What is Attribution Reporting?

Attribution Reporting embodies a sophisticated mechanism of discerning and weighing the contribution made by various customer touchpoints leading to the eventual desired action, like a purchase or a subscription on an eCommerce platform. Initially, it could have been a simple ‘last-click’ attribution where the last point of customer contact gets all the credit. However, in today’s diversified marketing channels era, it has been replaced with more well-rounded, subtle methods. It incorporates the analysis of emails, ad campaign impressions, affiliate marketing, social media channels, broadcast and direct messaging channels, and any modes that enterprises use to reach their customers.

Formula

Example

For instance, if a customer follows these actions- clicks on a Facebook ad (Touchpoint 1)-> signs up for the newsletter (Touchpoint 2)-> reads a blog (Touchpoint 3) -> makes the purchase (Touchpoint 4), a linear attribution model would equally credit each point for the final conversion.

Why is Attribution Reporting important?

Attribution Reporting has paramount importance in analyzing a marketing strategy’s effectiveness, especially in eCommerce. It not only helps identify the most effective strategies that influence the buyer’s journey but also optimizes marketing expenditures.

Which factors impact Attribution Reporting?

Relying solely on ‘last click’ attribution might not yield a comprehensive image of the customer journey. Hence, utilize advanced analytics to collect data from all customer touchpoints. Also, creating a customer persona can help understand their behaviour and tweak marketing strategies for precise targeting.

How can Attribution Reporting be improved?

Several factors impact Attribution Reporting, including the type of business, customer behaviour, type of products/services being sold, and the platform used for selling. Moreover, the effectiveness of the various marketing channels used also has a significant impact.

What is Attribution Reporting’s relationship with other metrics?

Attribrition Reporting closely interacts with other eCommerce metrics like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Conversion Rate, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and more. It helps in understanding which marketing channels bring valuable customers with a higher CLV, thus implicating conversion rates and CPA.