More companies turning to multi-touch attribution tools to optimize spend across growing number of channels

Marketers’ desire to optimize marketing spend across a growing number of platforms and devices is fueling a 14.9 percent compound annual growth rate in multi-touch marketing attribution software and services globally, with the total annual spend estimated to reach $1.6 billion by 2023, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.

The research firm says global spending on multi-touch marketing attribution tools in 2018 came in at $816 million. Besides spending for the software licenses themselves, the spending trends study also looked at ancillary services like integration and implementation, advisory offerings and support and maintenance.

“With the increasing adoption of the multi-touch marketing attribution solutions, the need for these associated services is expected to increase among enterprises as these services assist in reducing costs, increasing the overall revenue and improving the performance,” wrote the report’s authors.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are expected to grow their spend at the fastest rate, the company said, noting that adoption among these marketers has been limited, thus far. The social media content glut and viewers’ shrinking attention spans will fuel marketers’ need to get a better handle on where their resources are best spent, according to the report.

Still, large companies are the ones with the biggest troves of data that need analysis, and their spending will continue to represent the lion’s share of the market.

Why you should care

If you’re one of those marketers waiting to adopt multi-touch marketing attribution tools, this report indicates it’s time to start considering your options, as it’s likely your competitors will be doing so in the next few years.

More about the report’s predictions

• MarketsandMarkets researchers concluded that the majority of spending over the next few years will involve in-house technology deployments rather than at a third-party site or in the cloud, in part because of concerns about controlling customer data.
• Marketers in North America will account for the largest market for such solutions between now and 2023. Companies in the Asia-Pacific region are also expected to increase spending on multi-touch marketing attribution.
• Companies in the telecommunications and IT vertical are expected to be among the most sophisticated and extensive users of multi-touch marketing attribution, because of the sector’s highly-competitive environment and the need to optimize the user experience to retain existing customers.