Fewer than one third of online marketers are happy with their ability to measure interactive media. The main reason is that the industry standard of crediting the last click or last interaction is flawed. Recently, several leading players in the industry have introduced the concept of attribution measurement, which assigns credit to multiple touchpoints in a consumer’s purchase path.
Forrester Research, Inc. Senior Analyst Emily Riley, a leading authority on the topic, will be our guest speaker and present an overview of her recently published Interactive Attribution Wave. Emily will review the shifting trends in the market, highlight key players, and show marketers how to gain valuable insights by adopting attribution measurement practices. This is the first time attribution vendors have been evaluated, yielding groundbreaking insights that are valuable for interactive marketers, vendors, and publishers alike.
Attribution management — the process of tracking, assembling and properly valuing an entire team of online ads as they lead to conversions — has become a critical component of advertising analytics.
ClearSaleing, Inc., a leader in advertising analytics and founder of the Attribution Management Forum, and Vetra Analytics, a leader in quantitative marketing, have recently announced The American Attribution Index (AAI). The AAI is the first-ever attribution management index that measures the relative effectiveness of each online advertising source and influence factor on consumer purchases and conversions.
In this webcast, we’ll learn more about the AAI, and how advertisers can use this new index to improve the effectiveness of their media mix allocation.
There are three versions of the American Attribution Index: the Aggregate Index, representing average attribution indices across all participating companies and all of their respective industries; Vertical Industry Indices, which represent an industry-specific attribution index across all participating companies in that respective industry; and Company-Specific Indices, developed for a specific company.
The introduction of these indices will allow marketers to gain further insight into advertising ROI, and help marketers more profitably allocate advertising budgets across available online options.
Attend this webcast and learn:
• How to discover the relative importance of online media sources in influencing purchase decisions.
• How you can benchmark against your competitors using the vertical attribution indices.
• How you can use an attribution index customized for your company to improve the allocation of your online advertising investments.
This webcast highlights key attribution management features and functionality to look for when selecting and advertising analytics solution.
Attribution management — the process of tracking, assembling and properly valuing an entire team of online ads as they lead to conversions — has become a critical component of advertising analytics. Identifying which ad deserves “credit” for the sale or conversion has never been easy. The once-popular “last-click” conversion model has given way to a more sophisticated approach that evaluates the ‘influence potential’ of each ad click, impression, or site visit. With proper attribution, marketers can accurately measure, improve, and optimize the profit and ROI generated from cross-media advertising investments. But to do so requires the right advertising analytics solution. How do you evaluate the various options? Which attribution management features and capabilities should marketers look for in advertising analytics packages?
This webcast highlights key attribution management features and functionality to look for when selecting and advertising analytics solution, including:
• tracking capability
• reporting functions
• relevance of ads along Purchase Paths
• basic and custom attribution modeling
• data storage
Find out what you need to know – and what questions to ask – when considering an advertising analytics solution for attribution management.
This webcast will focus on showing how using advanced statistical models can allow one to build attribution models that can then be tested.
The webcast will be co-hosted by Adam Goldberg, ClearSaleing co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, and Dr. Purush Papatla, President of Vetra Analytics, which is a high-end statistical consultancy group that is partnered with ClearSaleing.
Mr. Goldberg and Dr. Papatla will show how using high-end statistical models can allow one to build attribution models that specifically address how to account for:
• Social media
• Word of Mouth
• The differences between short Purchase Paths and long Purchase Paths
Like the previous Forums, there will be some interactive elements. In the first 2 Forums, we had the audience participate by voting on various attribution scenarios. In AMF 3.0, we are going to introduce methods that can be used to solve various attribution scenarios.
This webcast continues the discussion surrounding how to identify, define and ultimately recommend better ways to measure and value an ad.
We’ll present a series of interactive polling questions and share the results with the audience immediately, so you’ll get some real-time information as to how leading internet marketers value ads.
Any good Internet marketing professional knows that assigning all of the value to the last ad clicked on before the conversion is inherently flawed. However, most Internet advertisers lack:
• The tracking technology required to determine the actual team of ads and their sequence that lead to the conversion.
• The valuation methodology to properly assess each ad’s true contribution and value to the conversion.
