Understand ecommerce attribution models which attribution models can maximise your marketing efforts and ROI.
What are Ecommerce Attribution Models?
An attribution model is a framework used to analyse which touch points or marketing channels receive credit for a conversion. In ecommerce, this means understanding the various interactions a customer has with your brand before making a purchase.
Different marketing channels, such as social media, email newsletters, your website, and different touch points, such as a specific blog post, an Instagram advert or a Google ad can influence your customers' buying decisions.
Attribution models help determine the effectiveness of your marketing efforts across different channels. By analysing these touch points, you can allocate your marketing budget more effectively and optimise your strategies to increase ROI.
Why are Attribution Models important in Ecommerce?
Attribution models are crucial for ecommerce businesses because they provide insights into customer behaviour and purchasing journeys. Without a clear understanding of which channels drive conversions, it’s challenging to make informed marketing decisions.
By using particular attribution models, ecommerce businesses can identify high-performing channels, optimise underperforming ones, and ultimately increase their overall marketing effectiveness. This leads to better budget allocation, improved marketing strategies, and enhanced customer experiences.
How do Ecommerce Attribution Models Work?
Attribution models work by tracking and analysing customer interactions across various touch points or channels. These touch points could include paid ads, social media, email campaigns, organic search, and direct visits to the website.
Different models attribute varying levels of credit to each touchpoint, depending on their position in the customer journey. This data is then used to understand which channels are most effective at driving conversions and which ones need improvement.
Benefits of Using Attribution Models:
Using attribution models offers numerous benefits for ecommerce businesses. Firstly, they provide a holistic view of the customer journey, allowing you to understand how different marketing channels contribute to conversions.
Secondly, attribution models enable more accurate measurement of marketing ROI. By understanding which channels are most effective, you can allocate your budgets more efficiently. Additionally, these models help identify opportunities for optimisation, leading to better-performing marketing campaigns and increased sales.
Different Types of Ecommerce Attribution Models
There are several types of ecommerce attribution models, each with its own approach to assigning credit to touch points. The attribution models include multi-touch models and single-touch models.
Some of the most common models include:
1. First-Touch Attribution: This model gives all the credit to the first interaction a customer has with your brand.
2. Last-Touch Attribution: This model attributes all the credit to the last interaction before the conversion.
3. Linear Attribution: This model distributes the credit equally across all touch points in the customer journey.
4. Time-Decay Attribution: This model gives more credit to touch points that occurred closer to the conversion.
5. Position-Based Attribution: Also known as the U-shaped model, it gives 40% credit to the first and last touchpoints and distributes the remaining 20% equally among the middle interactions.
6. Algorithmic or Data-Driven Attribution: This model uses machine learning and predictive analytics to determine the most influential touch points based on customer data. This is arguably the most accurate model, but also tends to be the most expensive and complicated to implement. It's valuable for complex user journeys with multiple touch points and channels.
Which is the Best Attribution Model to Use?
The best attribution model truly depends on your business model, your budget and your marketing strategy.
Conventional attribution models rely on what you believe to be true about your business and how customers convert, whereas data-driven attribution models use the computer's ability to analyse customer data to understand which touch points actually impact conversions.
Data-driven attribution models are also expensive and complex to implement, which means they tend to only be accessible to companies with much larger budgets.
Single touch point models are the most straight forward to apply, but the results aren't necessarily accurate as they don't take into consideration the full customer journey. They can, however, be helpful if you don't have a lot of historical data to base your decision, or if you have a short customer journey with very few touch points.
What's the best attribution model for Paid Media?
"The best attribution for Paid Media is a complex question, with channels like Paid Search proving very effective on a last click model. However, Paid Social prospecting activity would not perform well against this model.
Personally I would always recommend businesses think about their marketing efforts holistically, as without awareness driving activity, the lower funnel activity wouldn't have an audience. This approach can prove expensive though given the cost implications of full attribution modelling."
- Paid Media Manager, Dave Archibald
What's the best attribution model for Content Marketing?
"When it comes to content marketing, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. Content used to be thought of as simply website copywriting for the sole purpose of improving your SEO, but content marketing is so much broader than that.
Content marketing is channel agnostic, meaning it isn't married to one particular marketing channel - yes, it involved long-form content such as blog posts, but it also includes video content, webinars and imagery across pretty much every platform. The best attribution model for measuring the success of your content completely depends on the audience you are targeting and the channel you are using to target them."
- Senior Content Strategist, Yaeli-Mia Bartels
What's the best attribution model for SEO?
"It is important to look at the overall marketing mix and goals in the interest of the connected approach. 'Last click' is fine, and often used, but it will undervalue upper funnel content efforts. This is not just for SEO, but data driven attribution seems to be the best as it relies on Machine Learning. The only downside is the volume of data you'd need, but seems to be the most beneficial and accurate when it comes to understanding the true value of all channels."
- COO, Syed Ali
How to Make the Most of your Attribution Model:
- Keep accurate records of your UTM taggings and parameters
- Use your CRM and GA4 to group visitations into one cohesive pathway
- Create non-personal identifiable IDs to integrate data across platforms
FAQs About Ecommerce Attribution Models
1. Why are attribution models important for ecommerce?
Attribution modelling helps ecommerce businesses understand which marketing channels and touch points are most effective at driving conversions, allowing for better budget allocation and strategy optimisation.
2. Which attribution model is best for my business?
The best attribution model depends on your specific business goals and customer journey. Testing different models and analysing the results can help determine the most effective one for your needs.
3. How can I implement an attribution model in my ecommerce business?
Implementing an attribution model typically involves using analytics tools that track customer interactions across various channels. Many ecommerce platforms and marketing tools offer built-in attribution modelling features.
Lottie Hippisley
