Does your campaign have the blues about ROI? Maybe it’s because of a misguided focus on attribution.
One of the easiest ways to get more sophisticated in a marketing campaign and in using analytic reports is to get past “last click” attribution - this is an assumption in which a referral source in an analytics solution is the only influence for a click that is recorded. So for example, a click from an email newsletter that leads a reader to an analytics-tagged website means that the email is the referral source.
But these days one channel is typically not the sole source of a website visit. Having a message appear on multiple platforms is the typical influence for a conversion action. There can be a sequence of visitor touch points to a conversion activity.
So consider the email example again - that reader may not click immediately to arrive to a website, but instead may additional view an ad in Twitter or receive a Facebook friend's shared article - either may remind the viewer to go back and click the email. So in that instance, what is the cause of the click?
An analytics solution can rate different channels as significant contributors to conversion goals, as opposed to last click attribution – the assumption that an action from one channel is the main contributor to conversions. This Inc article notes that value in determine marketing attribution within a marketing campaign.
Many marketers have "LCB" or Last click blues, due to struggling with applying multichannel marketing measurement. eMarketer noted how marketers are confused with establishing a ROI and associated metrics for multichannel marketing.
There are some aspects that a small business should maintain in building an understanding in attribution. The best is considering how analytics reporting differs. Reports in an paid search campaign (Adwords, Bing, Facebook) or a social media platform (Twitter Analytics, Pinterest pins report) are meant to analyze performance without the context of a website.
Google Analytics reports are meant to add website-related context to the data. An example would be a reveal if an ad influenced an increase in goal conversions on a website.
So to minimize the "LCB" blues, understand how your media platforms connect to your analytics tags and how those platforms appear in analytic reporting. AdWords accounts can be linked into Google Analytics (though connection with other analytic solutions are also valid). Ads for other platforms like the Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp ads mention can have tagged URLs, that appear something like this below:
http://www.your website.com?utm_src=linkedin&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=easter
Understanding these kinds of tags and how the are reported can help reveal clues in the multichannel reports in Google Analytics. Moreover, creating a tag has been made easier with tools such as the Google Tag Manager (Click on this link to learn more about implementing tags within Google Tag Manager).
For Adobe users, consider reviewing how its tag management system works in conjunction with Adobe Analytics. Adobe announced that it will integrate the tag management system into its Analytics solution.
Regardless of using Google or Adobe, understanding how to connect your media platform to your analytics can help bring better value from multichannel reports, and better understand where your dialogue with customers can take place.