While a few technologies are now able to effectively track and assemble the purchase path leading to conversion, there is no industry-accepted standard or method for assigning relative value to ads in the path. How do we effectively attribute which ad – or group of ads – ultimately led to the final conversion?
We’ll cover a variety of common issues and scenarios surrounding attribution, such as:
• How length of time between searches affect how ads are credited
• Lifetime ad value with use of additional search
• Best allocation of different advertising scenarios, such as online-offline
This webcast brings together the online marketing and advertising minds to work together as a community to help collectively identify, evaluate, vet and ultimately recommend the best attribution valuation practices and methodologies for online advertisers.
While a few technologies are now able to effectively track and assemble the purchase path leading to conversion, there is no industry-accepted standard or method for assigning relative value to ads in the path. How do we effectively attribute which ad – or group of ads – ultimately led to the final conversion?
This webcast will bring together the online marketing and advertising minds to work together as a community to help collectively identify, evaluate, vet and ultimately recommend the best attribution valuation practices and methodologies.
In this webcast we’ll discuss
• Various ad attribution classifications (e.g. Introducers/Influencers/Closers)
• Common issues and scenarios surrounding attribution
• Best allocation methods for different advertising scenarios
Search marketing continues to dominate the online marketing landscape even as other digital strategies gain traction. For marketers, the ability to accurately test and measure the role of search in a customer’s purchase decision is more important than ever as they diversify their online marketing efforts in response to the growing popularity of Twitter, Facebook and other online channels.
“With the economy, more people are searching for discount-related terms” and fewer for product terms….
During a fascinating and insightful hour-long webinar December 1, account managers, brand managers and search marketers from advertisers and agencies listened to Forrester Research analyst Emily Riley and ClearSaleing co-founder Adam Goldberg explain why attribution management is a discipline that should be applied to marketing spend at all budget levels.
Webinar participants learned that attribution is the practice of distributing credit for an action or conversion across multiple ads rather than assigning full credit to the most recent ad. ClearSaleing’s Adam Goldberg is an evangelist for eliminating ‘last click’ thinking, and moving marketers toward the concept of using attribution modeling to give proper credit to all touchpoints that contribute to a conversion.
Searching for Accuracy
The webinar also focused on the role of search in attributing credit for conversions. Typically a consumer can conduct several searches before moving toward a purchase. Paid search is a very effective closing vehicle, but often, it is not where a customer’s Purchase Path begins, said Goldberg. Search often gets overvalued because shopping engines, email campaigns, social media and other touchpoints are not measured along the Purchase Path, Goldberg explained.
Attribution Modeling
Advertisers and agencies have options on what type of attribution they choose to employ. First click attribution is useful for determining which touchpoint created momentum toward a conversion. Equal credit attribution assigns the same value to each touchpoint. Algorithmic attribution is a higher investment but the most accurate because each touchpoint gets the most accurate credit.
ClearSaleing’s model is based on algorithmic attribution, which employs a sample size large enough to be statistically relevant. ClearSaleing and its partner, Vetra Analytics, analyze hundreds of thousands of touchpoints along a Purchase Path. These touchpoints include organic and paid search, shopping engines, email response and social media sites – all points along a Purchase Path that contribute to a conversion. With this data, ClearSaleing is able to assign a weight to each touchpoint that is a realistic predictor of influence.
Why Attribution?
Attribution moves marketers further away from ‘last click’ thinking, which does not represent an accurate picture of how consumers act or buy. By applying attribution, marketers can see what ads are working to bring in ROI and eliminate those that are not working, making the necessary adjustments to their marketing spend.
The best practice is to recalibrate your marketing mix based on seasonality and other key factors relating to your particular business, said Goldberg, who noted that ClearSaleing often works with clients quarterly to calibrate the effectiveness of their marketing spend.
Regardless of the level of marketing spend, the webinar presented a clear case on why attribution can help all advertisers and agencies not spend more, but spend smarter.
ClearSaleing discusses attribution management best practices at two upcoming events.
Columbus, Ohio, November 23, 2009 — ClearSaleing, a technology and thought leader in attribution management, announced today it is sponsoring a December 1st webinar on interactive attribution in which leading attribution authority, Emily Riley, Forrester Research, Inc. Senior Analyst, will be the guest speaker. The webinar follows on the heels of the October 2009 published Forrester report on attribution, authored by Ms. Riley: The Forrester WaveTM: Interactive Attribution, Q4 2009.
