Attribution is on everybody’s mind. How much is too little? When is it too much? And if you’re new to it all — where do you start? Understanding which marketing efforts are driving your success is important. That’s exactly what marketing attribution does– it provides you with the insights needed to optimize campaigns and allocate budgets properly.
If you’re new to marketing attribution, or just need a little refresher, here are some simple steps to get started.
What is B2B Marketing Attribution?
B2B Marketing attribution involves pinpointing and giving credit to different marketing interactions that lead to a conversion. In B2B marketing, where the sales cycle tends to be extended and includes multiple decision-makers, it is important to understand the influence of each touchpoint.
Learn more in CaliberMind’s, “What is Marketing Attribution” blog.
Setting Yourself Up For Attribution Success
Attribution can show the company, especially the executive team, that marketing is a valuable and effective investment. When you can demonstrate that the significant funds spent on marketing technology are yielding positive results, you justify the expense and open up more opportunities for your team. However, to reach a point where you can showcase your success in attribution, you need to start small—emphasis on small. When you first implement attribution, you’ll notice areas that need improvement. Take a deep breath and remember: it’s crucial to start simple and small. We’ll discuss this more soon. Also, manage your expectations. For instance, don’t expect to have all historical and current data perfectly aligned within a month. It’s not going to happen.
Step 1: Define Your Goals
Before starting with marketing attribution, you should define your objectives clearly. Are you trying to identify which channels generate the most leads? Or do you want to pinpoint the key touchpoints in your sales cycle? Establishing specific goals will steer your attribution strategy and enable you to measure success effectively.
Step 2: Choose an Attribution Model
There are several attribution models to choose from, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Here are the two main categories:
- Single-Touch Attribution: Attribute all credit to a single touchpoint in the customer journey.
- Multi-Touch Attribution: Distributes credit across multiple touchpoints.
Depending on what you are trying to analyze and accomplish, it is important to understand which attribution model is best for you.
Step 3: Laying the Foundation for Effective B2B Attribution
Attribution in marketing is complex due to the non-linear path to a sale, involving multiple individuals in the buying decision. Traditionally, it’s believed that 6-8 touches are needed to generate a viable sales lead, but this number is likely a lot more. This complexity can make attribution analysis challenging, but starting with foundational work can simplify the process.
Let’s say you are in a situation where you’re not even capturing lead sources. That’s the first place you should probably start. Are you not capturing UTMs? That’s another easy, low-hanging fruit. Maybe you’re using marketing automation but you’re not using, say, programs, or success steps in those programs (for you Marketo folks). Next, you need to look at your data. Are there holes? Is the data coming in correctly? Maybe you find that you need to segment by country, but hey, you’re not capturing that information.
Begin by capturing basic data, such as lead sources and UTMs. Next, assess your data for gaps and accuracy, addressing issues like missing segmentation by country. All of these are small starts that can net you small wins. Begin by showing progress with these, and then iterate on your success.
Understand this: In the large numbers, there’s a lot of truth. Start by collecting a large volume of attribution data on one or two things. Once you’re looking at that, you begin to see a piece of truth coming through about your efforts and your buyers.
Ultimately, the goal for marketers is to get closer to the truth through effective data collection and analysis.
Step 4: Measuring Demand & ABM Side-By-Side
How do we approach the double funnel as we look to measure attribution? Across the board, if you’re doing both ABM and traditional demand gen, this is a pain point. Why? Because these two styles require different measurement tactics. In ABM it starts from your list of accounts and your ideal customer profile. You’re naming who your prospects are and going after them directly, rather than waiting for them to come to you.
How you measure your success in the ABM world is more customer-focused. Your efforts are lined up against an account, versus those efforts being the centerpiece of your reporting (with individual people lined up against them).
Most of the marketing technology stack is not set up to report in these incongruous ways. Flipping your reporting method upside down to accommodate opposing measurement approaches is a lot of work, so few companies are successfully doing it — for now.
Step 5: Integrate & Analyze Data
Marketing attribution lives off of data. It is best to gather information from all your marketing channels, such as email, social media, paid advertisements, and content marketing. Utilize tools like Google Analytics, CRM systems, and marketing automation platforms to collect this data. Make sure your data is integrated and consistent across these platforms to obtain a comprehensive view of your marketing activities.
After collecting the data, analyze it to identify patterns and trends that show which touchpoints are driving conversions. Attribution tools and software can help with analysis. Mainly CaliberMind’s Multi-Touch Attribution is a good tool to check out and utilize.
Step 6: Rework Your Marketing Strategy
After analyzing, evaluate your data to pinpoint areas for optimizing your marketing strategy. Adjust underperforming channels or allocate more budget to those that are performing well. Continuously monitor and refine your strategy to maximize ROI.
Communicate your attribution insights with your team and stakeholders using visualizations and reports. This will help to clearly show which marketing efforts are effective, aiding in informed decision-making and aligning your team’s efforts toward common objectives.
Takeaways On Building Effective B2B Marketing Attribution
Attribution is important. It tells you if what you’re doing is working or not. But you need to go after it step by step. Remember:
- Start small, start simple. Is it with lead sources? Is it UTMs?
- Iterate on your success. As you start seeing that you have more data available, add that to your reporting.
- Know that it will never be as scientifically perfect as you want it to be. Give room for gray area.
- Set expectations with your stakeholders. Emphasize that it’s going to be a journey that allows you to see what is performing and what is not, and an opportunity to be able to align your spend, resources, and talent against that. That is a ton of value.
- Invest in talent to drive your technology. Commenting on this poignant piece by Digital Pi CSO Tom Grubb, MarTech royalty Scott Brinker noted that “the greatest asset of most #MarTech platforms is the talent that knows how to wield them. Every race car needs a skillful driver and a skillful pit crew to win. The credit due is probably 80% talent and 20% tool.
It’s an exciting time to be a marketer. We’re learning as we go. Where we end up depends on how we, the practitioners, can learn the tools we’re developing, and set them up in a way that works.
If you are looking for help with B2B marketing attribution, CaliberMind’s Multi-Touch Attribution can be a great tool. Otherwise, reach out to us today to receive the help you need!
