IMPORTANCE OF LEAD ATTRIBUTION

WHAT IS LEAD ATTRIBUTION?

Modern brands focus on the customers. It is more about listening to your customer rather than speaking. You listen not to bow but to connect and build customer ‘s loyalty. A customer can have hundreds of interactions with the brand before they actually come for the first purchase. A number of touch points like social media, influencer’s review and other brand campaigns influence their decision to make a purchase.

All these interactions impact the brand’s strategies to maximize their ROI. Lead attribution asses all the channels and resources that maximize the sales opportunities. It helps the marketers in tracking the customer’s journey and visualizing the ROI applicable to each checkpoint in the process.

?A JOURNEY TO A PURCHASE

Understanding a customer’s journey helps the marketers in deciding where credit should be given in a conversion path. Think of it like mapping a customer’s journey from a sales perspective.

• A customer come across an article while browsing around your SEO website. Reads about your products in that article and moves around a little on your website.
• The customer is fascinated by your website and is now following your social medias platforms including Instagram and Facebook. But is not yet ready to trust you and make a purchase.
• Becomes occupied by other things, but still thinks about making a purchase from your website time to time. Is also routinely checking the reviews of influencers and other customers about the products.
• By this time the customer has gained a familiarity with your brand’s name and after doing some final research decides to make a purchase.

This was only a four-step journey. Familiarizing with brand is the initial step on a conversion journey. It takes place through multiple mediums including advertising, reviews, social media and even words of mouth from other customers. Younger customers are more likely to research and compare brands for shopping as they more familiar with the technology. Building trust with the customer is the priority in determining the attribution strategy in order to give a snapshot of ROI for your business.

Connecting with your customers and carefully considering their needs by letting them voice their concerns is a big step in making repeat customers. Customers mostly trust the opinion of their peers, mostly friends or family while making a purchase. Rewarding repeat customers for brand loyalty and actively pursuing influencers to seek out positive messages for your brand helps getting new customers your way.

But the question is which type of lead attribution is to be assigned for the above-mentioned steps and which step according to you deserved the credit for producing the sale?

LAST CLICK

Last Click is a popular attribution model in which the last “touchpoint” or “click” is credited for sale or conversion. A web analytics system detects the source that brought someone to your website, and led them to a purchase. This model basically credits that specific source. But should that “last click” be given all the credit?

For instance, if person had already decided to finally make a purchase which involved a number of steps and frequent visits to your website before they came and actually made that purchase. So, the last click cannot entirely be credited for a purchase and it might not be the most useful model for providing accuracy in lead attribution.

?FIRST CLICK

This attribution model credits the very first channel that caught someone’s eye and made them click through. This model is designed to credit the first interaction a potential customer has with your brand. This model is greatly effectual to evaluate the channels through which people are learning about your brand.

Even though the “first click” made them learn about your brand, got them interested but did it lead them to a purchase right away? That might not always be the case so, not the best model for pinpointing the lead attribution.

LINEAR

In this model, each step or touchpoint before a purchase is credited equally, from the first interaction with the brand to the last step before making the purchase. This model is perfect when there are only a few steps before the final purchase. But if the customer makes frequent visits to the website, does a thorough research then finally makes the purchase then it involves several touchpoints that eventually lead the customer towards the sale and all these points cannot be credited equally. Perhaps this model works best when there are only a few touchpoints.

TIME DECAY

This attribution model gives most credit to the last touchpoint which gradually decreases towards the initial touchpoints, with the least credit to the first channel of interaction. The concept behind this model is that the first interaction only made the customer learn about the brand. The interest in the brand however grew overtime with frequent exposure through various channels with each step increasing the level of interest. This model is very convenient for understanding the complete conversion path before the sale.

POSITION BASED

This model acknowledges the most important touchpoints in the customer conversion journey that include first interaction of the brand and last touchpoint before making the final purchase, while still recognizing all the steps between first and last click. The 40% credit is assigned to the first and last touchpoint each and rest of the steps are credited 20%. But this model may not work best in every case for example the reason that brought a customer back time and again might be rebranding or remarketing. In this case the midpoints deserve more than 20% credit. So, it is not applicable in every situation.

OTHER MODELS

There are a number of models that are more suitable in one case or the other. However, the most useful models include the following.

The Data Driven Attribution Model, in this model the data is assessed through algorithm to credit the touchpoint which is most impactful in producing sale of the brand.

However, W-shaped Model is similar to Position Based model with addition of heavier credit to opportunity point, the point which is creating more impact in conversion journey. The first and last click with opportunity point is credited 30% each and 10% credit is distributed in the remaining steps of conversion path.

The Full Path Attribution Model is basically the W-shaped model with the addition of more midpoints to assess the efficacy of remarketing of a brand.

WHAT'S THE BEST MODEL?

There is not single model that can be considered best and is applicable to every case and scenario. Different brands require different marketing strategies and hence different attribution models. A brand which is relied on SEO- based content creation requires a different model than a brand that is less focused on content creation for lead generation.

Likewise, a brand that has hundreds of different products need a strategy that involves brining more traffic to the website in contrast to a business that only deals with a few high-end products and is focused more on their valued customers by keeping the customer communication ongoing.

In conclusion, a model works best according to the marketing strategy of the business that is designed according to how small or large a business and its goals are, its products, customer base etc. That’s why lead attribution can be difficult unless you take consultancy from an experienced marketing agency.

GETTING STARTED

Taking consultancy with an experienced marketing agency that specializes in the lead attribution is the way to go. They will create a marketing strategy best suitable for your business and will also choose the model that works best for your brand. It will help you reach your goals and expand your business as well. Not only that, the agency will educate you for the attribution model and with the passage of time you will become experienced yourself.

HOW IT ALL FITS INTO A BUSINESS

The attribution model holds its importance in the marketing strategy of a business because it assesses the ROI of each aspect involved in the marketing strategy. Moreover, it creates a way out of the possible shortcomings while focusing on the strengths. ?The marketing strategy will also create a budgeting strategy and sales structure according to you and your brand that will expand your sales and prosper your business. After the development of a marketing strategy, the attribution model of choice will focus more on the areas that require more work in the conversion journey of your sale products. ?

The purpose behind creating the best marketing strategy and choosing best attribution model is to get most ROI out of your business. You can test what marketing elements bring you the most ROI from your business by comparing different elements among different groups and then you can choose the one bringing the most ROI. Even if there are more than 1 marketing elements creating the most ROI then you can utilize the combination of these elements in your marketing strategy and customize it according to your business.

Moreover, it analyzes the audience around your brand and the way they choose to spend money, the touchpoints that bring them closer to a purchase. This will help you create a community strategy specifically focused on these audiences. These are the people that will not only spend more but also will bring more traffic and sale to the brand. Understanding the community is the most crucial part of the attribution model.?