Adam Goldberg, ClearSaleing co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, will join Ms. Riley on the webinar, scheduled for 1 PM EST/10 AM PST, and broadcast in conjunction with Incisive Media, producer of Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo, and publisher of SearchEngineWatch.com and ClickZ.com. The webcast will be moderated by Mike Grehan, vice president and Global Content Director, Incisive Media.
“It’s time to bury the last-click approach to analyzing ROI in search marketing,” Goldberg said. “ClearSaleing is proving that true ROI analysis goes far beyond the last click, and takes into account all the touch points along the consumer’s purchase path.”
During the webinar, Ms. Riley will give an overview on the concept of attribution, explain why it is important to understand, and will discuss attribution modeling options, such as technology applications and consulting services, along with marketing activities that can be tracked, such as all ad sources, social media, back office and offline conversions.
“The attribution management webinar will be a great educational resource for all of us either working with, or writing about, best practices in online campaign management and ROI analysis,” said Goldberg, who will be presenting case studies on attribution during the webinar.
SES Chicago Search Panel
At the Search Engine Strategies Conference, December 7-11 in Chicago, ClearSaleing’s Adam Goldberg will be a speaker in the Analytics, Conversion & Attribution Track panel titled: Why Does Search Get all the Credit? The panel is scheduled for Monday, December 7, from 4:30 to 5:30 PM. Goldberg will demonstrate, showing actual purchase paths from ClearSaleing’s application, that conversions often start with a non-search ad and why search is often the ‘closer.’ He will also examine the influence of branded versus non-branded terms and explain how non-branded terms should be factored in to purchase path and ROI analysis. Mike McDerment, CEO & Co-founder, FreshBooks, is moderating the panel. Other speakers are Bill Hunt, President, Back Azimuth Consulting; Ron Belanger, SES Advisory Board & Vice President of Worldwide Agency Sales, Omniture; Andrew Wheeler, Managing Director, iProspect Chicago, and Kristin Clark, Director, Media and Market Planning, Broadview Security.
About Emily Riley
Emily Riley is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. who serves Interactive Marketing professionals and specializes in advertiser, consumer, and publisher trends and technologies, which include social marketing, online brand and direct response marketing, targeting, measurement and response.
About Adam Goldberg
Adam Goldberg serves as ClearSaleing’s Chief Innovation Officer and is one of the interactive advertising industry’s leading authorities on attribution management. Prior to ClearSaleing, Goldberg was hired by Google to start their first inside sales team in 2003. While at Google, he helped to build the inside sales team into a $500 million a year organization. He also created Google’s proprietary B2B search engine to help his sales team identify prospects and to help Google better understand its customer base.
About ClearSaleing
ClearSaleing has been named “Technology Platform Search Marketers Can’t Live Without” at the SES (Search Engine Strategies) Awards. ClearSaleing’s advertising portfolio management platform helps marketers identify ways to more effectively and profitably allocate ad spend across a complex mix of online advertising investments.
ClearSaleing is a thought leader in the growing scientific field of attribution management and publishes www.AttributionManagement.com that provides a rich repository of ClearSaleing and externally published articles, white papers and other material focused exclusively on attribution management.
ClearSaleing’s unique ability to give marketers telescopic insight into their online ad investment is attracting major brand customers such as American Greetings and Nationwide Insurance. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, please visit www.ClearSaleing.com
Given the critical nature of attribution management to advertising analytics, we have created the Attribution Management Buyer’s Guide for marketers to use when selecting an advertising analytics and optimization platform. The Guide is intended to highlight key attribution management features and functionality that should be available in any advertising analytics solution you select.
This is the eighth blog in a 10-part blog series for the Attribution Management Buyers Guide. This eighth section focuses on Basic Attribution Models.
