• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, June 10, 2019

About one in four marketers struggle with attribution, so analysts at Kantar’s analytics practice are trying to teach marketers to focus on brand building. The full-funnel multi-touch approach also includes driving consumers to their website, even if the company doesn’t support direct-to-consumer brands.

It’s an evolution, not a revolution, said Satya Menon, managing partner and global head of Brand & Marketing ROI, analytics practice at Kantar.

“Increasingly it’s not just digital attribution, but a multi-touch approach also gives marketers the ability to bring TV into the mix,” she said.

Menon couldn't put an exact number on the amount brands now spend on multi-touch approach attribution, but said it has "increased substantially in the past five years."

Full-funnel, multi-touch attribution provides opportunities to allocate media budgets across channels such as TV and digital, as well as basing the business objectives on building brands and boosting sales.

This type of strategy also allows marketers to target audiences based on their different stages of purchase journey, creating brand awareness and possible consideration when they are about to make a purchase. It also helps when using specific media tactics, different types of messaging, creative targeting platforms, formats, sites, and frequency of exposure to ads that can maximize the impact based on business objectives.

In addition to CPG companies, sectors such as automotive have been looking into the multi-touch attribution approach. And as they bring in display and online video, the companies acknowledge they need to go beyond global funnel metrics to determine whether or not the campaign works.

Brands have accepted the change, but it requires lots of education, Menon said. “When you look at the CPG space, they rarely try to get consumers to come to Coca-Cola.com and interact with the things on the site,” she said. “They are much more brand related. It has a huge impact on companies that have begun to look at website activity.”

Diane Ma, partner at Brand & Marketing ROI analytics practice at Kantar, said marketers too often focus only on lower-funnel online activities and sales when it comes to attribution, neglecting any impact on brand building, which means budgets need to change.

Budgets must include allocating funds across channels, media strategies, and audience targeting to create a full-funnel, multi-touch attribution approach. Full-funnel not only evaluates touchpoint impact on brand building, but also treats brands as a multiplier to amplify the touch-points that impact sales.