The goal of the Attribution Management Forum series is to bring together the leading minds in the online advertising community in order to better identify, define and ultimately recommend better valuation practices and methodologies for measuring an ad’s value.

This clip from the AMF 2.0 discusses how to credit Offline Ads, SEO, and Social media efforts. Some of the other discussions included: time sensitive attribution, product sensitive attribution, and search/display interaction. Make sure to register for the 4^th Forum in the series: Attribution Management Buyer’s Guide: 10 Features of a Good Advertising Analytics Solution, which will take place on July 28, 2009 at 1pm EST.

To continue reading articles and see the videos from previous forums, visit the Scenario and Video sections of the Attribution Management Site.

In this Purchase Path a consumer sees a Tweet on Twitter promoting a discount on Nike Shox at Finish Line that is valid until midnight. The consumer clicks on the Twitter URL, but does not buy at that point. They go to the address bar and type in the URL for the Finish Line and proceed to the site. Again, they complete the purchase before midnight and thus receive the advertised discount.

1. In Attribution Rule A, credit is split evenly between Twitter and the address bar.
2. In Attribution Rule B, Twitter is given all of the credit, either because it is seen as a valuable advertising source and therefore fully responsible, or because you don’t choose to credit the address bar.
3. In Attribution Rule C, Twitter does not get credit. The use of the address bar implies that it should be counted as a direct visit and a direct sale. Twitter is excluded from receiving credit for the sale, and the address bar get 100%.

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In this Purchase Path a consumer sees a Tweet on Twitter promoting a discount on Nike Shox at Finish Line that is valid until midnight. Then the consumer clicks on the Twitter URL, but does not buy at that point. Then they do a search for “Woman’s Nike Shox”, and click on the Finish Line sponsored link. They complete the purchase before midnight and therefore receive the advertised discount.

1. In Attribution Rule A, Twitter is treated like an ad source and therefore deserves credit for the sale the same way an advisement would. The search also led them to the purchase, so the credit is split evenly between the 2 sources.
2. In Attribution Rule B, Twitter introduced the consumer to the product and informed them of the discount. Twitter did all the work, while the search was merely for navigational purposes; therefore Twitter deserves 100% of the credit.
3. In Attribution Rule C, the last action before the purchase was a paid click, so all the credit goes to the search. Twitter is not viewed as an ad source and gets no credit for the sale.

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In this Purchase Path, someone does a search for “running shoes”, clicks on the sponsored link, but does not make a purchase. They refine their search to “Woman’s Nike Shox” and this time click the organic listing for Finish Line. No purchase occurs. Then they search for “Nike Shox Turbo VII” and click on a paid link. Again, no purchase occurs. Finally, they type in “Finish Line” in the search box, click on the organic link, and complete the sale. How should the mix of SEO and PPC be attributed?

1. In Attribution Rule A, all the ads and SEO efforts are considered equally important. It took 4 touch points on the website for the consumer to buy, so the credit is divided equally among the 4 all efforts and they are each given 25% of the credit for the sale.
2. In Attribution Rule B, credit is only attributed to the ads, giving each 50%, while the SEO does not receive any credit for the purchase.
3. In Attribution Rule C, all the touch points deserve credit. The reason they typed “Finish Line” in and clicked on the organic link was simply to navigate back to the site. At this point, the consumer already made up their mind to buy and the last SEO effort should be excluded from receiving credit for the sale.

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In this Purchase Path the advertiser sends something direct mail (such as a catalog or flyer). The consumer then goes online and does a search for the branded term (Finish Line), clicks on the ad, and makes a purchase. It is known that the catalog was received within 7 days of them making the online purchase.

1. In Attribution Rule A, the credit is distributed evenly between the catalog and the search.
2. In Attribution Rule B, both sources deserve credit, however the breakdown between the 2 is not known. The catalog and the branded search each deserve a portion of credit for the sale, but it is undecided which is greater.
3. In Attribution Rule C, the catalog is given 100% of the credit for the search. It introduced the consumer to the product they purchased and going to the website was simply the easiest way for them to place the order.
4. In Attribution Rule D, the branded search is the easiest to track and therefore gets all the credit for the sale. It is also the action that lead most directly to the purchase.

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