Marketing attribution guide: Best practices to optimize your ROI

INTRODUCTION

Marketing is an art as much as it is a science – it takes creativity to sell and it takes math to ensure you remain profitable. It’s the difference between coming up with ”Just Do It” and using that brand recognition to generate sales.

Thanks to the advancement of AdTech, marketers have more ways than ever to get their message across – from Netflix to screens at the gas station. But before you sink your marketing budget into the Next Big Thing, you need to understand how to measure the performance of your campaigns. In fact, only around half of companies are currently using marketing attribution tools, leaving one in two businesses playing the guessing game. Throughout this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about marketing attribution, why it’s important, the different methodologies, and how to measure your ads effectively.

What is marketing attribution?

Marketing attribution is the process of determining which marketing channels and campaigns are driving sales, conversions, and other goals, giving you an accurate picture of your ROI. This means you’re able to measure the true impact of all your marketing activity, from out-of-home advertising to your Google Ads campaigns.

Marketing attribution is the process of determining which marketing channels and campaigns are driving sales, conversions and other goals. Every customer journey encompasses a huge range of online and offline advertising touchpoints, and knowing the role each one has played in a conversion is essential to building an accurate picture of your ROI.

Marketing attribution solutions like AppsFlyer allow you to measure the true impact of all your marketing activities. It enables you to develop a deep understanding of your customers’ journey and optimize the pathway that they follow in order to boost your own returns. Without effective attribution, you’re essentially operating in the dark when it comes to knowing how, where and when to spend your marketing budget.

Marketing attribution vs marketing measurement: what’s the difference?  

While they’re both essential in evaluating the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, attribution and measurement describe different things.

Marketing attribution identifies how much each touchpoint and channel within a customer journey contributes to the conversion. Attribution can assign a weight to each touchpoint, which helps marketers identify which channels are the most effective.

Marketing measurement assesses the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by quantifying their impact with numbers like impressions, click-through rates (CTR), conversions, return on investment (ROI), and return on ad spend (ROAS). 

In short, marketing attribution determines how each touchpoint contributes to the customer journey, while marketing measurement quantifies the performance of marketing campaigns with metrics.

More specifically for mobile marketers, it’s essential to understand which marketing activities and touchpoints are driving app installs by measuring user engagement across multiple devices and platforms. 

Why is marketing attribution important?

If attribution isn’t part of your marketing toolkit, you’re missing out on vital information,  and you could be wasting your budget. Here’s why it matters:

• Marketing attribution helps paint a whole picture of how every marketing campaign contributes to the customer journey – from the first time they hear about your brand all the way to buying your product or service. That journey in between the first and last touch is often referred to as “the messy middle,” where many marketers struggle to effectively measure how impactful their campaigns are from start to finish.
• Marketing attribution provides a clear understanding of where your ad dollars are going. While it may be tempting to throw all your money at a SuperBowl ad, the likelihood that someone will purchase your product on the spot is close to zero. With proper attribution, you can identify what campaigns you need to run building up to it and after, so you can generate sales over time through various touchpoints. For example, attribution can show you that the SuperBowl ad was successful at introducing your brand to a large audience, but your Instagram ad might be what drives the most conversions.
• Marketing attribution helps with budget allocation when configuring your marketing mix. As mentioned above, attribution gives weight to certain campaigns or channels, depending on their effectiveness throughout the buyer’s journey. If more customers are converting via Instagram ads, it doesn’t mean you should shut down every other campaign. Proper attribution shows you how each touchpoint leading up to the Instagram ad contributes to driving that sale. Alternatively, you might see that your expensive ads on Google aren’t contributing to the journey, so you can re-allocate those resources elsewhere.

Benefits of marketing attribution

Marketing attribution brings numerous benefits to your marketing efforts, and empowers you to make smarter, data-driven decisions on how to optimize your campaigns.

