Executive Summary This How-To Guide will explain marketing attribution, review various marketing attribution models, discuss when it makes sense to use it, and conclude with an action plan for implementing marketing attribution. Marketers have long pursued a goal that was once presumed unattainable: knowing with certainty what the impact is of any promotional or advertising spending. With the growth of digital marketing in the past two decades, marketers have better analytic data about clicks, views and other buyer behaviors that have a relationship to conversion. The problem, however, is not one of simply measuring clicks or views: it is understanding and measuring the entire journey of a buyer as they travel from initial awareness to conversion. Specifically, how many promotional milestones or touch points did the buyer encounter? How influential was each one? Marketers want to know, because precise information about the influence and effectiveness of each message, communication or ad allows unprecedented optimization of each marketing channel. Marketing attribution is the science of understanding the influence of each marketing channel on a buyer’s journey. Read this 8-page guide to learn about: The definition of marketing attribution The different marketing attribution models If marketing attribution makes sense for your organization Marketing attribution implementation plans Demand Metric's How-To Guides are designed to provide practical, on-the-job training and education and provide context for using our premium tools & templates. If there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please contact us at info@demandmetric.com (link sends e-mail) to make a content request.

1. How-­‐To Guide
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Marketing Attribution
By Jerry Rackley, Chief Analyst
September 30, 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketers have long pursued a goal that was once presumed
unattainable: knowing with certainty what the impact is of any
promotional or advertising spending. With the growth of digital
marketing in the past two decades, marketers have better analytic data
about clicks, views and other buyer behaviors that have a relationship to
conversion. The problem, however, is not one of simply measuring
clicks or views: it is understanding and measuring the entire journey of a
buyer as they travel from initial awareness to conversion. Specifically,
how many promotional milestones or touch points did the buyer
encounter? How influential was each one? Marketers want to know,
because precise information about the influence and effectiveness of each
message, communication or ad allows unprecedented optimization of
each marketing channel. Marketing attribution is the science of
understanding the influence of each
journey.
This How-­To Guide will explain marketing attribution, review various
marketing attribution models, discuss when it makes sense to use it, and
conclude with an action plan for implementing marketing attribution.
WHAT IS MARKETING ATTRIBUTION?
To help illustrate what marketing attribution is, and why it is helpful,
consider a typical buyer journey. A buyer has a need for a solution and
solicits recommendations from friends through a social media app on her
smartphone. This triggers the display of a social media ad, which gets

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download a whitepaper. Completing a short form, she provides her
email address where a link to the whitepaper is sent. She reviews the
email several days later on her PC, and after reviewing the whitepaper,
does an organic search for more information and reviews. Reading a
review on a website, she sees a banner ad which she clicks that takes her
to a landing page on the v
her order in the cart and checks out.
This scenario reveals the challenge of and the need for marketing
attribution. The key question is, which touch point was most influential
journey is that it occurred across multiple devices and involved multiple
touch points. Even just tracing the digital path the buyer followed is
difficult. A further complication is that this scenario represents just one
of many possible paths a buyer might follow to conversion, each one
involving different devices and touch points.
Marketing attribution has emerged to help marketers deal with the
the conversion. It allows marketers to more precisely understand the
influence and contribution of each channel or touch point. With such an
understanding, marketers can make fact-­based decisions about how to
optimize the entire mix of promotions, communications and ads through
all channels. The result of this attribution-­driven optimization process
is higher conversion rates, increased revenue and potentially shorter
sales cycles.
MARKETING ATTRIBUTION MODELS
Conceptually, marketing attribution is not difficult to understand. The
difficulty is implementing it accurately. Some sort of model is needed to
implement marketing attribution. In theory, you would use an
attribution model that traces the entire customer journey, accounting for
both online and offline channels of influence in that path. Full customer
path attribution represents the gold standard
goal. Getting there is probably an evolutionary process, particularly for
firms that are just beginning to experiment with attribution.
A number of marketing attribution models exist, ranging from relatively
simplistic to more comprehensive. Which model you choose depends on
how your customers typically convert, your analytics acumen and a
general willingness to invest in a marketing attribution effort.

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Here are descriptions of some of the common models:
First click. Also known as first-­touch, this model essentially
credits the entire customer purchase or conversion to the first
click, touch or encounter that customer had. For example, the
first touch point in a customer buying journey gets 100%
attribution for a conversion, even if other touch points may have
influenced the customer along the way. If this customer journey
is typically extremely short, this model may make sense. In
situations where the customer journey is long, involving many
other touch points, it makes little sense to attribute everything to
the first touch or click. It may hold true that the first touch was
included other touch points, this model is not recommended.
Last click. Similar to the first click model, except the attribution
now goes entirely to the last touch point prior to conversion.
The premise of this model is that the last touch point in the
customer journey created the conversion, so it therefore gets
100% of the attribution, even if there were many touch points
along the way. This model seems to make some sense and it has
enjoyed much popularity. But is increasingly falling out of favor
very likely factored in the conversion.
Linear or Equality. Unlike the first click or last click models,
the equality model acknowledges multiple touch points in the
customer buying journey, assigning equal attribution to each one.
nversion involved four
different touch points, each one is assigned 25% attribution under
this model. Equality is a good evolutionary step up from first or
which is assuming that all touch points are equally effective and
influential, which is rarely the case.
Custom. A custom model is the best option, and the one that
most closely approaches true customer path attribution. This
model recognizes that each firm or solution has a unique
customer path to conversion, and a model is built to provide
precise attribution to all the touch points in that path.
Implementing a custom model that attributes an accurate
advanced analytics capability and the technology assistance of an

