch with our team to find out more.
