How can you measure marketing attribution across multiple devices?

1 Understand your customer journey

The first step to measure marketing attribution across multiple devices is to map out your customer journey and understand how your target audience moves from awareness to purchase. You need to identify the key stages, goals, actions, and triggers that influence your customer's behavior and preferences. You also need to determine the most relevant and effective marketing channels and touchpoints for each stage, such as email, social media, web, mobile, or offline. This will help you define your attribution model and metrics, and align them with your business objectives.

2 Choose an attribution model

An attribution model is a set of rules that determines how much credit each marketing channel and touchpoint receives for a conversion or a sale. There are different types of attribution models, such as last-click, first-click, linear, time-decay, or position-based, that vary in how they distribute the credit among the marketing touchpoints. You need to choose an attribution model that reflects your customer journey and your marketing strategy, and that allows you to compare the performance and ROI of your marketing channels and campaigns across different devices.

3 Use cross-device tracking tools

Cross-device tracking is the ability to identify and link the same user across multiple devices and platforms, such as desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or smart TV. Cross-device tracking enables you to measure marketing attribution more accurately and holistically, as you can capture the full customer journey and the interactions that lead to a conversion or a sale. However, cross-device tracking can be complex and challenging, as it requires the use of different methods and tools, such as cookies, device IDs, email addresses, or login data, to match and track users across devices. You need to use cross-device tracking tools that are reliable, compliant, and scalable, and that integrate with your analytics and marketing platforms.

4 Analyze and optimize your marketing performance

Once you have set up your attribution model and cross-device tracking tools, you need to analyze and optimize your marketing performance across different devices and platforms. You need to use data and insights to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing channels and campaigns, and to identify the best practices and opportunities for improvement. You also need to test and experiment with different marketing tactics and strategies, such as personalization, segmentation, retargeting, or cross-selling, to enhance your customer experience and increase your conversions and sales.

5 Communicate and align your marketing attribution

The final step to measure marketing attribution across multiple devices is to communicate and align your marketing attribution with your stakeholders and teams. You need to share and report your marketing attribution data and insights in a clear, consistent, and actionable way, and to use common definitions and standards for your attribution model and metrics. You also need to align your marketing attribution with your business goals and budget, and to use it as a tool to optimize your marketing operations and ROI. By communicating and aligning your marketing attribution, you can foster collaboration, accountability, and transparency among your marketing teams and partners.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?