Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Transformation
    Operations
    Data
    Experience
    Performance
    Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Team
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Data » Getting Attribution-Ready For The New Year

Getting Attribution-Ready For The New Year

Start your marketing program off on the right foot in 2016. Columnist Eric Dezendorf has some key tips on how to get attribution-ready for the coming year.

Eric Dezendorf on December 23, 2015 at 9:15 am

ss-analytics-data

Top brands like Walgreens have stated that attribution is on their wish list to figure out in 2016, so why shouldn’t it be on yours?

The new year is always a good time to review what you’ve already set up for the new year and what you need to do in order to grow your business, so below are my top tips to get your marketing programs attribution-ready for 2016.

Get Tracking Going

The first step to running any sort of attribution game is to make sure you have a persistent “user ID” across all media. The simplest way to do this right now is through cookies.

Once a user sees one of your ads or visits your site, they are cookied. Until that cookie is deleted, you can track everywhere that user goes on the journey to eventually convert on your website. This isn’t terribly hard to start, and it’s the first step toward real attribution for all of your digital marketing sources.

Establish Your Source Of Truth

Once your users are tracked, you need to be able to measure them. However you track user activity, whether through DoubleClick, FlashTalking, Signal, Sizmek or many other services, make sure all of your data is tracked by the same service.

This one source of truth now represents all of your marketing, conversion and site activity data and can be used to accurately calculate attribution.

The Name Game

Working for an attribution company myself, I find unfocused and seemingly random names are my number one pet peeve when trying to set up a new client. Unless there’s a defined naming convention, it’s nearly impossible to organize the data into something meaningful.

I know renaming all of your campaigns can be a hassle, but it’s one of the best things you can do when getting your company ready for attribution. If you have clean names on each of your placements, campaigns and strategies, the rules for your attribution system are going to be cleaner, and your data will be more meaningful to review.

If names accurately represent every level in your marketing plan, setting up attribution gets much easier.

Get To The Next Level

Attribution can be used to accurately measure your data in many different ways.

If you’re able to tie cost and revenue to your conversion streams, you not only can decide how each piece of your marketing is doing overall, but you can also see the relative cost per acquisition and compare that against what each acquisition is worth. This, in turn, allows you to make smart decisions about your marketing budget and helps you plan and target your next set of campaigns.

Remember To Stay Smart

It’s definitely okay to start at a small level and gradually build out each step over the next few quarters before you are able to fully execute your attribution plan. Maybe right now you’ve only got good tracking on your display and SEM campaigns. That’s okay!

Track it, and push all other conversions to your baseline. Once that’s set up and established, then add your affiliate placements, your paid social or your other channels of marketing effort.

Don’t be cowed by the big undertaking attribution can be. Take it in small chunks, and eventually you’ll be an attribution wizard.

So this New Year’s Eve, just before you pop the champagne, reflect on your current marketing setup and take a moment to think about how you can make one simple change to more effectively track how it’s performing. Hopefully, after three or four simple changes, you can say with confidence exactly how much revenue each individual ad of yours on each individual site is bringing in.

With this wonderful attribution model now complete, you’ll have the edge in 2016 to really start targeting your advertisements in the most efficient manner possible.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    Marketing operations talent is suffering burnout and turnover

    Antitrust bill could force Google, Facebook and Amazon to shutter parts of their ad businesses

    Unveiling our first MarTech Intelligence Report on email marketing platforms

    How product analytics can unite marketing and product teams to boost customer lifetime value

    Create a B2B GTM strategy that buyers, execs and revenue teams love

About The Author

Eric Dezendorf
As a Customer Success Manager, Eric Dezendorf helps clients at Abakus understand where their marketing dollars can be attributed down to a specific display ad -- to help them maximize the effect of their marketing dollars. He works with major automotive companies, hotel chains, retailers, and many other enterprise-level businesses. In his free time you can find Eric on the golf course, at a baseball game, or wailing on his trombone, but always in search of the most effective way to corner the market.

Related Topics

Data

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

June 7, 2022: Master Classes

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Discovering Now: Spring

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Webinars

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

Dominate Your Competition with Google Auction Insights and Search Intelligence

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.