Once again Attribution Management proves to be a hot topic at industry conferences and shows around the country. ClearSaleing co-founder and CIO, Adam Goldberg, explains some common questions and issues surrounding attribution management at this year’s Etail West conference in Palm Desert, CA.
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Time: 1:00 PM EST | 10:00 AM PST
Join ClearSaleing CIO and Co-Founder, Adam Goldberg, along with VP of Biz Development, Dustin Engel, as they discuss various approaches to Attribution Management. As the need for implementing an Attribution Management solution has continued to increase, it is important to understand the various offerings available to decide which solution is the best for you.
Join us for this free webcast to learn:
The various approaches to attribution, with pros and cons for each offering:
Attribution management is a practice that is starting to get more attention from online marketers, fueled partly by the pressures they are under to make smart decisions on online ad spending.
Attribution is a method of determining which of your online ads lead a customer toward a purchase decision, and pinpointing the level of influence of each of these ads. Traditional web analytics has been helpful in determining which sites are “sticky,” and which sites draw qualified traffic, but attribution goes a step further… continue reading on DM news site
Why does accuracy matter when measuring marketing effectiveness? Accuracy matters because in today’s world, marketing decisions are made on data. The best creative is not the one that makes us laugh the hardest, and it’s not the one that we remember for the longest period of time. No, it’s the one that produces the most profit. The more accurately we can measure our marketing effectiveness, the better decisions we make, which ultimately…
Read the entire article on the Search Engine Land Blog…
By Joy Brazelle, Director, Product Marketing and Professional Services
Background
Back in the good old days of marketing, marketers made decisions solely based on their gut feelings. They’d create their marketing and media plans, and then print out a huge spreadsheet filled with marketing launches, ad buys, and creatives for the year. The agency and the client would gather around the conference room table and debate one approach versus another until they came to an agreement on the marketing plan for the year. The campaigns would be launched, budgets would be depleted and next year, it happened all over again.
But there were very few ways to accurately gauge the success of a particular campaign and to correlate it to increases in sales. The marketers’ own experience and gut feelings were about the only criteria on which marketers based their decisions, as there was no effective way of gathering credible information on who actually saw their ads and campaigns and what they did as a result. Basically, you spent the budget, and next year, if the company was still around, the budget was renewed or maybe even increased. And then the planning process repeated itself.
Enter Web Analytics and the Last Click Mentality
Thankfully, things changed when web analytics entered the marketing picture early in the 21st century. Web analytics is great for helping marketers make decisions, especially those decisions related to improving the user experience once a visitor gets to your Web site. One way that web analytics does this is by showing you the sites that are driving traffic to your Web site, also known as the referrers.
Web analytics also does a decent job of evaluating the success of your online marketing campaigns, but the information it is able to provide in this area does have its limitations. Because most web analytics packages were built to monitor traffic once it arrives at your web site, they do not give you the full picture of everything that happened before a visitor got to your Web site—these packages can only show you the ‘last click’ referrer.
The reality is that only a small portion of your visitors do one thing–like visit one Web site, click on one ad, or do one search on one search engine–before they get to your site and convert. The average visitor is likely to take several steps on the way to your website. Unfortunately, web analytics is incapable of showing you the full path your visitors took before arriving on your site.
Attribution Management Widens the Funnel
By focusing only on the last click analytics that typical web analytics programs provide, savvy marketers may inadvertently be strangling the top of the funnel. Consider a common trend of user behavior within a conversion process. The graphic below shows hypothetical funnel statistics for a site with a well-designed checkout process:
Step 1 – Step 2 Less than 10% conversion (add to cart)
Step 2 – Step 3 Greater than 70% convert from this point (begin checkout)
Step 3 – on Greater than 90% convert from this point
Think about this: If you could get even a slightly higher conversion rate from Step 1 to Step 2, you could exponentially increase overall conversion rates based on the conversion rate of the subsequent steps.
By counting on last click attribution that typical web analytics packages provide, most marketers cannot justify widening the top of the funnel with general keyword ads or banner buys. This is because last click analytics focuses on the last thing that a visitor did before he/she converted. Generally this is either clicking on a branded search result or coming back directly to the site by typing the URL into the browser or having the site bookmarked.
But smart marketers, armed with accurate attribution knowledge, can make the case for the more general keywords and the banner buys. They know that many people need to do research before they make even a small purchase online, and they recognize that often, this research starts off with a very general search or an exposure to a banner. Then, as the potential customer learns more about your brand and company and gets closer to making a purchase decision, they are more likely to get back to your site via a branded search when they are ready to purchase or convert.
Attribution Data Helps You Catch them Early
When the stakes are high and competition is fierce, marketers must seek out any advantage you can find. Accurate attribution data presents one such advantage. By having access to visitors in their early steps in the research, marketers who use attribution data are able to widen the top of the funnel AND market to potential customers earlier in the sales cycle.
Forrester Research, Inc. recently released their Interactive Attribution Q4: 2009 report, a 44-criteria evaluation of interactive attribution vendors.
Reading the report will give you an understanding of how Forrester sees each vendor in the space and what each vendor’s strengths and weaknesses are. One key point in the analysis is there is not one specific way to do attribution—each vendor approaches attribution in a unique way. For this post, we’re going to focus on the two specific types of attribution: “operational” (or day-to-day) attribution and “project-based” (or strategic, high-level) attribution…
Read the entire article on the Search Engine Land Blog…
Attribution: What It Is And Why Its Important
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….
By Amy Hooker, Maven Communications
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.
During the webinar Riley referred to her Q4 2009 Forrester Wave Report on Interactive Attribution, in which ClearSaleing was named as a leader. For more information visit www.ClearSaleing.com
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.
The webinar is titled: “Interactive Attribution: Last Click Measurement Is Dead. Now What?” Journalists, bloggers, industry tweeters and search marketers are encouraged and invited to attend. Attendees can register at:
http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=178697&s=1&k=9962C2AE63E95DA0D1E03799B4A7BBD5&partnerref=EMAL
“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:
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:
Part 1 – Attribution Variables
Part 2 & 3 – Products and Ad Sources Tracked
Join the Attribution Management Forum! The next webinar in this groundbreaking industry series takes place Wednesday March 10th, 2010.
Register Now »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. The company also received a perfect 5.0 score on the strength of its management team.
Download the Report »
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.
ClearSaleing Leaps Ahead in Attribution Management: Watch as ClearSaleing Co-Founder and CIO, Adam Goldberg, ta.. http://bit.ly/yfiA6 2009-09-27
