{"id":45,"date":"2022-06-24T14:16:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T14:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/persona.ly\/glossary\/attribution\/why-attribution-matters\/"},"modified":"2023-01-04T11:14:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T11:14:56","slug":"why-attribution-matters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/persona.ly\/glossary\/attribution\/why-attribution-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Attribution Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Attribution is the ability to track the performance of each marketing effort and determine which of them are profitable and effective and which are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s digital world it\u2019s discussed mainly through the different marketing channels – if a Facebook ad led to an app download, a marketer can see a conversion through Facebook\u2019s platform (i.e the download was attributed to the Facebook ad) whereas in the pre-digital marketing world it was much harder to attribute a marketing channel with a conversion (marketers can\u2019t tell if a billboard led a customer into a store to make a purchase, or if it was a TV ad, they\u2019re limited to seeing that their campaigns led to an increase in revenue).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing in the Dark<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Marketing Attribution in a Non-Digital Environment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before the full adoption of the internet, tracking the performance of ad campaigns was inherently limited. While there were a variety of different methods, companies used to gain insights into their consumers\u2019 behaviors and preferences, most if not all were mostly ineffective and overpriced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies used coupons, where they offered discounts on their product by having consumers use a piece of paper indicating they deserve it. Tracking large amounts of coupons, sometimes through multiple branches (in the case of big chain stores) without the use of digital means is nearly impossible (or extremely expensive). Imagine Walmart or Target trying to track coupons usage across their hundreds of branches in the US alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, consumers would volunteer information about what made them make a purchase (through feedback surveys or just casual conversation). Again, a method that provides partial information, and is unscalable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, think back on a post-purchase Give Us Feedback<\/em> survey, where consumers relay their experience in the store and the service they\u2019ve received. If consumers chose to fill it, they already had a positive experience, which means that the feedback is gathered with a positive bias, rendering the results unreliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, their paper-filled answers will now have to be read and analyzed in order to draw conclusions. Doing so takes time and money, marketers are left with partial unreliable insights (only some consumers who had a positive experience filled it) and the conclusions are drawn late after the fact (depending on how big the company is, it can take up to months to gather the data).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Role of Marketing Agencies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The inability to track and gain insights from the different marketing efforts led advertisers to hire marketing agencies. The agencies, in turn, would spend tremendous budgets to run branding campaigns that were ostensibly impossible to measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea behind branding campaigns is getting a wide-spread exposure to the product, company, or brand while delivering a key message, like Nike\u2019s famous Just Do It.<\/em> Not only did everyone know Nike as a sports brand, everyone knew this key message. Branding campaigns are effective for creating a familiarity with a brand, a sense of trust, and conveying a key message with which consumers recognize the brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with branding campaigns, other than the fact that in order to be effective, the budgets must be substantial, is that after all the time, effort and resources put into them it\u2019s nearly impossible to track the performance of the campaign and attribute the success of the TV ad or the billboard sign and gain insights into which parts of the campaign worked and how.<\/p>\n\n\n