What is an attribution model and how to choose one for your business?

Do you know which channels were responsible for bringing the customer to your site?

Customers go through several paths until they buy a specific product. This can happen through email marketing, paid media, sponsored links, among other channels.

However, most marketing professionals are unable to follow the process from start to finish. Lack of information is very bad because you don’t understand what the best and worst strategies are for your business.

So we’re here to talk about attribution models. Let’s focus on the following topics:

Find out all about it below!

What is an attribution model?

The purchasing process of a person on brazil phone number list the Internet is different from that of customers who tend to frequent physical stores.

In the online world, the Internet user who accesses a virtual store already knows what he wants to buy and simply resolves his doubts about payment methods, models, quality and cheaper prices.

However, until the purchase is completed, the user travels a rather long path.

The journey is even more complicated when the consumer is attracted to a service or product that was not in their plans, but was always necessary at some point in their life.

The customer journey can last hours, days, and even weeks. An attribution model is responsible for tracking your customer’s journey from the first contact they had with your company to the final purchase.

Still, most ecommerce sites make a mistake when evaluating the customer’s purchasing journey: they only look at the last page the customer clicked on to make the purchase.

Ideally, you want to understand the impacts of multiple channels: display network (Google), email, an affiliate link, etc. That way, you can figure out which strategies generated the most sales for your business.

The old way of marketing based on “guesswork” is no longer valid. Now, it is essential to have access to a large amount of data to make the best decisions in your routine.

Attribution modeling helps you track display performance, how much influence email marketing had on the conversion, or whether the customer interacted with the product before completing the purchase.

Why is an attribution model important?

The attribution model is important use the trials and raise any concerns they may because it follows the user’s path to complete the purchase, showing the influence of each channel on the strategy.

That way, you’ll know which times are performing well and which times require special attention to generate more profits.

What’s more interesting is that the attribution model can change the URL to find out in Google Analytics which channels had the most clicks.

There are several types of attribution models. To get an idea, you can define the first and last interaction with your store.

The best known are:

• first interaction model;
• non-direct last click attribution model;
• linear attribution model;
• time reduction attribution model;
• position attribution model.

What are the most common attribution models?

Now that you understand the concept  cnb directory of attribution model and what its benefits are, how about learning about the characteristics of each one?

First interaction model

In that first example, the conversion is 100% attributed to the first action the customer took in their journey before purchasing a product or service on your website.

In practice, this model does not evaluate the other actions that the customer performed between the first contact and the purchase; on the contrary, it gives all the credit to the first channel used.

If a visitor sees an ad on Facebook, goes to your website, subscribes to your newsletter , and months later makes a purchase motivated by email marketing, the results will be attributed to Facebook, regardless of whether they took other paths along their journey.

Last Click Attribution

The last-click attribution model is the most commonly used by marketers. Here, conversion credit goes to the last interaction the customer had before purchasing the product.

The user may have taken several paths to get to your cart page, for example, emails and blog content . However, it is only the last interaction that will get all the credit.

Linear attribution model

The linear model does not give preference to any channel. This format assigns equal sales credit to all. It does not matter if the user came to your product through email marketing, remarketing , sponsored links or direct channel.

Time reduction attribution model

The time-saving attribution model is this: Imagine people come to your online store through email marketing and the direct channel.

However, the customer started his journey with Google Adwords and affiliate links. In this example, the highest percentage of credits will go to those channels that the customer visited a few hours before the conversion.

The first contacts would receive a lower percentage. So, it would look like this: email marketing and direct channel with more credit, adwords and affiliate links with less credit.

Position attribution model

In this attribution model, all channels receive credits. However, they are not divided equally.

• first interaction: 40% of credit;
• second interaction: 40% credit;
• other interactions: 20% distributed to the rest of the channels.

The positive side of that model is that you can improve not only the first interaction that brought the customer to your site, but also the one that was responsible for the conversion.

The disadvantage is that the model can distribute credits incorrectly, generating inflated numbers at the beginning and end of the day.

Non-direct last click attribution model

The last model on our list is pretty simple. Direct visits are not taken into account. The last channel is always the most important and gets all the credit for the conversion.

How to choose an attribution model?

There are a few strategies you can develop to define the best attribution model for your business.

We know that each model has its strengths and weaknesses, so your choice will depend on the moment your business is facing in the market.

But, we have reserved some tips for you to learn how to choose an attribution model.

Create the customer journey

Evaluate the different touchpoints that make up the customer’s purchasing journey. You can use Google Analytics as a basis, as it tracks data from each channel differently.

On each channel, your numbers are tracked using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) .

The tool can also measure other interesting data:

• which consumers are engaged with your page;
• what channels accessed your site;
• how long it takes to acquire a product or service.

Google Analytics is an intuitive and practical tool for marketing professionals.

Define your goal

The choice of attribution model will depend on the objective of your campaign. If you want to know how many people reached the cart page through your blog, the last interaction is best.

If your focus is on a branding campaign, first click is a great option.

Know your buyer persona

Knowing your buyer persona ‘s profile is essential to achieving your goal. Understand their reasons for buying, their interests, demographic profile and which channels they frequent. This will make it easier to choose your attribution model.

Test, test, test!

In any marketing strategy, testing is key. In attribution modeling, the situation would be no different. So, be flexible and change attribution based on your results.

The rule is clear: attribution models should change as your business develops. After a period, make a new plan. At that point, you should reallocate investments and allocate the budget appropriately.

Then, re-evaluate the impacts of each action.