Watch the Forum- Windows Media Audio (16k)

Original Date- October 28, 2008

Length- 63 minutes

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

Watch the Forum- Real Media Audio (16k)

Watch the Forum- Windows Media Audio (16k)

In this Purchase Path, a consumer searches for running shoes. They click on the ad from Finish Line, yet do not make a purchase. Then they type in the search term “Nike Shox Womens”, click on a Finish Line ad again, but do not make a purchase. Lastly, they use the same search term as before “Nike Shox Womens”, found the Finish Line ad again, clicked on it, and completed the purchase.

a) In this attribution rule, credit is given to the last search ad clicked before the sale.

b) In this attribution rule, there are 3 ads, and there is no differentiation between them. All the ads assisted in making the sale and therefore credit is distributed evenly among the 3.

c) In this attribution rule, since the same search term was used twice, you conclude that the second time it was used it was for navigational purposes. Therefore the 3^rd search term is excluded and credit for the sale is distributed evenly across the first 2 ads.

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In this purchase path, the consumer does a search on a CSE and clicks on ad for Finish Line. They then: leave the CSE, go to a search engine, type in the company’s name, click on sponsored link and convert.

a) In attribution rule A, you would be allocating the profit, revenue, conversion credit across all ads involved in purchase equally. The argument for this rule is that every ad involved in the sale is equally important and therefore deserves equal credit.

b) In attribution rule B you are giving 100% credit to the last ad that was clicked on prior to the conversion. The argument for doing this is that you are giving credit to the ad that seems most directly responsible for the conversion.

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In this purchase path, the consumer searches for running shoes and clicks on a Finish Line ad. They then refine the search further to look for Women’s Nike Shox, and again click on a Finish Line ad. The consumer then goes back to the search engine and searches for the branded term “Finish Line” and clicks on their sponsored link.

a) In attribution rule A, you would be allocating the profit, revenue, and conversion credit across all ads involved in a purchase equally. The argument for this rule is that every ad involved in the sale is equally important and therefore deserves equal credit.

b) In attribution rule B, you are choosing to exclude giving credit to the branded term at the end of a purchase path. The argument for this rule is that when a consumer types a branded search at the end of a purchase path, they are just trying to navigate back to site that they have already decided to buy from. Therefore, it makes sense to give profit/revenue/conversion credit to the ads that did the selling rather than a navigational add. It can also be argued that this consumer could have just as easily navigated back to the website through the address bar, an organic link, or though a bookmark.

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In this purchase path, the consumer searches for running shoes and clicks on a Finish Line ad for running shoes. They then refine the search further to look for Women’s Nike Shox, and then click on Finish Line ad. They do a final search for Nike Shox Turbo VII, click on Finish Line ad, and make a purchase.

a) In attribution rule A, you would be allocating the profit, revenue, and conversion credit across all ads involved in purchase equally. The argument for this rule is that every ad involved in the sale is equally important and therefore deserves equal credit.

b) In attribution rule B, we are giving 100% credit to the initial ad that introduced a consumer to the business. The logic for doing this is that without appearing on the first ad, the other ads might not have had a chance to play. Therefore, all credit should go to ad that introduced the searcher to your business.

c) In attribution rule C you are giving 100% credit to the last ad that was clicked on prior to the conversion. The argument for doing this is that you are giving credit to the ad that seems most directly responsible for the conversion.

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