How do you know what works or doesn't work with your marketing? Start by identifying the role of each touchpoint throughout the customer journey. Once you know what the customer journey looks like, marketing attribution can help you optimize your digital campaigns.
Marketing attributionIn general, it divides the value of an online sale (or a conversion) and distributes it among the touchpoints that made the sale, from a display ad viewed last month to a search ad with a click received that same morning.
The Customer Journey
The customer journey is one of the key elements to improve the customer satisfaction. Helps identify areas of improvement in the customer life cycle.
Blogger Frédéric Canevet has listed 8 tools to create the customer journey in his article “Customer Journey Mapping Software (Customer Journey Software)” on his Comparison CRM blog. One of them is Uxpressia:
Uxpressia helps create the customer journey. It is simple to use and looks like an Excel file. We can add columns, lines, quotes, images, etc...
The Attribution Journey
You attract visitors to your site to convert them into customers. But this process needs more than one visit. During this time, you send various messages to visitors through different channels. The marketing manager must be able to understand:
- The role
- nesting
Of these different marketing channels in the conversion. Only then can you optimize your investments.
Franck Scandolera helps us use Google Analytics to optimize our attribution in his article “Google Analytics – Conversion Attribution Model” on his Web Analytics Training Analytics blog. He explains Google Analytics “multi-channel funnels” reporting. These are generated from conversion paths: sets of interaction that precede a conversion, for example clicks or links to your website.
These multi-channel funnel reports can help you determine:
- How marketing channels work together to create conversions.
- How much time has passed between visitors' initial interest and their purchase.
- What role did referral sites, natural search, or ads play in a conversion?
- How to assign conversions to a marketing channel.
Google Analytics outlines these conversion paths in the “Most Common Conversion Paths” report like this:
These channels have a default name. For example:
- “Commercial links”
- “Natural search results”
- “Reference site”
- "Social network "
- "Direct access"
The 6 steps to optimize your marketing attribution
Remember that you must also properly evaluate each touchpoint for each channel. Attribution can be done with spreadsheets, statistical modeling software, or even a more sophisticated algorithm. No matter what attribution method you choose for your business, continue to adapt and measure results to see what works for your business. It is the best way to benefit from your calculations and your marketing.
Learn about the Conversion Course for your Company
1. Ask yourself the following questions:
What is the wait time for a typical conversion? - Hours? - Days? - Weeks?
What channels influence your customers? – Do you measure them all?
Do you understand the role that each channel plays in your customers' purchasing decision process?
2. Highlight your attribution problem
Start by comparing your base model (often the last-click model) with other models (such as data-driven mappings). Please note the deviation. If the deviation is small, the problem is probably not serious. If the deviation is large, you might have a bigger challenge (and more opportunities).
3. Don't let organizational silos embarrass you.
Make sure your attributions cover all the marketing channels your customers may encounter.
4. Consider offline channels, the journey and their interactions with your online medium
5. Take advantage of the savings of omnichannel stops
For example, use display campaigns to retarget your customers to cheaper keywords.
6. Attribution between devices can be a technological challenge, but don't let that stop you
The benefits of attribution
When you change your attribution model, you can gain a lot.
The 3 questions you should ask yourself
- Do I measure and evaluate all my touch points with my customers, and within my channels, and across my channels?
- What does the complete customer journey to conversions look like for my company?
- Do I use attribution results to improve my investment decisions and messages to my clients?