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model, because it recognizes that not all touch points are equally
influential. The greatest attribution is given to the touch points
that have the greatest impact on the phases of the customer
journey. If, for example, analytics show that the touch points in
the discovery phase of the journey are most impactful, they might
receive 60% of the attribution, with the remaining 40% divided in
a similar manner across the awareness, consideration and decision
phases of the buying process.
There are, of course, other attribution models, as well as variations on
the ones described here, but these are the most frequently encountered.
WHEN DOES MARKETING ATTRIBUTION MAKE SENSE?
Marketing attribution is a newer marketing discipline, and marketers
who love new approaches or are simply eager to link marketing more
closely to revenue generation will eagerly embrace it. Before jumping in
to the deep end of the
your situation to see if it makes sense. Here are some things to consider
as you weigh the pros and cons of marketing attribution:
Do you have a culture that will support marketing
attribution? This discipline is very data and analytics driven.
Perhaps the organizations that need marketing attribution most
are those that have long been driven or guided by intuition,
opinion or conjecture. However, these organizations are also
least prepared for the shift to a data-­driven marketing culture.
For such organizations, the move to marketing attribution may
seem threatening to some and therefore requires care and
sensitivity in planning this move.
Do you have a relatively short or simple path to customer
conversion? While it is rare, there are some firms whose
customers travel a short, streamlined path from awareness to
conversion. So short, in fact, that data and analytics needed to
understand attribution are enviably simple. If your company is
one of the few where first click or last click attribution are one
and the same, where few or no other touch points influence the
customer journey to conversion, then attribution is easy.
Consider yourself fortunate if this is your situation, but also
understand that many forces outside your control, including
journey.

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What are you doing with the data you already have? As
previously stated, marketing attribution is very data and analytics
dri
implemented marketing attribution, you have some marketing
analytics data
probably not ready to implement marketing attribution, which
will take your analytics processes to the next level.
ACTION PLAN: IMPLEMENTING MARKETING
ATTRIBUTION
Properly implemented, marketing attribution can provide some amazing
insights about the true value of your promotional communications and
advertising. What does it take to start getting these insights? Here are
some steps you can follow:
1. Assess the need and fit
spending across various marketing channels, without real
insights into their effectiveness, you will probably get
significant benefits from marketing attribution. This is even
truer if your marketing spending is substantial and your
customers navigate a moderate to complex path to purchase.
As discussed in the previous section, there is a cultural success
factor to consider. For marketing attribution to succeed, you
must have a culture that embraces analytics, as well as one that
is willing to invest in the process and trust the results.
Without this cultural foundation, a marketing attribution
initiative is likely to fail. A simple test is this: are you already
using the marketing analytics data that is available to you? If
so, you have some level of cultural readiness to implement
marketing attribution. If not, you need to understand why you
think marketing attribution will work for you.
2. Consider a vendor and/or advisor
Unless your purchase process is very simple, involving few
touch points, you will probably benefit substantially from
outside expertise and the help of a vendor. Use the Demand
Metric Business Case Template to help justify the need for
outside counsel and resources. If you opt not to use outside

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resources, make sure you have the necessary analytical skills
in-­house.
Any capable vendor or advisor will provide a detailed set of
steps and implementation plan. However, if you decide to
proceed on your own, the remaining, high-­level action plan
steps follow.
3. Understand the path and choose a model
Carefully research the paths that customers navigate from
awareness to conversion. Do not trust your instincts, but
conduct proper research to understand the variations on the
customer journey, and it is likely there are several. Document
each path variation and the touch points a customer might
encounter. Use the Demand Metric Purchase Process
Diagram to help you with this task.
Identify which attribution model you will use. Keep in mind
that the simpler models, such as last click, while easier to
implement, are less useful.
4. Data collection, analysis and usage
Determine what data is needed to support the attribution
model you have chosen to implement.
Define and implement data collection processes and test to
ensure they function reliably.
Develop your analytic processes to exploit the attribution data
you collect and determine how often you should perform the
analysis.
Use the results of your analysis to optimize your mix of touch
points. Invest more in those that are most effective, and
eliminate or scale back on those that are least effective. Always
validate the decisions you make against future analytics to
ensure your decisions produced the desired outcome.
The steps defined in this action plan will require commitment and an
investment. Your marketing attribution process will need time to
mature to deliver full value. Factor the need to develop skills and collect

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a solid base of analytic data into your business case for marketing
attribution.
BOTTOM LINE
Properly implemented marketing attribution can help improve the
ROI of many marketing efforts. The fact-­based decisions that
marketing attribution enables can help your marketing and advertising
perform at a higher level, and potentially at a lower cost. At the same
time, it is important to understand that marketing attribution will not
fix a fundamentally unsound marketing strategy, although it may
provide insights about how to fix it. To work best, the marketing
attribution discipline needs the support of a thoughtfully crafted
marketing plan, and vice-­versa. Finally, recognize that marketing
a
yields maximum benefits when it becomes woven into the fabric of
marketing.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH ANALYST
Jerry Rackley is Chief Analyst at Demand Metric. His 30-­
year marketing career began at IBM, and includes experience
in the technology and financial services sectors.
He has worked with companies ranging in size from startups
to members of the global 1000, performing marketing,
marketing communication, public relations and product
management work.