[WMD 2015] How Does Revenue Attribution Work? Interstate Analytics’ Jamie Quint Explains

TL;DR

Revenue attribution should divide conversion credit across relevant marketing touchpoints instead of letting every platform claim the entire purchase. Jamie Quint shows how Facebook, Twitter, and AdWords can each report the same $100 conversion, making reported revenue total $300. Because default attribution windows and customer journeys differ, businesses need a model suited to their own activity. Read on to understand the available approaches and their tradeoffs.

Transcript

hey everyone how's it going I'm Jamie I'm the co-founder of interstate as Dave said we we help companies measure their marketing and so I'm just gonna talk a little bit about measuring marketing some problems that you run into kind of once you get the higher spend valiums or just kind of in general systemic problems with measuring marketing once yo... Read More

Key Insights

• 🥡 Marketing attribution involves platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and AdWords taking credit for conversions based on default settings.
• 🥺 Default attribution models may lead to inflated values, requiring careful analysis and adjustment for accurate attribution.
• 🔨 Small companies may find using publisher tools sufficient for marketing attribution, while larger companies need more sophisticated tools to analyze ROI.
• ❓ Accurate marketing attribution is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of advertising spend and optimizing budget allocation.
• 👨‍🦱 Unpaid attribution requires unique URLs for accurate tracking of non-paid channels.
• 👨‍💼 Building a custom attribution model may be time-consuming but beneficial for businesses seeking precise marketing attribution.
• 💗 The complexity of marketing attribution grows as companies increase their advertising spend, necessitating a deeper understanding of ROI.

Questions & Answers

Q: How should businesses measure revenue attribution across multiple marketing touchpoints?

Businesses should decide how conversion credit is shared among the touchpoints that contributed to a purchase or signup. Jamie Quint says the appropriate distribution is unique to each business: some may favor the first or last interaction, while others may divide credit equally.

Q: How does Facebook attribute conversions by default?

Facebook claims conversions occurring within one day after an ad view or 28 days after an ad click. Its dashboard can therefore count a purchase even when the buyer viewed but did not click the ad, or clicked it 27 days before converting.

Q: How does Twitter attribute conversions by default?

Twitter uses a one-day view window and a 14-day click window by default. These settings can cause Twitter to claim credit for a conversion that another platform also reports.

Q: How does AdWords attribute conversions after an ad interaction?

AdWords does not claim credit merely because someone viewed an ad. It can claim a conversion after a click, including the example in which a customer converts 75 days later.

Q: Why can publisher dashboards inflate attributed revenue?

Each publisher applies its own attribution rules and can claim full credit for the same conversion. In Jamie Quint’s example, Facebook, Twitter, and AdWords each report a $100 purchase, producing $300 in attributed revenue even though the business earned only $100.

Q: Should conversion credit go to the first interaction, the last interaction, or every interaction?

There is no single distribution presented as correct for every business. Credit could be divided equally, weighted toward the first touchpoint, or weighted toward the last, depending on the company’s own attribution philosophy.

Q: Does changing every platform to a one-day click window solve attribution problems?

No. If a customer sees ads, signs up, and later purchases because of an email, one-day click reporting could show zero dollars attributed to the ads even though they contributed to the journey.

Q: Can Google Analytics handle marketing attribution?

Google Analytics has built-in attribution tools that work well when spending is limited to Google platforms. Using Facebook data requires manually exporting it, formatting and uploading it, and matching the URLs, which turns attribution into a more involved process.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Marketing attribution involves platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and AdWords taking credit for conversions based on default settings.

• Default attribution models often result in inflated values, necessitating careful consideration of credit distribution.

• Small companies may find using publisher tools sufficient, while larger companies need to carefully analyze ROI for accurate attribution.