What is Multi Touch Attribution Modeling? [Whiteboard Video]
How is multi-touch attribution different from last-touch and first-touch attribution?
Last-touch and first-touch attribution, in contrast to multi-touch attribution, assigns all the credit for a conversion to the final or initial touch point a customer experiences during their buying process. Because it provides them with concentrated data that is easy to track and is more result-focused, many marketing teams prefer this model. Multi-touch models compensate for the drawback of single-touch models, which is that they cover the entire scenario surrounding a purchase.
Consider, for instance, a marketing campaign that employs last-touch attribution and incorporates advertisements into online videos. Potential customers look up the company store online as a result of these videos becoming well-liked and trending. They click the web browser advertisement and make purchases. The video advertisement actually garnered more attention than the browser advertisement, which last-touch attribution claimed was responsible for the majority of sales.
What is multi-touch attribution?
The process of assessing the websites a customer visits before making a purchase from a business is known as “multi-touch attribution.” Marketing teams can modify campaigns and boost profits by assigning values to various stages of the buyer’s journey.
What is conversion?
Conversion is when a potential customer becomes an actual customer. For instance, a potential customer can convert and become a customer by subscribing when they see a sign-up page offering them a free trial of a service.
What are touchpoints?
Potential customers visit touchpoints on the internet, which can be anything from a company’s social media post to its website. Touchpoints ultimately direct potential customers to pages like a store advertisement or a subscription offer page where they decide whether to become customers.
What is the multi-touch attribution process?
The process of calculating the value of each customer interaction that takes place prior to conversion is known as “multi-touch attribution.” The aim of multi-touch attributions is to assess customer trends in order to allocate future funds toward developing a more effective customer conversion system. It can assess the value of a campaign or media channel in the buyer’s journey.
Assume, for instance, that a consumer being promoted a product ignores the product video advertisement while it is playing on their computer. They then visit the website after seeing an integrated ad for the same product while browsing social media on their phone and becoming curious. They then visit the online store, where they eventually make a purchase. Multi-touch allocation analyzes each stage of the purchasing process and finds that in this case, the integrated social media advertisement was more effective than the video advertisement.
What are the multi-touch attribution models?
By assigning values to touch points, different multi-touch attribution models evaluate the buyers journey in different ways. Some of these models include:
Lead creation touch attribution
According to the lead creation touch attribution model, the touch point at which prospects turn into leads is solely responsible for conversion. Prospective customers might look at your company’s website or social media pages, as well as browse its store, but they might not have made any purchases just yet.
However, a customer lead is a prospective client who has provided the business with information about themselves or has previously used the company’s services. For instance, if a visitor to your company’s website registers for a webinar, they are now a lead. Until they respond to the advertisements that would turn them from a prospect into a lead, a potential customer who visits your websites, shops, and other pages remains a prospect.
Last non-direct click attribution
According to the last non-direct click attribution model, the final non-direct click in the buyer’s journey receives full credit for any conversions. For instance, the model gives full credit to the advertisement if a customer visits a store page as a result of an advertisement, regardless of the other touch points in the buyer’s journey.
Linear attribution
Every interaction a potential customer has throughout the buyer’s journey is taken into account by linear attribution. The percentage of credit each touch point receives for the conversion is determined by evenly dividing the total credit among the number of touch points made prior to the conversion. Although quite popular, this model is not as efficient as some others.
Time decay attribution
Time decay attribution has multiple similarities to linear attribution. The time decay model reduces the value of each touch point over time, which is the only distinction between the two. Assume, for instance, that a potential client sees a company’s social media post at noon. They access the company website by clicking the link in the social media post, but a few hours later they navigate from there to the store page. The social media post receives the least credit for the conversion in the time decay model, followed by the website.
U-shaped attribution
The position-based U-shaped attribution model establishes the value of a touch point based on where it is along the buyer’s journey. For instance, the first and third touch points are equally valued in the U-shaped attribution model, while the remaining touch points up until the end of the buyers journey are all valued at equal or lower levels.
When the touch points value is viewed linearly and in order, from left to right, just like on a bar graph, it takes the shape of a U. On the bar graph, the first touch point value appears high, while the second and fourth ones are lower. However, the third one appears to be equally as tall as the first one, forming a U.
W-shaped attribution
The W-shaped attribution model is a position-based model that, like the U-shaped attribution model, places equal value on the first, third, and fifth touch points in a buyers journey while placing equal value on the remaining touch points. The value attribution resembles a W when the buyers journey touch points are viewed linearly and in order.
Z-shaped attribution
Another position-based model that values the first, third, fifth, and last touch points on the buyers journey is the Z-shaped attribution model. The shape this model creates when viewed linearly resembles a Z. The value of the second, fourth, and next-to-last touch points are all equal and at lower levels.
How do teams determine which attribution model is best?
The changes the marketing team is prepared to make in order to increase profitability will determine the touch attribution a marketing campaign uses. Different models benefit campaigns in different ways: .
Why do companies use multi-touch attribution data?
Even if the buyer’s journey is lengthy, businesses use multi-touch attribution data to better understand it. Companies can modify their marketing campaigns to maximize the use of advertisements and allocate funds to the campaigns that return the most profit by learning about the buyers journey. Marketing teams can analyze just one touch point to gain a deep understanding of the buyers journey, even when using a position-based model.
As soon as an advertising medium is released, a business can almost immediately see how well a campaign is performing and how effective it is by using multi-touch attribution data. Access to multi-touch attribution is possible through a variety of software and applications. Although attribution programs can be developed independently by a marketing team, developers constantly improve attribution programs to make the data as useful as possible.
How is multi-touch attribution data gathered?
Marketing teams require data to track in order for a multi-touch attribution model to be effective. Some ways marketing teams track data from customers include:
JavaScript tracking
Some businesses record and enhance customer activity in HTML using JavaScript to their advantage. For instance, certain JavaScript codes can immediately send another email that the marketing team believes the customer might also like if they open an email promoting a pair of shoes and click the link inside.
Cookies/UTMs
Cookies and UTMs work similarly to JavaScript in that they open up more opportunities for customer interaction. Cookies and UTMs can continuously track a user’s data to see if they’ve visited the company website more than once or to see what websites they visit generally, although they don’t have the same functional diversity as JavaScript. These statistics can be used by marketing teams to select the websites that are best for advertising.
FAQ
What is multi touch attribution?
Multi-touch attribution is a method of measuring marketing effectiveness that accounts for all of the consumer journey’s touchpoints and gives each one a fractional credit so that a marketer can determine how much of an impact each channel has on a sale.
What is the best multi touch attribution model?
Time Decay Multi-Touch Attribution Model According to the time decay model, consumers interact with touchpoints that are closer to conversions more frequently. This model gives some credit to touchpoints at the top and middle of the funnel, but it primarily concentrates on touchpoints at the bottom of the funnel.
Why do we need multi touch attribution?
Because it enables you to identify every channel that contributes to a conversion and which of those channels has the greatest impact on a conversion, multi-touch attribution is crucial. It provides a clear picture of how your touchpoints and channels affect each conversion.
