Marketing Attribution and Advertising Tracking 101

“How do I know if my advertising is working?” is not a question that can be answered by the question “How did you hear about us?” Business owners must fully understand the science of marketing attribution and utilize all the technology available to track ad engagement for a clearer picture of how your entire marketing funnel is performing, TOGETHER.

No body wants to waste money on advertising. It’s a valid concern, that without the proper understanding of how marketing works, can make business owners super critical of their advertising, for the wrong reasons.

Whether it’s 2023 or 1983, consumers still function much of the same way. Advertising exposes your business to a particular audience and attracts a consumer to act with a call to action, solution, discount or special service. Once the advertising influences them to contact your business, they are in your marketing funnel, but probably not a customer yet.

The customer journey from awareness of your business to purchase typically looks something like this…..

1. They notice your billboard when they drive their kids to school everyday.

2. Later that week, they see your ad in a magazine when they check their mail.

3. Curious, they might even scan the QR code on the ad to see more photos or find out about special financing you’re promoting, but they take no additional action.

4. Because they went to your website, when they open their phones to check their Facebook, your remarketing ad shows up in their feed. They click it, but then hop back to see what their friends are up to.

5. At lunch the following week they mention they need the service you offer to friends and their friend mentions having just used your company, and what a great experience they had.

6. They go back to your website to investigate further and opt in to your email list where you’re offering an introductory special discount to first-time customers.

7. The next week they receive an additional email from your email campaign and finally decide to call.

And then you ask “How did you hear about us?”

Who gets the credit?

What if they mention the first place? Or the last place? Or the friend? Do you cancel your billboard that exposes your business to 70,000 cars a day becuase no one tells you “I saw your billboard?” Or do you cancel the magazine ad that was delivered to 52,000 homes because the caller didn’t mention it?”

When you ask this question, the person on the line is going to recall either the first place, or last place they saw your business name. Everything in between never gets mentioned…. yet every touchpoint played a pivotal part in building trust in your brand and prompting them to finally take action.

If you are relying on asking the question “how did you hear about us?” to track your advertising campaigns, you are going to be disappointed by incomplete data and be at risk of making knee-jerk changes in your marketing funnel that alter your leads coming in.

It’s not the job of your customer to track your advertising. Period.

“It’s not the job of your customer to track your advertising. Period.”

Let’s give you real solutions.

A marketers view of how their ads are performing is a two-fold perspective that work together. The first view is called marketing attribution. This view helps marketers determine at what touch point in the customer journey they will apply credit to a lead source. This applies to platforms, not necessarily single ads. The second view is called advertising tracking. This applies to creative assets used to measure the engagement that a single ad is prompting. These two sciences of marketing work together.

Trying to use a single tracking methods to measure advertising performance is a short-sighted way of viewing your marketing at a whole.

Instead, understanding what Marketing Attribution is, and then further analyzing engagement performance of each ad with Advertising Tracking is and how consumers interact with brands, is the first place to start having more peace in your marketing decisions.

Marketing Attribution for Placement

When you buy advertising with any media – billboards, radio tv, print, direct mail, search, Facebook or Instagram – you are buying exposure to an audience. This is delivered through impressions and reach of each media through the airways, roadways, internet and mailboxes.

Marketing attribution is the process of determining which marketing touch points a consumer encounters on their journey to making a purchase or taking a desired action. In simpler terms, it's the method of assigning credit to the channels or campaigns that influenced a consumer's decision.

Several marketing attribution models can be used, each with its unique perspective on allocating credit.

• First-Touch Attribution: This model assigns 100% of the credit to the first touchpoint a customer interacts with. Using the earlier example, the Billboard ad would receive full credit for the sale.

• Last-Touch Attribution: Here, all the credit goes to the last touchpoint before the conversion. In our example, your email campaign would get the credit.

• Linear Attribution: This model divides the credit equally among all touch points. So, in the case of our example, each of the five touch points would receive 20% of the credit.

• Time-Decay Attribution: Credit is allocated based on how close each touchpoint is to the conversion, with the most recent touch points receiving more credit. For instance, if your ad in Social Magazines just came out and John Doe called the same day to sign up for your personal training services, you might attribute his call to your recent ad that just dropped, whether he saw it or not.

• Data-Driven Attribution: This model uses advanced algorithms and machine learning to assign credit based on actual data on how each touchpoint contributes to conversions. It's one of the most accurate but requires substantial data and sophisticated analytics capabilities. It is mostly used with advanced CRM systems, tracking modules where print campaigns are mirrored with digital campaigns and the actions of the consumer are tracked at every point in the lead funnel. Something big businesses use that is out of reach for most small business.

You get to choose which you’ll use, so choose wisely. Consider this though: If all touch points affected the psyche of the consumer to finally act, adopting a Linear Attribution Model is the best choice for small business owners for its simplicity and egalitarian approach.

