As with any service, technology, or combination of both, the expectations of the marketplace grow more sophisticated as the industry matures. Such has been the case in the marketing attribution space over the last 12 months, as brands, agencies, executives, media buyers and marketing analysts have all undergone an education from vendors, analyst firms and other thought leaders in the space.

There is one diagram that any marketer would be capable of sketching from memory, even after being awakened from the depths of an REM sleep cycle. It is a trapezoid with a shorter lower base -- or, perhaps, an overturned truncated cone --featuring several rows of words such as "awareness," "consideration," "engagement," "product discovery," "purchase" and "loyalty" placed within. Recognize it? Yes, it is the good old purchase funnel. For some marketers, this is all they remember from their MBA courses. But the industry has collectively concluded that the traditional purchase funnel is dead