The main benefits of using marketing attribution solutions like AppsFlyer are:

1. Improved budget allocation

Marketing attribution is the key to measuring the contribution of your marketing campaigns throughout a customer’s buying journey. It enables you to allocate your resources to not only the channels and campaigns that drive the eventual conversion, but also those that contribute to making the purchase decision elsewhere in the funnel. With this bird’s-eye view, you can allocate budget more strategically, rather than aggressively thinking about the short term.

2. Closer alignment between marketing and sales

Marketing and sales teams are increasingly overlapping – to the point where the two are sometimes known as smarketing. Because attribution is able to provide a balanced and data-driven approach to the entire buying process, marketing and sales teams have a clearer understanding of their contributions to revenue.

3. Highlighting growth opportunities

Attribution not only highlights which elements of a campaign are most (or least) effective, but also provides insights into user segments based on their interaction history and behaviors. Data from attribution can reveal how certain segments interact with a mobile app after being exposed to a particular ad campaign, or how that campaign affects user retention.

Marketing attribution challenges and common mistakes

Like most things in marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing attribution. While this approach has many benefits, there are also some drawbacks to consider – and common mistakes to avoid making.

Challenges

Let’s now examine some of the difficulties and drawbacks of marketing attribution.

1. Privacy changes are making attribution more difficult

Marketing attribution is a powerful strategy, but a complex one to implement effectively. With the industry shifting towards greater privacy and data protection, that complexity has only increased. To ensure marketers can access the data needed to measure performance, businesses need a robust combination of marketing tech and strong data governance to keep pace with evolving regulatory frameworks. Working with a mobile measurement partner (MMP) is one way to navigate through the maze of privacy regulations.

2. Some channels are difficult to track accurately

While digital campaigns are much easier to measure, data can be fragmented when trying to bake in the impact of campaigns like out–of-home billboards. Cross-device behavior can pose a challenge for longer and more complicated customer journeys. And with so many platforms to measure your campaigns, there’s no uniform naming or data structure, which may complicate aggregation and reporting.

3. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach

There’s no one approach to attribution that works for everyone. We’ll cover the different types of attribution models later, but each approach comes with its own benefits and drawbacks as well. For example, while single-touch models are undoubtedly more straightforward, they may overvalue the impact of first and last touchpoints.

Common mistakes with attribution

Marketing attribution requires meticulous planning and a strong strategic direction. If you’re new to marketing attribution, then there are some common pitfalls you should seek to avoid.

1. Measuring marketing success based only on the first or last click

Platforms like Google Ads often measure success based on which ad creative drives the most conversions, which leads marketers to look at their ad campaigns in a very linear way. But attribution is about understanding the holistic picture, and provides a measured response to how each impression contributes to that eventual conversion. While it may be tempting to double down on ad creatives that convert the best, it’s equally important to understand the impact of the ads that lead up to that point. 

2. Lacking proper data storage

Collecting data, aggregating reports, and effectively measuring your campaigns is difficult when dealing with a wide range of marketing channels. Marketers need a safe and secure place to store all that data, but also a structure to effectively organize large attribution data sets. Siloed data can massively hinder your ability to optimize your marketing efforts.

3. Choosing measurement windows that are too short or too long

Buying cycles differ depending on the customer segment, your product offering, pricing, and timing. That’s why it’s important to set a time frame that makes sense when measuring attribution. A window that’s too short may not paint the whole picture, while a too-long window can give too much credit to ineffectual campaigns.

Marketing attribution models

Businesses turn to marketing attribution models as a technique for assigning credit to all the different touchpoints in a customer journey. If a customer sees a TV ad for a product, engages with a social post from that brand, and then buys the product at a physical store, then which touchpoint deserves the most credit for the sale? Attribution models make it possible for companies to not only answer this question but to then make the necessary tweaks and optimizations to boost those final sale numbers.

What marketing attribution models exist in the mobile ecosystem?

