• by Viviane Wanderley , Op-Ed Contributor, August 10, 2015

I recently participated on a panel at OMMA Los Angeles titled “Top Down, Meet Bottom Up: Lurching Towards Cross-Channel Attribution”and I came out of it with a lot of learnings but also a few questions. 

As omni-channel becomes a bigger focus for our industry, so does attribution — especially in an era where we need to justify if every dollar we invest on behalf of our clients will somehow reach its goal (whether it is a sales goal or brand awareness goal or any other goal). 

We also need to prove each medium plays an important role so our clients can make the case for their marketing budget for next year. It can be hard to prove the impact a “static bulletin,” a “:30 TV spot” and/or a “blog post” have in sales when there isn’t a unique URL, unique toll free number dedicated to each medium or proper digital trackability in place, yet each channel plays a very important role in a media mix. 

It can be challenging having to justify budget allocations to a certain channel(s) when conversions are coming from a specific medium, however, consumers/users/viewers need to see an ad, be aware of a brand, service, product and have a need for it, in order to take an action. We all are aware of this but, when that time comes and campaign reports are presented, what will stand out will be the channels that are delivering more conversions. We must look and consider all the other channels that are contributing for conversions but may not be given credit and that’s when a cross-channel attribution tool comes in handy.

Cross-channel attribution is helping agencies and clients see the picture a little bit clearer, and it will evolve as fast as agencies and clients demand it. The analysis can help us better understand how the target is interacting with our campaign, when they are reacting to it, and how each channel is helping us achieve the overall campaign objective. The better understanding we have on what really worked and what didn’t (media channels, creative, etc.), the better our recommendations will be. 

When does cross-channel attribution become part of the conversation? The unanimous response from all panelists: It needs to be part of the discussion from the get-go when there is a need for any medium (paid and/or earned). It is important we, as an industry, highlight to our clients the importance of cross-channel attribution and how insights can help us enhance the next round of their marketing campaign. 

In an age when everything is urgent and requires immediate response, we must set the right expectations with our clients and ensure everyone involved understands this is a post campaign analysis and not a “during the campaign” analysis. It takes time to run an analysis and turn data into actionable items for a marketing campaign. Access to data during the campaign is available through certain attribution companies but cross-channel attribution should be seen as deep-dive, post-campaign analysis.

Some challenges, from my perspective:

• Cross-channel attribution for the overall marketing campaign for a client who works with different agencies. It can be very challenging to do that when each agency has its own cross-channel attribution tool, its own budget, and is not willing to share campaign results with competitor(s). This can be remedied if the mandate comes from the client.
• Ability to measure impact on sales when access to sales data is not available, or when proper tracking can’t be implemented due to clients’/partners’ limitations.
• Cross-channel attribution for B2B clients with longer sales cycles, multiple decision makers involved in the purchasing cycle, and access to sales data is not available.
• Social media attribution — the impact of dark social in our campaigns.
• The budget to have a proper cross-channel attribution tool in place.

Cross-channel attribution is not going to answer all of our questions but it is going to get us closer to the answers than we have ever been before. Let’s embrace it and help our industry improve the tools we have in place; it will certainly be a win-win situation.