What are the challenges of attribution?

Nowadays, with customers using multiple communication and shopping channels, attribution is an extremely important part of omnichannel marketing. It allows you to understand which marketing activities contributed to a customer’s conversion and which traffic source had the greatest impact on the purchase decision.

Challenge 1: Several points of contact

Multichannel means that customers have access to a variety of touch points, such as stationary stores, websites, social media, emails and more. Each of these channels can influence purchasing decisions, making it difficult to determine which channel was most important.

An example would be a customer who first learned about a SARE brand from a TV commercial, then visited the website, read reviews on social media, and ultimately made a purchase in a stationary store. So how do you appropriately assign value to each of these touchpoints?

Solution: To overcome this challenge, it’s worth using analytics tools to track and analyze customer interactions across channels. This allows you to understand exactly how each touchpoint influences purchase decisions and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Challenge 2: Optimize your marketing budget

One of the key challenges of attribution is optimizing the marketing budget. There are many different marketing channels and activities that can be used to reach customers. However, not all of them are equally effective and not all of them contribute equally to conversions.

So how do you allocate your marketing budget so as to maximize your return on investment? How do you find the golden mean between different channels so that you don’t overpay for those that have less impact on conversions, while not overlooking those that generate the majority of sales?

Solution: To effectively solve this challenge, it is worth using analytical tools that allow you to monitor and analyze the effectiveness of individual marketing channels. This allows you to identify exactly which traffic sources are most profitable and adjust budget allocation accordingly.

Challenge 3: Tracking behavior across devices

Customers use a variety of devices, such as smartphones, tablets, desktops, to navigate through different communication and shopping channels. They repeatedly change the device on which they browse a website, search for product information or make a purchase.

So how do you track these device changes and assign a value to each device accordingly? How do you identify which channel had the greatest impact on customer conversions if they used different devices at different times?

Solution: To solve this challenge, it makes sense to use technologies such as cross-device user tracking technology. This allows you to combine data from different devices and get a comprehensive picture of customer behavior. Such knowledge will allow you to better understand how individual devices affect purchase decisions and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Challenge 4: Real-time data analysis

Multichannel marketing generates huge amounts of data that must be meticulously analyzed. The more touch points, the more data to collect and analyze. However, traditional data analysis methods may not be effective enough for the dynamic and rapidly changing omnichannel environment.

So how do you analyze this data in real time? How to make quick marketing decisions based on up-to-date information?

Solution: To meet this challenge, it’s worth using analytics tools that enable real-time data analysis. This allows you to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in real time and make quick decisions, adjusting your marketing strategy according to the results.

In conclusion, attribution is an extremely important component of omnichannel marketing. Challenges related to it, such as several touchpoints, marketing budget optimization, tracking behavior across devices and real-time data analysis, can be effectively solved with the right analytics tools. With them, it is possible to understand exactly which marketing activities contributed to customer conversions and which traffic source had the greatest impact on the purchase decision.