KPIs for Marketing

KPIs for Marketing: multi-touch attribution

Learn how to measure the success of your marketing campaigns with multi-touch attribution KPIs.

Marketing is constantly evolving and with new technologies come innovative ways to measure and optimize campaigns. Multi-touch attribution is a valuable marketing technique that can help businesses better understand which channels and campaigns are driving the most successful outcomes. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at multi-touch attribution and explore its benefits, the different models, and what KPIs to use for measuring success.

Understanding Multi-Touch Attribution

Before delving into the different metrics and methodologies related to multi-touch attribution, it's important to understand the concept itself.

Multi-touch attribution is a methodology of measuring a customer's journey through various touchpoints to determine how they were ultimately converted into a lead or sale. Rather than just attributing a conversion to the first or last touchpoint, as was traditional in single-touch attribution marketing models, multi-touch attribution takes into account every touchpoint along the customer's journey.

For example, let's say a customer first learns about a product through a social media ad, then visits the website through a Google search, and finally makes a purchase after receiving an email promotion. In a multi-touch attribution model, each of these touchpoints would be given credit for contributing to the sale, rather than just the last touchpoint (the email promotion) receiving all the credit.

What is the Benefit of Multi-Touch Attribution in Marketing?

Multi-touch attribution can provide business owners and marketers with a wealth of information that can help optimize marketing spend and drive better ROI. By understanding the customer journey and which touchpoints are most effective at driving conversions, businesses can make more informed decisions about where to allocate their marketing resources.

Some of the benefits of multi-touch attribution include:

  • Better understanding of customer behaviour: Multi-touch attribution allows businesses to gain insights into how customers interact with their brand across multiple channels and touchpoints. This information can be used to optimize marketing campaigns and improve the overall customer experience.
  • Insight into channel performance: By tracking the performance of different channels and touchpoints, businesses can identify which channels are driving the most conversions and adjust their marketing strategy accordingly.
  • Optimization of marketing spend: With a better understanding of which touchpoints are most effective at driving conversions, businesses can allocate their marketing budget more effectively, reducing waste and improving ROI.
  • Clarity on which tactics are driving ROI: Multi-touch attribution provides businesses with a clearer picture of which marketing tactics are driving the best return on investment, allowing them to focus their efforts on the most effective strategies.

Types of Multi-Touch Attribution Models

When it comes to multi-touch attribution models, there are several options to choose from, depending on your business needs. The most common models are:

  • Linear Attribution: This model attributes equal value to all touchpoints along the customer journey. This is a good option for businesses looking for a simple, straightforward approach to multi-touch attribution.
  • Time Decay Attribution: This model gives more weight to the touchpoints closer in time to the conversion. This is a good option for businesses that want to focus on the touchpoints that are most influential in driving conversions.
  • Position-based Attribution: In this model, the first and last touchpoints are given more credit, with the remaining touchpoints receiving less credit. This is a good option for businesses that want to focus on the touchpoints that are most influential in driving conversions, while still giving some credit to the touchpoints in the middle of the customer journey.
  • Algorithmic Attribution: This model uses machine learning algorithms to assign credit to touchpoints based on actual performance trends. This is a good option for businesses that want a more sophisticated approach to multi-touch attribution, as it allows for a more granular analysis of the customer journey.

Overall, multi-touch attribution is a valuable tool for businesses looking to gain a better understanding of their customers and optimize their marketing strategy for better ROI. By taking a more holistic approach to attribution, businesses can make more informed decisions about where to allocate their marketing budget and which tactics are most effective at driving conversions.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Multi-Touch Attribution

Multi-touch attribution is a powerful tool that allows businesses to better understand their customers' journey and make data-driven decisions. By tracking several key performance indicators (KPIs), businesses can monitor and measure the success of their marketing campaigns. Here are some essential KPIs to consider:

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is a crucial metric for determining the success of any marketing campaign. It measures the percentage of leads or sales generated from the total number of individuals that interacted with the campaign. A high conversion rate indicates that the campaign is effectively reaching and engaging with the target audience.

Businesses should track the conversion rate for each stage of the customer journey, from awareness to purchase. By doing so, they can identify areas where the campaign is underperforming and make necessary adjustments.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

The return on ad spend (ROAS) is a critical metric that measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. It is calculated as a ratio of revenue generated against advertising costs. A high ROAS indicates that the campaign is generating significant revenue for the business.

Businesses should track ROAS for each advertising channel and campaign. By doing so, they can identify which channels and campaigns are generating the most significant return on investment and allocate their advertising budget accordingly.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the amount of money spent on marketing and sales activities to acquire a new customer. It is essential to track CAC to ensure that the cost of acquiring a new customer doesn't outweigh the revenue generated.

