Although digital marketing brings with it an unprecedented ability to measure marketing’s effectiveness, it’s not without its challenges. Many marketers struggle with accurately tracking and attributing content’s role in moving leads through the sales funnel. That’s why we brought the #ContentChat community together this week to talk about content marketing attribution.
Q1: Let’s start by getting on the same page. Within the context of digital marketing, what is attribution?
Attribution is how you give credit to the marketing activities that drive to sales.
A1: Google defines attributions as “set of rules, that determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touchpoints in conversion paths.” https://t.co/lZDAISgnBQ #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A1b: What’s really important about attribution is that businesses need take into account all of the interactions a potential customer has with your brand to understand what’s actually working. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A1: In simple terms, Attribution = Showing who drove what. #ContentChat https://t.co/IgqbopsU3t
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) July 30, 2018
A2c: In my opinion, the heart of attribution is about each interaction with your brand over time creates a cumulative sense of trust that helps a customer take the next step with you. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
Attribution documents the stops along the buyer’s journey.
A1 Think of marketing like a road map and attribution like the turns your customer takes in order to reach the point of purchase. #contentchat
— Bill Skowronski (@BillSkowronski) July 30, 2018
Agreed. This is why last touch only attribution makes me so unhappy. The first and last touches are important but so much can happen between those two points! #ContentChat https://t.co/sdHlbN5TmM
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 30, 2018
A1: A tricky part of attribution: figuring out how to distribute credit across the customer’s purchase path (across content types, devices, channels & time) for the end result. #contentchat
— Shelly Lucas (@pisarose) July 30, 2018
A1: Attribution – the art of justifying the contribution of a piece of content to the act of moving a customer along the pipeline to conversion. Very often to senior execs who still think cold- calling is the key to closing. 😉#contentchat
— Amy Card (@amy_card89) July 30, 2018
Q2: How does content contribute to attribution?
Content moves buyers along the sales path.
A2: Content can serve as a stop on the path towards conversion. And when content is relevant and genuinely helpful to consumers, it can serve as multiple stops along their path to a sale. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/lvQ9j3kb63
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A2b: A sample attribution path could be Google Search > White Paper > Advertisement > Word of Mouth > Speaker at Conference > Social Media > Blog Article > Case Study > Contact Form #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
Attribution is another way of “showing your work”
It’s also a great way to understand your audience’s thought process and ensure your owned assets are completing a loop or including appropriate calls to action and opt-ins. #contentchat— Bill Skowronski (@BillSkowronski) July 30, 2018
Attribution helps you document and replicate what works from a content perspective.
A2 Ultimately the goal is to attribute causation to your content, rather than correlation (after the fact). This way, future content can be developed with that predictive behavior in mind. #contentchat
— Bill Skowronski (@BillSkowronski) July 30, 2018
YES. And doesn’t’ that open a whole new set of worms around the validity of personas. Aren’t we all just individuals? Shouldn’t be personalization be awesome enough to work with AI to build programs to help me as a marketer to understand my market better?! #contentchat https://t.co/gR8IVQyHOz
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
In today’s digital-first, mobile-first environment, it’s pretty unusual for a customer to make a purchase without consuming some sort of brand content. The challenge is being able to track all the content and map it back to the customer + the purchase it influenced. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 30, 2018
Without content, there’s nothing to attribute!
A2: Content is the vehicle that leads us to attribution! Without it, we wouldn’t have anything to attribut anything to (Not 100 percent sure what I said makes sense 😄). #ContentChat
— Maria Marchewka (@_MariaMarchewka) July 30, 2018
Q3: What are some of the challenges and pitfalls when it comes to measuring attribution?
Failure-adverse company cultures can cause marketers to shy away from attribution.
A3: In some organizations, there is a lack of accountability or a fear of being punished for failure. In those environments, people can be afraid of tracking at a granular level. #ContentChat https://t.co/WljLKl5yMT
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 30, 2018
Attribution is difficult and complex.
A3: It is so hard to track. You end up relying on educated guesses. #contentchat
— Ryleigh Hazen (@HazenRyleigh) July 30, 2018
A3b: Last click attribution is like saying that the first date, first kiss, first vacation together and moving in together have nothing to do with a marriage proposal. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/Pw18v9y7ta
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A3: Marketing attribution pitfall: Online and offline buyer activity aren’t integrated. #contentchat
— Shelly Lucas (@pisarose) July 30, 2018
Many marketers don’t agree on an attribution model and track the right data to put it into action.