When engaging with a new attribution management technology, you should be able to start performing attribution on day one out of the box. Though attribution can be a very complex exercise, there are also some simple attribution models that can greatly improve the performance of your online campaigns. To ensure the solution you decide to go with offers attribution models that you can use on day one, ask the following questions:
1. What kind of basic attribution models does your platform offer?
2. Can you verify that using these base attribution models will improve my accuracy and performance?
A robust attribution platform should be able to offer basic attribution models out of the box, such as:
Even - where conversion credit is spread equally across all participating ads in the Purchase Path
Even with Exclusions - the even model with the additional ability to exclude specific ads, such as Branded terms, at the end of the Purchase Path
Path Length – the ability to assign specific percentages to participating ads based on the number of steps in the path
Rules Based - the ability to assign specific percentages based on the types of ads and the number of steps that are used in each step along the path
An experienced attribution management provider should be able to provide you with case studies or examples of how these basic models were able to increase the accuracy of conversion valuation and, ultimately, how that improved performance, as measured by increased profit and/or ROI.
Of course, the best indicator of an attribution management models success is its ability to grow your own bottom line profit. You’ll need to have a benchmark in place before you start attribution to make sure these models truly are having the desired impact.
Part 9 – Mathematical Attribution
This is the ninth blog in a 10-part blog series for the Attribution Management Buyers Guide. This ninth section focuses on Mathematical Attribution.
After you find success using basic attribution models, you may want to move to more advanced attribution that allows you to set specific weights for different activities that occur during the purchase path. When selecting an attribution management vendor, it is imperative they offer not only basic attribution models but also provide you the ability to build more sophisticated models either through the use of their technology and/or with their consultative services.
Asking the following questions will ensure you have the ability to be more sophisticated in the future:
1. What kind of customization options do you offer?
2. Do you offer any consultative services that can build custom attribution models?
Moving beyond an Even attribution or an Even with Exclusions model requires an understanding of some complex mathematics. Setting custom attribution rules should not be a subjective exercise and should only be taken on by attribution management vendors with solid statistical and mathematical knowledge. Custom models should be able to include variables like the decay rate of different types of ads, the influence potential of different types of ads, additional time variables, types of products sold, type of customer, impact of social media, etc.
Part 10 – Data Warehousing
This is the tenth blog in a 10-part blog series for the Attribution Management Buyers Guide. This tenth section focuses on Data Warehousing.
When you make the move to attribution management, you’re going to then be collecting a wealth of information you did not have access to before. For example, you’re now going to have information for all the ads involved in the sale(s) versus just the last ad. If you are tracking true profit that means you are also going to have individual product information. You also know a lot more about your customers buying behavior since you are able to see all the ads your customer uses versus the last one. To harness this information and to make it actionable, it will require the use of a data warehouse, which can be a powerful marketing intelligence asset for your company.
Ask the following questions to determine how your attribution vendor will allow you to get even more value out of the data being captured:
1. Does your technology reside on a data warehouse?
2. Do you offer a data warehouse as an option?
3. Can the warehoused data be queried to create custom reports?
Attribution management systems that are built upon a data warehouse will provide you with much greater flexibility in building custom models and custom reports. Additionally, it will be able to provide further analytics around things, such as product trends, customer buying behavior and lifetime value, for example.
Conclusion
Sophisticated marketers are keenly aware of the importance of Attribution Management in accurately measuring and improving the performance of their cross‐media advertising campaigns. The challenge for these marketers is to find a robust advertising analytics platform that is built on a foundation of attribution management. Hopefully, this Guide will help you assess whether the solution you’re considering measures up to the robust requirements of an effective attribution management platform.
Want to get more involved in attribution management? We invite you to become a member of the Attribution Management Forum, an online group that represents more than 300 leading marketers from a diverse range of companies across nearly every industry segment. For more information on joining, or for additional information on Attribution Management, visit us online at AttributionManagement.com or ClearSaleing.com.
Check out the remaining blogs in the Attribution Management Buyers Guide series:
Forrester Consulting recently examined the total economic impact and potential ROI that enterprises may realize by deploying ClearSaleing's advanced advertising analytics and attribution management platform. Register for the webinar to see the full analysis and the benefits from implementing an attribution management solution.
Independent technology research firm Forrester Research, Inc.
selected vendors for a 44-criteria evaluation to determine the leaders in the attribution management field.
ClearSaleing Takes "Top Honors"
ClearSaleing received the highest scores in both the “Current Offering” and “Strategy” categories.
Download the Report »
About Attribution Management
In the world of online marketing, Attribution Management is the process of properly identifying and valuing the chain of marketing initiatives and advertisements that lead to a sale or conversion.
