Customer-centricity and marketing attribution: Here is why it matters and how to get started

Abstract

Being able to accurately measure and attribute success to marketing tactics was fairly easy when there were relatively few marketing channels, such as television, radio, print and direct mail in the 1960s. With the advent of digital marketing, attribution is no longer simple, and it is growing in importance. Fractional attribution rooted in proven math and statistical techniques is a critical tool to accurately improve/optimise the performance of an incredibly fragmented and complex system of channels and media, both online and offline. Barely one in 10 still consider ‘last click’ attribution to be an effective way to measure. Over 50 per cent of companies are still using last click, however. Data-driven decisions are better decisions. Developing a fractional attribution model is a significant undertaking in both time and money, but using it to inform better decision making can also increase marketing effectiveness. In a multi-channel world where the customer journey can span across several online and offline channels, robust attribution solutions will play a central role in informing channel and spending decisions. For instance, after implementing a fractional attribution model, one consumer product company was able to increase sales by 23 per cent while holding spending steady.