Now that we’ve covered the basics of attribution, let’s talk about the different approaches. There are two schools of thought: single-touch attribution and multi-touch attribution. 

Single-touch attribution

Single-touch attribution assigns full credit to one touchpoint, whether it be the first interaction, last interaction, or where the lead is created.

First-touch attribution model

This model assumes the customer purchases after the first advertisement they’ve seen. Full credit is given to the first touchpoint, regardless of ads encountered afterwards. 

Example:

I see a YouTube pre-roll ad for a mobile game. I then see an Instagram ad a few times. I eventually click on a Facebook ad to download the game. First-touch attribution would give full credit to the YouTube pre-roll ad.

Last-touch attribution model

Full credit is given to the last ad that a customer interacts with before making a purchase. This model gives no credit to any of the previous ads.

Example:

I see a YouTube ad for a mobile game. Then I see a series of ads on blogs. I download the game from a link in a promotional email. With last-touch attribution, the email is given 100% of the credit.

Lead conversion touch attribution model

Full credit is given to the touchpoint that collects a lead, such as entering an email address to sign up for a newsletter.

Example:

I see a series of Instagram ads for a new mobile game. However, I enter my information for a promotional giveaway on the game’s website. With the lead conversion touch attribution model, the website is given 100% of the credit.

Last non-direct attribution model

This model gives full credit to the last channel that the customer clicked before converting and removes all credit from direct traffic. This assumes that anyone who directly types in your website URL or AppStore page is already converted and far enough along the purchase cycle. 

Example:

I see an ad while watching a show on Hulu. Then I type in the website URL on my phone and make a purchase. The last non-direct attribution model would give full credit to the Hulu ad. 

Multi-touch attribution

Multi-touch attribution assigns different weights and values to multiple touchpoints that a customer engages with during their purchasing journey. In contrast to single-touch attribution, this approach paints a fuller picture of the contribution of all your marketing campaigns, but is also a lot more complicated to measure. Here are the most common types of multi-touch attribution.

Linear attribution model

In this model, every touchpoint a customer encounters is given equal credit. This assumes every ad has the same impact in persuading the customer to convert.

Example:

I see a fitness app while watching a preview at the movie theater. Then I see ads for this app on YouTube, on a mobile game, and in the newspaper. I eventually download the app from an Instagram ad. Linear attribution would give equal credit to each of these touchpoints.

Time-decay attribution model

This model gives more weight to touchpoints closer to the conversion, which assumes older interactions are less impactful than more recent ones. 

Example:

I see a series of 10 YouTube ads for a new mobile game. I download the game after watching the 10th ad. The most weight would be given to the ads closest to the conversion, while the first few ads would be given little to no weight.

U-shaped attribution model (position-based attribution model)

In this model, first and last touchpoints are given the most credit, while interactions in between are given a little credit as well. This is a more balanced approach to first-touch or last-touch attribution.

Example: 

I first notice a brand on a Facebook ad, and eventually convert through a YouTube ad. In between, I’ve seen multiple ads on my streaming services, mobile games, and browsing the web. The Facebook ad and YouTube ad would be given the most credit, while the touchpoints in between are equally weighted. 

W-shaped attribution model

Similar to U-shaped attribution, W-shaped attribution gives most credit to the first and last touchpoints, plus a third one – the opportunity creation. All other remaining touchpoints are split equally.

Full-path attribution model (Z-shaped attribution)

This model gives different weights to different touchpoints across the entire customer journey, depending on the effectiveness of each individual interaction. While this provides a more holistic view, it’s also the most difficult to execute. 

Custom attribution model (mix and match)

This approach involves a combination of multi-touch models depending on business needs or individual campaign goals. For example, you might use a W-shaped attribution approach to your new mobile game, while using a time-decay model for an app that goes viral.

How to choose the right marketing attribution model

Now that you know all the types of attribution models, let’s discuss how to use them efficiently.

