How to Really Drive Your Marketing ROI
Want to really understand your marketing ROI and drive radical growth? First, consider the number of touchpoints the average customer makes before a purchase — some say seven, others say twenty. This is made even more complex by the constant evolution of omnichannel marketing. Last-click attribution allocates 100% of conversion credit to the last ad seen in the consumer journey, regardless of whether it actually played a part in the conversion funnel. Focusing on just one touch point of the consumer’s click journey fails to take into consideration the entire purchasing story.
The end of last touch attribution has been disputed for the last ten years. The unreliability of last-click attribution has been repeatedly reported on, yet many companies still rely on it. The pitfall many marketers fall into is emphasizing bottom-of-funnel activities while ignoring marketing initiatives at the top of the conversion funnel. Marketers who put too much value on the last click limit themselves in understanding where their efforts had the greatest effect, ultimately making the framework of their marketing approach unpredictable and unreliable.
In recent years, marketers have recognized the errors of last-click attribution, prompting the generation of more accurate, multi-touch attribution (MTA) models. Advanced MTA models determine attribution by analyzing all the media touch points in a consumer’s path. This in-depth approach is meant to give fair credit to all efforts along the conversion funnel while showing marketers which components in their campaigns are really driving conversions. Marketers are then able to understand how different marketing initiatives perform along the various stages of the funnel, not just the end. Not only does MTA allow marketers to gain better insight into their consumers, but it reveals which channels are outperforming others and exposes any gaps within their marketing plan.
Discovering the best MTA method for your organization is vital for keeping up with competitors. In basic terms, marketers must understand the mind of the consumer to understand their behavior. Anyone who’s purchased something online should be able to understand the multi-layered purchasing process. The journey to buying a product, signing up for a service, or registering at an event begins long before the final purchase. When a purchase depends upon hundreds of earlier clicks, it’s impossible to solely gauge success on the last click.
The great news is that whatever your last touch acquisitions are, you’re probably getting a ton of engagement and interest prior to the last click that you aren’t aware of. Acquiring MTA for each of your channels will open up a world of new marketing opportunities and audiences who will be more open to your initiatives. Appealing to influential people begins before the last click, so you want to make sure the efforts at the top of your conversion funnel are strong. One important method for strengthening the first stages of conversion is word-of-mouth. With thousands of marketing tools to sift through, it’s impossible to stay on top of them all. You can, however, emphasize word-of-mouth marketing, a method that is becoming increasingly important as the industry becomes more digitally oversaturated.
A recent study showed 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. The same study shows that millennials are 115% more influenced by word-of-mouth than traditional advertising. Consider it for yourself. When debating to make a purchase or to sign up for an event, are you more influenced by emails and ads scattered across your computer screen or the recommendation of a trusted friend or colleague? When you empower those at the top of your funnel by using word-of-mouth-marketing, you’re able to advance their journey and everyone they influence to the last click. Eventually, they will click on an ad or a marketing email, but you’re more likely to get them there when you influence them via word-of-mouth.
