1) Traditional marketing attribution models only credit the "last click" before a conversion, but new path-to-conversion analysis shows most consumers interact with brands through multiple touchpoints over time before converting. 2) An analysis of one campaign found that display advertising accounted for over 88% of consumer interactions leading to conversions, while search was 12%, and the average path to conversion included 5.6 interactions. 3) Attribution models need to evolve from single-touch "last click" models to weight the influence of all interactions, including non-last click interactions, over time based on their recency and type of interaction.

1. MULTI-TOUCH CONVERSION TRACKING
Path to Conversion and Conversion
Attribution
16 April 2009

2. MEDIA INTERACTION
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3. MEDIA INTERACTION: Purchase Funnel
In 1898 Elmo Lewis
an American
Awareness Are you talking to me? advertising and sales
pioneer created the
AIDA model and has
become the back
Interest Why are you talking to me? backbone structure
for organizations sales
Desire Good idea, but do I really need it?
What will I have to do to get it?
Action
3

4. MEDIA INTERACTION: Traditional
Different marketing
Build awareness messages play a
and interest different role for
consumers
throughout the
purchase funnel
Turn prospects
into customers
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5. MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet
Ability to track
results and
return on
investment
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6. MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet
Internet= Measurement Untapped Measurement
How many users saw an ad Awareness
Interest
Desire
How many consumers click Time of day users convert
through to website
Action
What medium drove the
final conversion “Last Ad Clicked”
Through 2007 a Successful Campaign = High Click thru /Conversion Rate
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7. MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet
The “Last Ad Click” attributes 100% of the credit to the last click
Optimizations for campaigns
were based on the “Last Ad
Clicked”
93%-95% of audience engagements with online advertising
receive no credit at all when advertisers review campaign ROI
-Atlas, Engagement Mapping 2008
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8. MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet
• The flaws of the “Last Ad Clicked”
– What is the interaction between different media? How much, for instance do
search and display advertising interact?
– Different ads, messages and media are employed at different points in the
conversion funnel. What touch points make the greatest impact along the way?
Which make the smallest?
– How can marketers accurately reach their audience and plan campaigns if they
are unable to calculate the return on investment on each of the touch points
upstream of the conversion?
Example of a Consumer’s Interaction with a Brand
Interaction 1 Interaction 2 Interaction 3 Interaction 4
“Last Ad Clicked”
Network Buy
Sponsorship
Portal Buy
Premium
Search
Conversion
Source: Atlas Institute, “Engagement Mapping”
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9. PATH-TO-CONVERSION
ANALYSIS
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10. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Event Breakdown
Events/Conversions Summary
– Total Events: 27,654
– Total View/Click Through Conversions:
4,929
– Average Events Per Conversion: 5.61
• Events (interactions, engagements, touch points, etc.) any interaction by user and
media that leads to a conversion
― View throughs 14 cookie window
― Clicks 100 day cookie window
― P2C reports only show last 10 views, 10 clicks and 10 search events
• Display view throughs and click throughs accounted for over 88% of all events,
while search click throughs made up 12%
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11. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION
Path Size by Number of Conversions and Category
•It take multiple engagements to
convert users
•85% of all conversions had more then 1
event in there path
•70% of all conversions had more then 2
events in there path
•Over 50% had 5 or more events in the
path
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12. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Time Lag
•It takes time to convert users
•Almost half of all events occurred
more than 1 day before converting
event
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13. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Category
Summary
• With Path-to-Conversion reporting, the typical measure of conversion can
no longer be based off of the “last click”
─ When looking at the path of media exposure prior to the “last click,” and
attributing each vehicle with the exposures that occurred, the impact of each
vehicle shifts when understanding the “events” that took place prior to the
actual conversion
─ “Conversion Influenced” is anytime a site generates an impression, view or click
event in a conversion path it receives credit for having an influence on the
conversion
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14. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Category
Influence
• “Winning Category” refers to the category that received credit for
the conversions due to being the last click/view
• Content Finance had an influence on:
– 22.8% of the Ad Networks conversions
– 16.1% of the Content News Conversions
– 39.0% of Search conversions
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15. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION:
Display/Search/Mail
There were 4,302 conversions
that had at least 1 Display event
in their conversion path. (87.3%
of total conversions)
There were 1,878 conversions
that had at least 1 Paid
Search event in their
conversion path. (38.1% of
total conversions)
There were 3,736 conversions There were 879 conversions
that had ONLY Display that had at least 1 Display
events in their conversion and 1 Paid Search event in
path. (75.8% of total their conversion path. (17.8%
conversions) of total conversions)
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16. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Site
Performance
• SmartMoney generated:
– +34.6% of the total impressions
– + 1.4% of the total clicks
– + 11.8% of the total conversions
– + 6.2% of the total cost
– + 27.3% of the total events leading up to a conversion (successful events influencing a conversion)
– + Had an influence on 24.5% of the total conversions
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17. CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Bankrate
398 conversion had
this exact path
Bankrate occurred in Bankrate was only
15% of all search events present in 2% of all
other sites’ display
events
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18. CONVERSION ATTRIBUTION
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19. Crediting ROI to Ads
The “Last Ad” Standard The Reality
– Last Ad Clicked Campaigns reach consumers multiple times,
– Last Ad Viewed across multiple channels, over extended
periods of time
Banner Rich Media & Banner Banner Search
Yahoo Sponsorship MSN CNet Sky Sports Google
$
$ $
$
$
$
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20. TRACK EVERYTHING
• Track as much as you can through one system
– Natural Search clicks
– Paid Search Clicks
– Display
– Email
– Affiliate
– Sponsorships
– Video Links
– Other Conversion Tags or Pages of Your Site
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21. EXAMPLE CONVERSION PATH
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22. EXAMPLE CONVERSION PATH: In Tracking System
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23. SIMPLE WEIGHTING SYSTEMS
• Last Ad Click = 100%
• Even Credit
• Simple Models
– Last Ad gets 50%, remaining events split 50%
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24. BASIC ATTRIBUTION APPLIED
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25. CUSTOM MODEL: Variables to Consider
• Clicked vs. Viewed
• Type of Ad
• Ad Size
• Messaging
• Time Lag/Recency
• Event Path
• Engagement inside unit
• Engagement on advertiser’s site
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26. EXAMPLE WEIGHTING SYSTEM
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27. WEIGHTING APPLIED
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28. KNOWN ISSUES
• Tracking everything takes time and requires a
process
• Tracking everything in one system may be
difficult based on your current setup
• Cookie tracking discrepancies
– Deletion
– User behavior
• An accurate weighting system will take time to
develop
• Inability to track offline influencers
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29. CONVERSION ATTRIBUTION: Future Impact
• Impact conversion attribution will have on
future marketers
– Visibility into what is driving conversions
– Under valued traffic from publishers will now have
opportunity to prove their effect in the conversion
path
– Marketers will stop mismanaging their accounts
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30. THANK YOU!
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