With so many attribution models to choose from, how do you pick the best one for you? A good place to start is by auditing your marketing campaigns. Here are a few things to consider that will help you better determine which models make the most sense.

How to choose the right attribution model for you

With so many models to choose from, how do you pick the best one for you? A good place to start is by auditing your marketing campaigns. Here are a few things to consider that will help you better determine which models make the most sense.

1. Identify your conversion paths

Mapping out your customer journey is essential to choosing the right attribution model for you. From the first point of brand awareness through to the purchase itself – or even beyond – the complexity of your customer’s purchasing journey will be a key factor in which attribution model fits best for you.

2. Consider your channel and device mix

Some attribution models work more effectively on certain channels than others, making it important to consider the channel mix of your marketing efforts. You’ll also need to factor in the device mix of your target audience – everything from mobile and web to PC and console. Customers will interact with your brand via online and offline touchpoints, and you’ll want to be able to measure the impact of that interaction no matter where it occurs.

3. Review your available tools

Executing an effective marketing attribution strategy depends on the tools, budget and tech stack available to you. Some marketing channels provide comprehensive measurement tools, while others are more limited. Depending on your budget and current tech stack, you can determine what’s possible and what’s not. As a general rule, though, bear in mind that even attribution achieved with a limited budget is better than no attribution at all.

4. Know your data quality

On top of your tool stack, it’s imperative that you can trust the data available to you. A sophisticated attribution model requires secure data storage and potentially working with a mobile measurement partner like AppsFlyer to ensure accuracy across multiple touchpoints.

What factors should you consider when choosing a mobile attribution partner?

An attribution partner, also known as a mobile measurement partner (MMP),  can help you accurately attribute your marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. With so many providers to choose from, here are a few factors you should consider before choosing the right MMP for you:

1. Platform compatibility

The first and easiest way to narrow down your choices is to see if the MMP supports the measurement of every platform, channel, ad network, tool, and device you’re planning to use.

2. Attribution methodology and reporting

Take a look into how the MMP guarantees accuracy in their reporting. How do they provide insights into user-level data? Do they have flexible attribution windows? How are they navigating the ongoing privacy changes? Also check how they’ll report your results – will you get a user-friendly dashboard for easy viewing and analysis?

3. Scalability 

When running large campaigns across multiple channels at once, you’re working with enormous amounts of data. Identify an MMP that will scale with you – one that will maintain the level of accuracy and privacy as you grow. Look for an MMP that uses data clean rooms, or a vetted pool of first-party data from multiple data sources, which can verify your data without exposing personally identifiable information (PII). 

4. Customer support and reliability

Does the MMP have a dedicated customer success team that provides 24/7 support? Do they have credible testimonials and positive customer feedback? Do they support international businesses across time zones and cultures? Do they have reliable uptime? It’s essential to ask these questions when considering an MMP to ensure they can back up their claims of good customer service.

Choosing AppsFlyer as your MMP guarantees you all of the above along with advanced fraud protection, granular insight into campaign performance and transparency on media costs and every key metric for maximizing your ROI.

How to implement your attribution model

Now you might be wondering how you actually implement the right attribution model for you. Here’s a good place to start.

1. Set clear goals

Start by determining your winning KPIs. If user acquisition is your top priority, you might be measuring conversion rates instead of lifetime value. Creating a list of your top KPIs will set you in the right direction.

2. Choose the right attribution model

Whether it’s last click, first touch, time decay, or full path, determine which attribution model, or mix of attribution models, makes the most sense for you.

3. Set up your tool stack

Determine which analytics tools, MMPs, and measurement you’ll needto implement to collect and measure your campaigns. 

4. Practice good data hygiene

Audit your data to ensure you have a reliable dataset to work with. Poor data hygiene can lead to catastrophic assumptions and wasted budgets. Ensure you regularly validate your data and check your analytics platforms are working correctly.

The future of marketing attribution

With more and more channels at our disposal, and marketing budgets increasingly under pressure, the need for high-quality attribution can only grow. But what does the future hold? Let’s look at some key trends. 