Businesses should track CAC for each advertising channel and campaign. By doing so, they can identify which channels and campaigns are the most cost-effective for acquiring new customers.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total revenue a business can expect from a customer over the course of their relationship. It's important to consider CLV when tracking KPIs in multi-touch attribution because it can help businesses maximize the value of a customer.

Businesses should track CLV for each customer segment. By doing so, they can identify which segments are the most valuable and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.

Channel-Specific Metrics

Each marketing channel and campaign can have its specific metrics that are essential to track. For example, email marketing campaigns may track open rates and click-through rates, whereas a social media campaign may track engagement and shares.

Businesses should track channel-specific metrics for each advertising channel and campaign. By doing so, they can identify which channels and campaigns are the most effective for reaching and engaging with their target audience.

By tracking these essential KPIs, businesses can better understand the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions. Multi-touch attribution is a powerful tool that can help businesses optimize their marketing efforts and maximize their return on investment.

Implementing Multi-Touch Attribution in Your Marketing Strategy

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of multi-touch attribution models and the essential KPIs, it's time to dive deeper into how to integrate multi-touch attribution into your marketing strategy. This involves not only choosing the right attribution model but also integrating it with marketing automation tools and aligning your marketing channels and campaigns.

Choosing the Right Attribution Model

Choosing the right attribution model is essential to ensure that your marketing campaign's touchpoints are given appropriate credit when measuring success. Linear attribution works well for businesses with long sales cycles, whereas time-decay works best for businesses with shorter sales cycles. However, it's important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You need to choose the model that is most appropriate for your business and marketing goals.

For example, if you have a long sales cycle, a customer may interact with your brand multiple times before making a purchase. In this case, a linear attribution model may be the best option. This model gives equal credit to each touchpoint in the customer journey, regardless of when it occurred. On the other hand, if your sales cycle is shorter, a time-decay model may be more appropriate. This model gives more credit to touchpoints that occurred closer to the conversion event.

Integrating Multi-Touch Attribution with Marketing Automation Tools

Marketing automation tools can help track, measure and optimize campaigns while allowing businesses to automate repetitive marketing tasks. Integrating multi-touch attribution with marketing automation tools, such as Hubspot or Marketo, can help streamline the entire marketing process. This integration allows you to see how each touchpoint contributes to your marketing goals and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

For example, if you notice that certain touchpoints are not contributing to conversions, you can adjust your campaigns to focus on more effective touchpoints. Additionally, you can use automation tools to send targeted messages to customers based on their behavior, which can help improve the customer experience and increase conversions.

Aligning Your Marketing Channels and Campaigns

The process of aligning marketing channels and campaigns with multi-touch attribution is essential to ensure that the entire customer journey is taken into account, rather than individual channel attribution. Make sure you analyze the customer journey to ensure that all touchpoints are being tracked.

For example, if you are running a social media campaign, make sure that you are tracking all touchpoints, including clicks on links, likes, shares, and comments. Additionally, make sure that you are tracking touchpoints across all marketing channels, including email marketing, paid search, and display advertising. This will give you a complete picture of how your campaigns are performing and allow you to make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing strategy.

In conclusion, implementing multi-touch attribution into your marketing strategy is essential to ensure that you are accurately measuring the success of your campaigns. By choosing the right attribution model, integrating with marketing automation tools, and aligning your marketing channels and campaigns, you can improve the customer experience, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business.

Analyzing and Optimizing Multi-Touch Attribution Data

Once you’ve implemented a multi-touch attribution strategy, it's essential to optimize your campaigns over time to drive better results. Here are some important things to consider:

Identifying High-Performing Marketing Channels

By using multi-touch attribution tools correctly, it is possible to identify the most effective channels that drive conversions. It's important then to focus on optimizing those channels to drive even better results.

Adjusting Marketing Budget Allocation

Using multi-touch attribution can help businesses better understand the ROI of different campaigns. By analyzing this data, you can adjust the budget allocation to optimize your marketing spend effectively.

Continuous Improvement and A/B Testing

Like any marketing strategy, continuous improvement and testing are essential in optimizing your multi-touch attribution campaigns. Make sure to test new tactics, channels and campaigns to ensure that your multi-touch attribution model is built on solid data and insights.

Conclusion

Multi-touch attribution is a valuable tool for any business looking to understand the success of their marketing campaigns and optimize their spend. By implementing multi-touch attribution models and tracking essential KPIs such as conversion rates, ROAS, CAC, CLV, and channel-specific metrics, businesses can drive better results and optimize their marketing spend effectively.