Demystifying Multi-touch And Other Attribution Models

It is essential for the business owners to understand the importance of an effective marketing campaign. This way he can understand of various marketing platforms so that he can effectively and reasonable project his future growth plans. Fortunately, today the digital marketing platforms are more data-driven. This way there are many tools, which have an impression as well as conversion costs stored, making it easy to determine the ROI on various campaigns.

Today the tech community is way more advanced and rigorous about using data to drive growth. But still, while you're running multiple campaigns, at times it can become a tricky task measure ROI for each conversion.

So here we will understand some basic fundamentals of various marketing attribution models. It can help you gain an insight about selecting different models and help you while building your own.

Common Attribution Models: Since there is a ton of literature on various models that are available out there. Let's just understand the basics of each of these models and a little more on the most used multi-touch attribution modeling technique.

Last Touch: The last touch is one of the most commonly used analytics models. It is easy to use and is used as Adwords and many other programmatic ad platforms. Basically, in this method, the last campaign or impression which has to lead to the final conversion is given full credit. If you are running one or two basic campaigns, the simplicity of this tool will help you to place credit easily. The out-of-the-box accessibility of the last touch is appealing. However, if you have more campaigns running at the same time, it can become a little misleading and difficult to allocate conversion credit.

First Touch: The First touch is exactly opposite to the last touch attribution modeling technique. In this technique, the very first impressions which lead to the conversion is given credit. Just like the last touch, it is easy to run this model in case of one or two marketing campaigns. But, in case you are running multiple marketing channels. If you are looking for a tool for a long-term purpose, this tool will not be enough to allocate future marketing spend.

What is a Multi-Touch Attribution Model?

The first and the last touch attribution are simple and easy to understand. Even as a sole proprietor you can use these tools to assess your marketing campaigns. But the devil remains in its details. This is where the multi-touch attribution modeling technique comes into play. A multi-touch attribution is basically an act in order to determine the value of each customer touch point that leads to a conversion. This tool helps you to figure out which marketing channel or campaign has to be duly credit for customer conversion. It is best for determining and allocating future spend on a specific campaign for gaining better results.

You can think that a multi-touch attribution is a set of rules that govern and place credit to different marketing channels. Or if we talk in technical terms, this is an equation wherein one side has a customer's touch points as cost per impression carry its unique weight, and the other end should be the conversion value.

Time Decay: One of the simplest ways to give credit to conversion is through time decay technique. It explains that if earlier touch points were useful, then why they do not bring in maximum conversion. So, the latest campaign which has brought in maximum conversions is considered.

Linear: The linear model gives all interactions equal credit. It is a more sophisticated version of last and first touch and a step-less wrong. Still, there is a need to weigh effective marketing campaigns more credit for a better understanding of the customer.

Custom: A much more advanced version of all other attribution modeling techniques is the custom attribution. There are no clear set of guidelines that need to be followed. Currently, marketing experts run this through the trial and error technique for achieving the best of results.