A privacy-centric world

It’s no secret that Apple’s ATT policies and Google’s shift towards cookieless browsers are transforming how marketers are approaching attribution. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. 

With increasingly limited access to user identifiers, and opt-in requirements, cross-device measurement makes user matching difficult. This will cause a shift to contextual and first-party data, making apps and organizations with large user bases (and more first-party data) more enticing to acquire. As a result, approaches to marketing attribution will always have to adapt to these market forces.

Artificial intelligence

One of the strongest solutions to these market changes is artificial intelligence (AI). Google Ads, like many other ad platforms, has implemented probabilistic modeling to address increasing privacy regulations and concerns. Advanced machine learning algorithms are helping advertisers not only clean up data sets, but also identify behavioral patterns more effectively with less data. 

This allows marketers to be dynamic when measuring the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, rather than sticking to one, single-touch approach. Machine learning also helps marketers identify effective touchpoints much faster than before, saving time and money in the long run. At AppsFlyer, AI automates complexity and accelerates impact to allow for quicker, smarter decisions. It also powers our fraud protection, blocking over 2 billion fake installs last year and saving brands millions of dollars.

Smarter out-of-home solutions

As much as software is improving, so is hardware. While simple solutions like QR codes or unique coupon codes are great ways for brands to measure their out-of-home campaigns, digital out-of-home technology is advancing faster than ever. Some digital products can measure foot traffic and impressions, which is particularly powerful when paired with advanced targeting capabilities integrated with first-party data.

Use of Mobile Measurement Partners (MMP’s) to mitigate risk

Privacy regulations, changing app store policies, and the ever-evolving landscape of mobile marketing mean tracking data accurately can get complicated. Mobile marketers can find solace in working with an MMP to help future-proof their data and mitigate data loss. MMPs can provide a well-diversified data set so you’re not relying purely on your own data, but industry-level data as well. MMPs also have privacy and security protocols to ensure your data aligns with your business goals while protecting customer privacy. 

Marketing attribution strategies

Selecting the right marketing attribution model for your business is only the first step: now, you need a strategy to implement that model effectively.

Marketing attribution is complex. With multiple channels, devices and touchpoints to navigate, it’s always a challenge to accurately and meaningfully measure which campaigns truly drive conversions. Having a practical, well-structured attribution strategy is essential to getting the most out of your measurement.

Brands have already leveraged solutions like AppsFlyer to boost marketing ROI by 17%, and increase budget allocation efficiency by 20%. With a refined marketing attribution strategy, you too can move beyond guesswork and into actionable insights for your business.

Take an omnichannel approach

Successful marketing attribution models capture data from both online and offline channels together. In eCommerce, for example, 3 in 4 shoppers use multiple channels during their shopping journey. It’s no longer enough to analyze data in silos: instead, brands need to unify data from all touchpoints in the user journey. Only then can you guarantee accurate, meaningful measurement from your attribution model.

An omnichannel strategy gives you a complete view of the customer journey. It gathers data from every user touchpoint, from first impression right through to conversion. By assigning credit to each step of the journey, you’ll uncover how different interactions contribute to conversions over time.

Include diverse lead types

Marketing attribution models need to measure interactions from new and existing leads in order to achieve the best results. It’s vital to measure engagement across the entire funnel, whether they’re new users or existing customers.

Every stage of the journey matters for attribution accuracy. Marketing attribution depends on your ability to understand how different lead types interact with your brand at various stages of the funnel. Only by doing so can you build a complete picture and optimize for long-term growth – not just immediate conversions.

Incorporate CRM data and insights

Integrating your CRM data with your attribution model allows for a much deeper understanding of user behavior – and the conversion paths that they take. CRM data helps to map the full path a user takes, closing coverage gaps and revealing connections in how prospects engage with campaigns and content. 