Linear Attribution is the only model wherein every touchpoint in the customer’s journey towards conversion is given equal credit. Unlike the First-Touch or Last-Touch models, where credit is attributed solely to the initial or final interaction respectively, Linear Attribution recognizes that every stage of the consumer's journey can play a crucial role in influencing their final decision.

“If all touch points affected the psyche of the consumer to finally act, adopting a Linear Attribution Model is recommended for small business owners for its simplicity and egalitarian approach.”

Looking at the consumer’s journey to you wholistically brings a bit of a democratic approach to tracking your ads. It acknowledges that today's consumer interactions are multifaceted and that narrowing down a conversion to a single point might overlook the cumulative impact of multiple touchpoints. This is especially pertinent in today's market, where consumers often engage with brands across a myriad of platforms before making a purchasing decision.

If you are making wise advertising placement choices based off of quality of audience and scope of reach, this is an even easier module to use.

For more clarity, you can then implement more precise tracking models in each ad campaign to gain an even clearer picture of the individual ad performance. This is where tracking methods come into play.

Advertising Tracking for Creative

Advertising Tracking is the sister science to marketing attribution, where you can gain more granular data on the performance of a single advertisement.

Don’t confuse performance with the sale though. Performance equals engagement – does this ad, with it’s placement and creative, engage consumers to interact with my brand. This is a crucial question for marketers to always be considering.

For offline and online advertising tracking, these advertising tracking tools can be used to engage the customers in unique ways, direct them to different landing pages or departments, and ultimately track how well your creative is prompting consumers to engage with your business.

***WARNING FOR MARKETERS*** These tracking tools are creative assets, not tools to measure marketing attribution, they are meant to track the design performance of a single ad. They do not measure impressions or reach, which is what you buy when you buy advertising.

1. Unique Phone Numbers. One of the most straightforward methods for tracking offline advertising is by using unique phone numbers. For each offline campaign, a distinct phone number can be assigned. This allows businesses to monitor the number of calls generated by each campaign. There are several third-party services available that offer call tracking and analytics, allowing businesses to see not just the quantity of calls, but also the quality and duration.

2. Custom URLs. Even though this method involves online tools, it's effective for tracking offline ads. Create a unique landing page for each offline campaign. By directing users to these specific pages, businesses can analyze traffic sources and measure the effectiveness of each offline advertisement. It’s not as simple as setting up a unique URL, you will need to set up more advanced website analytics with your web deeloper to make sure that you have a view into the traffic to that specific URL.

3. QR Codes. QR codes have made it very easy to point customers offline to a specific page on your website online. By scanning a QR code with their smartphone, customers can be directed to a specific web page. These codes can be placed on print ads, business cards, or billboards, even TV. It's a bridge between the offline and online worlds that gives a small glimpse into ad performance, but most importantly helps marketers put offline consumers into online remarketing campaigns and further develop brand trust overtime. You can learn more about the proper way to use QR Codes offline here.

4. Redemption Codes or Coupons. Offering special deals or discounts via redemption codes or coupons is a classic method of tracking offline advertising effectiveness, but be forewarned, it’s a method that trains customers to only buy from you with a discount. Often, a print ad has a cut-out coupon, or a radio commercial might mention a specific code to use at checkout. When customers redeem these codes, businesses can attribute the sale or lead to the specific offline campaign.

5. Contact / Lead Form on website with clear “how did you hear about us.” If you still want to ask your customer “how did you hear about us?” at least let technology do the work for you. If your business is using a contact form on your website for customers to inquire about pricing or availability, that form should include the required question: “how did you hear about us.” Excluding it is the most overlooked form of advertising every business is guilty of.
   
   This question shouldn’t be an open ended response either. Going back to our original statement that it’s not the job of your customer to track your advertising. If you want clear answers, give them pre-filled options that list all the places they could have seen you - including referral from a friend, drive by and every place you advertise - to collect clear data.

6. Controlled Release. Basically run one ad at at ime. If unsure about an ad's potential impact, try releasing it in a controlled manner. This might mean running a radio ad in one city before expanding it elsewhere or distributing a direct mail campaign to a select neighborhood. By measuring the response in this controlled setting, businesses can make informed decisions about wider releases.

“Trying to use a single tracking methods to measure advertising performance is a short-sighted way of viewing your marketing at a whole. ”

Between Marketing Attribution and Advertising Tracking, you can see that there is no one way to answer the original question “how do I know if my ads are working.” There is only better platform selection, constant tweaking, and constant communication with your advertising provider.

Having complete peace in your marketing decisions is a 2-part process. First, embrace the right attribution model and then, leverage a mix of advertising tracking tools. Then and only then can marketers gain a deeper understanding of their customer's journey and optimize their strategies for better results without making knee-jerk reactions based on superficial data. As with any other aspect of marketing, the key is to remain flexible, adapt to new data, and be willing to evolve as the landscape changes.