Attribution used to be simple.
Someone clicks your ad. They buy. Done. Everybody is happy.

But we don’t live in that simple world anymore. We are in a multi-touchpoint world now.

Today, people discover your brand on multiple channels. Social media, podcast, Digital Ads, Radio, TV, billboards, word of mouth, SEO, fliers, etc.

Eventually, when they become a customer, it is tough to identify or attribute which channel drove the sale.

So, how do you know what really worked?

How do you know and show that your marketing strategy or digital campaigns are driving the key performance indicators?

Here are some attribution options that can help:

– Ask the customers directly. The classical question “Where did you hear about us?” in a form, email, or chat is a simple, although complicated way. It can be unreliable as customers may choose the first option that comes to mind.

– Track with UTM parameters. I use this for every digital campaign and channel I manage. It tells you which links the customer clicked on and whether they completed the journey or not. For example, at AXA, I knew our email drip campaign was working because of the UTM parameters.

– Measure channel contribution. Every channel does not have the same ROI. However, by correctly tracking & analysing each channel, you would know the working channels. Also, the UTM parameter is connected to Google Analytics, so now you know how each channel performs.

When I led digital marketing strategy at AXA, we analysed which campaigns and channels actually drove paying customers, and this helped us understand & scale the winning channels.

While I believe attribution will become tougher, these options can at least help you tie digital marketing performance to business outcomes.

P.S. This is strongly for digital channels only. Light and love to traditional channels.

How do you attribute your marketing activities to the business outcome?