With AppsFlyer leveraging your CRM insights with marketing attribution data, it becomes easier to spotlight which interactions drive LTV. It empowers marketers to adjust and optimize campaigns and strategy for maximum impact.

Leverage automation tools

As attribution modeling becomes more complex, automation tools have increasingly important roles to play. Manual processes can only take attribution so far in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Automation software – including platforms like AppsFlyer – streamline the process of collecting, analyzing and acting on attribution data in ways that manual processes simply cannot keep up with.

Look to leverage automated attribution platforms and analytics tools that can connect channels to conversions in a seamless fashion. This enables faster optimization, more accurate performance measurement, and improved ROI – without the need for massive resource allocation.

Key Takeaways

• Marketing attribution is the ability to determine which marketing channels and campaigns are driving leads, sales, and conversions, giving you an accurate picture of your ROI. 
• From the first time a customer hears about a brand to the point that they buy a product or service, marketing attribution paints a holistic picture of how each campaign contributes to the customer journey. This helps you allocate budget strategically and identify growth opportunities. 
• Marketing attribution can be single-touch (crediting one touchpoint with the conversion) or multi-touch (spreading the credit across various touchpoints in the customer journey). Popular multi-touch models include linear, time-decay, U-based, W-shaped, and custom attribution.
• There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to attribution, so it’s important to determine what your goals are and how complex your purchase cycle is. You also need to identify your tech stack and ensure high data quality.
• Privacy changes and the rise of walled gardens from ad platforms will continue to challenge marketers, but artificial intelligence and MMPs can offer creative solutions to market forces. If you choose to work with an MMP, ensure they can support your platforms and offer accuracy, scalability, and great customer care.

Find out more about how AppsFlyer’s marketing attribution solutions

Request a demo or visit our solutions hub to learn more about how AppsFlyer can help you and your business meet its marketing goals.

FAQs

How do I measure offline conversions with marketing attribution?

Measuring offline conversions is an important part of any marketing attribution strategy, bridging the gap between digital and physical. AppsFlyer’s measurement suite enables you to attribute offline touchpoints and conversions, unifying them with your measurement of online channels to give you unified attribution data.

By capturing offline interactions like TV ads or in-store promotion materials, AppsFlyer can give you a holistic, omnichannel view of how these offline efforts contribute to conversions.

Can small businesses benefit from marketing attribution?

While multi-touch attribution models may require more resources, any form of marketing attribution is better than no attribution at all. Small businesses can still benefit from attribution models that offer valuable clarity on which campaigns and touchpoints drive conversions, allowing for smarter budget allocation and marketing spend.

What’s the difference between marketing attribution and marketing mix modeling?

Marketing attribution and marketing mix modeling (often shortened to MMM) both have the same goal: measuring marketing effectiveness. The main difference between them is that marketing attribution measures individual customer journeys via user-level attribution models like multi-touch. MMM analyzes aggregated historical data at a macro level instead.

It’s best to consider these two approaches as complementary. Marketing attribution delivers granular, real-time insight – while MMM offers a strategic, long-term picture.

How does privacy regulation impact marketing attribution?

Evolving privacy regulations and interfaces like iOS 14 and SKAN have reshaped marketing attribution. Leading solutions like AppsFlyer have prioritized privacy by creating unified, compliant frameworks for attribution that still deliver accurate measurement. Privacy regulations have also seen brands rely more heavily on first-party data, either by directing users to a website or app or incentivizing them to opt in to marketing efforts.

What are common mistakes to avoid in marketing attribution?

Common mistakes in marketing attribution include:
– Choosing an attribution model that doesn’t fit your business goals, for example a first– or last-touch attribution model that may miss valuable insights from the customer journey.
– Overlooking the importance of unifying fragmented data across online and offline channels.
– Setting measurement windows that are too narrow or too broad, leading to skewed performance insights.
Partnering with an MMP like AppsFlyer can help you avoid these common pitfalls and get the most out of your marketing attribution.