A3: The one that I see most often is that people don’t have an attribution model chosen. That means they most likely rely on last click attribution. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A3: Marketing attribution pitfall: cherry-picking data vs. looking at it as a whole. #contentchat
— Shelly Lucas (@pisarose) July 30, 2018
A3: Pitfall of attribution – Setting up your attribution strategy FIRST. Many people start only tracking one thing, then change 1/2 way through and wonder why it doesn’t work. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/1fladAdtWA
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) July 30, 2018
A3. Attribution Measurement Challenges:
(1) Pick a model (first or last touch, weighted);
(2) Implement tracking systems, both digital and offline touches;
(3) Determine how to use the data; becauseEvery journey is different. Attribution won’t be perfect. #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill, MBA (@todcordill) July 30, 2018
An understanding of your buyer’s journey, and your marketing objectives is necessary to interpret your attribution data.
A3d: Finally, one of the issues I see is the client not understanding the customer’s process well enough to be able to read the trends in the data they do collect. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/D4o3UcYtZe
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A3: For some: lack of time to analyse results and perhaps limited budget for automated systems, coupled with leadership placing value on different objectives (e.g. quantity over quality). #contentchat
— Amy Card (@amy_card89) July 30, 2018
A3: There are a few pitfalls I’ve seen:
1) Not partnering closely enough with your DG team
3) Not understanding your DG/GTM model
3) Not mapping content -> attribution model
3) Not including attribution as a consideration of your content strategy#contentchat— Dominic Garcia (@dominicgarcia) July 30, 2018
Q4: How can we best measure content’s performance in a marketing attribution model?
Start by picking an attribution model, and setting your marketing automation tools up appropriately to measure for it.
A4b: Pick an attribution model. It’s the number 1 priority. Check out this resource, 11 different attribution models to choose from! https://t.co/Cj9PQqcTEg Thanks @bizible! #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A4c: You’ll want to make sure you analytics program is set up properly. What you want to collect is highly variable but after you’ve picked a model, it’ll be much clearer how you want to measure. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A4d: Then you’ll want to make sure every piece of content is being given credit for the work it’s doing. Google Analytics uses goals to help drive this process, and I recommend that as well. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
Focus on and measure outcomes, not just activities.
A4: How to measure content’s performance in a marketing attribution model: Don’t just measure activities. Measure definitive OUTCOMES that are embraced by the whole organization. #contentchat
— Shelly Lucas (@pisarose) July 30, 2018
Q5: What attribution models have you worked with?
The W Model.
A5: I’ve worked primarily with the W attribution model. That’s where we tracked the customer’s first interaction, the last thing they saw before they converted and the last content they received before opportunity creation. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A5b: Because attribution can be so complex, the W attribution allowed me to apply a model without any complex systems. I could use @salesforce data and @googleanalytics data to build out the model without special attribution software. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
My attribution experience has primarily been in B2B. They are typically long sales cycles and that worked best for us. The data wasn’t automated, so I was crafting it as I went. I’d be curious what a good ecommerce attribution model is! #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
Multi-touch attribution.
A5 I’m a pain and always insist on a multi-touch attribution model. I typically weight the last touch and first touch a little bit more heavily, but I want to track all the content that influenced a purchase. #contentchat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 30, 2018
A5b: To make this happen, it requires having a @Salesforce MVP create a dashboard that integrates with Google Analytics and marketing automation. Or using a tool like @kapost which has the ability to do that. #ContentChat https://t.co/bi4BFKmzsW
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 30, 2018
The time decay model.
I’ve used the W attribution model and the time-decay attribution model before. #contentchat
— Megan McCarthy (@ImMeganMcCarthy) July 30, 2018
Q6: What technology have you used for attribution?
A6: Google released an attribution platform but its really focused on integrating data from Google Analytics, Google AdWords and DoubleClick Search. So, it’s not the be all solution. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/LxpfBEBy4R
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A6b: @bizible offers B2B attribution tracking that integrates with a ton of standard systems. #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A6c: If you’re interested in more information about attribution technologies, @G2Crowd did a comparison to help you understand what companies have to offer. https://t.co/qKZv4MHdCD #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A6: Primarily @googleanalytics and @GoogleAds but always on the lookout for new technologies! #contentchat
— Amy Card (@amy_card89) July 30, 2018
Q7: Where do you get stumped with attribution? Let’s brainstorm!
A7: Where I get stumped is finding the attribution data before they enter into my system. Customers do so much research about products and services before they visit your site. I’d love to know more about their path! #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A7b: I also struggle with technology options for small businesses. Why don’t we have any vendors who take advantage of Zapier!?!?! #contentchat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 30, 2018
A7 The gap between attribution and predictability is so hard to convey to non-marketing leadership. Again, it’s the jump from correlation to causation. #contentchat
— Bill Skowronski (@BillSkowronski) July 30, 2018
A7: Automating the process + too many tools. It’s a huge pain to get a “single source of truth” for attribution. It feels like I need to export CSVs + create pivot tables weekly just to stay on top of it. And I’m not sure another tool to consolidate is the answer. #contentchat
— Dominic Garcia (@dominicgarcia) July 30, 2018
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