The document outlines key strategies for effective marketing attribution, emphasizing the tracking of user behavior and the use of multi-channel data to measure effectiveness. It discusses the importance of structured experiments to quantify digital efforts and suggests considering aggregate trends rather than assigning specific values to all marketing placements. Finally, it advises on optimizing media spend and continuously reassessing attribution strategies to adapt to changing user behaviors.

1. Attribution
Assigning value across
marketing channels
1
Understand your customer path to conversion
Track all user behavior on your site by developing a thorough strategy that ensures pages are tagged for different
conversion types, user actions are tracked through web analytics, and appropriate value is assigned to different
success metrics.
2
Collect and analyze multi-channel data
Employ Google’s suite of attribution solutions to collect data and measure the effectiveness of all marketing eff orts.
While no single solution shows the complete picture, these free tools offer insights that help you to be more informed
about the impact of your existing online strategies.
Search funnels Multi-channel funnels in Analytics
Determine true value of “upper funnel” keywords Measure effectiveness of each digital channel
beyond the last click
road bike saw ad (impression) Channel grouping path Conversions
road bike reviews clicked ad 1 Display advertising Paid search Direct 7,514
road bike store saw ad (impression) 5,377
2 Orgnic search Paid search
trek madone 6 series reviews clicked ad
3 Display advertising Paid search 3,716
trek madone 6.9 ssl saw ad (impression)
trek madone 6.9 ssl price clicked add and converted 4 Paid search Referral Direct 3,015
Search funnels show the entire search path leading Reports are generated from conversion paths to show
up to conversion, including ad clicks and impressions. how previous referrals, searches, and exposure to other
This data helps illustrate how users search for your channels contributed to your sales.
products before converting.
View-through conversions
Measure the true value of display awareness
campaigns beyond the click.
Example: Visits to advertiser’s website
View-through from
test group
View-through from
matched control group Incremental
view-through
Test and control groups are matched for behaviors.
Both groups are exposed to similar noise.
Lift in control
view-through
from offline
campaign
Pre-campaign Campaign Post-campaign
View-through conversions prove the direct connection between display impressions and business results.

2. 3
Conduct structured cross-channel experiments to prove results
How can you quantify the interplay between your digital efforts if you don’t have a smart and organized experiment to
measure effectively? It’s necessary to develop a clearly documented experimentation process by creating a thorough
brief which outlines the purpose of each experiment, the hypotheses to prove, and details around the experiment’s
design. Determine what metrics can be measured to prove the hypotheses and then gather multiple perspectives to
review the brief and ensure the quality of the design and implementation plan. Upon completion of the experiment,
track improvements that will help strengthen future effectiveness.
(Source: Digital Evolution of B2B Marketing Organizations, Google and CEB, September 2012)
4
Look at aggregate trends and patterns over time to make more
informed decisions
Evaluate data to gain insights into user behavior and consider which attribution model applies the best to your
business and marketing efforts. Avoid the pitfall of assigning a value to every placement and constructing a model;
look for patterns instead.
100% 100%
20% 20% 20% 20% 20%
Last interaction Last interaction Linear
Pros: easy, intuitive Pros: credits campaigns that create Pros: simple; good when trying to
Cons: can overvalue navigational awareness maintain contact with customers
actions at the bottom of the Cons: can undervalue navigational throughout the sales cycle
conversion funnel actions at the bottom of the Cons: can overvalue less important
conversion funnel mid-funnel clicks
40% 45% 45%
30% 25% 25%
10% 10% 10% 15% 15% 10%
5% 10% 5%
Position-based Time decay Custom
Pros: gives more credit to Pros: gives more credit to Pros: fully customizable
interactions at critical points in the actions that occurred nearest (discounting last clicks on brand
funnel to conversions; good for short terms)
Cons: can give too much credit promotions Cons: requires signifi cant time and
to navigational clicks or clicks that Cons: can give too much credit to energy to create
took place before the sales cycle navigational clicks or clicks that
began took place late in the sales cycle
5
Align media more effectively
Optimize your online media spend based on insights and the right attribution model for your business. Align budgets
with marketing channels and multiple touch points in the purchase funnel to maximize eff ectiveness. Once you
understand your customers’ journey and where they spend time online, match the message to the mindset to better
inform, persuade, influence, and convert your existing audience while reaching new customers.
6
Rinse and repeat each quarter
Constantly reassess and reevaluate. User behavior is dynamic – in order to be truly effective, your attribution strategy
must be as well.
For more information on Attribution, please reach out to your Google team.