• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, October 10, 2014

Kenshoo, in a newly commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, titled “Cross-Channel Attribution Must Convert Insights Into Action,” includes a survey of advertisers, agencies, and analytics professionals in the U.S. and Europe. It outlines challenges marketers face when implementing cross-channel attribution, the benefits they reap from doing so, and the importance of connecting attribution modeling to bid management platforms in an automated manner.

            Attribution is the process of identifying a set of user actions (“events”) that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events. Marketing attribution provides a level of understanding of what combination of events influence individuals to engage in a desired behavior, typically referred to as a conversion…  Wikipedia

The study yielded three key findings:

• Marketers still embrace elementary approaches to measurement: Only one in nine marketers use advanced attribution methods, and among those using attribution, 28% still use single click methods.
• Marketers struggle to turn attribution insights into action: Having an attribution tool does not guarantee that an organization will act in new ways. Several obstacles remain, including understanding the analytical model, convincing colleagues of the validity of recommendations and incorporating results into cumbersome media buying systems
• Savvy marketers get sharper and nimbler with attribution measurement: Advanced marketers use sophisticated multi-touch attribution models to inform a broad array of strategic and tactical decisions in more detail and with more speed (49% adjust their long-term media plans, 38% change media spend, 34% compare the performance of different campaign measures, and 23% take some action in real time)

These findings verify what many marketers intuitively know; marketing attribution is still in its infancy. While marketers rely on an increasing number of channels to drive their marketing objectives, they continue to use basic attribution approaches to measure cross-channel impact. Part of the problem is the deeply fragmented attribution vendor market where marketers rely on data management providers, marketing service providers, web analytics providers, attribution specialists and media buying platforms for attribution about evenly. Interestingly, the study found that only 5% of marketers rely on their bid management platform for attribution.

Organizations leverage many channels to reach and grow customers. The average marketer surveyed is using 13 channels to drive his or her marketing and media objectives. This reflects marketers’ increasingly omnichannel approach to win, serve and retain their customer base. 60% of these channels are included in marketers’ attribution measurements. Digital channels dominate those measured, taking eight of the top 10 spots. Referral marketing and mass media rounded out the top 10.

76% of marketers surveyed have moved beyond single-touch attribution, but only 11% use advanced algorithmic attribution as recommended by the study.

Additionally, many marketers are applying the attribution too narrowly. Only 24% consistently measure cross-campaign effects. Marketers may be hesitant to adopt advanced attribution approaches because they find them difficult to understand and communicate to their organizations.

Despite the potential analytic and data challenges, only 14% are using attribution specialists. Just as many or more are turning to each of the following: data management providers (DMPs), marketing service providers (MSPs), and web analytic providers.

Only 10% of the marketers surveyed said they had been using any form of attribution for more than four years, while two-thirds (67%) have been using it for two years or less. In addition, marketers are working with new partners — 72% had implemented a new attribution solution in the past 12 months. The newness of attribution within organizations is bringing with it some challenges: Respondents in organizations with less than one year of attribution experience were significantly less satisfied in their ability to take action than those with more than one year of experience.

Organizational support is the biggest hurdle preventing actionable attribution insights. Corporate marketers said their largest obstacle blocking more action on attribution results is the confidence of their colleagues.  Among institutional marketers who had implemented a new result in the past 12 months, their biggest challenge was the providers’ analytic expertise and ability to build trust in the analytics.

Agency marketers have different challenges. These are the lack of an efficient process to make media changes and limits imposed by existing media contracts.

Aaron Goldman, CMO of Kenshoo, concludes by noting that “… attribution provides valuable insight into which channels have the greatest impact on any given campaign or ad… but having access to data isn’t enough… marketers need the ability to take immediate action on the insights… something many marketers struggle with...”

Please visit Kenshoo here to access the complete study.