Advancing Marketing Attribution

A Companywide Blueprint for Success (Part 1 of a Two-Part Series)

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About This Report
Holistic attribution is a must if companies want to understand the incremental effects of their marketing efforts on key performance indicators (KPIs). It is difficult to achieve, but companies can make the move, so long as they follow necessary steps.

Executive Summary

Holistic attribution, defined as the ability to understand how marketing and nonmarketing touchpoints influenced a specific business outcome, is a must for measuring marketing’s true impact in today’s extremely competitive and fragmented media world. But with less than 10% of companies capable of attributing holistically, it’s early days.

  • Why are so few companies doing holistic attribution today? Lack of companywide buy-in, lack of a true business goal, difficulties in accessing the right data, and problems with technology integration are just some of the obstacles that keep marketers and their organizations from attributing in a more holistic way.
  • So what attribution methods are most marketers using? Most marketers remain stuck on the first few levels of the measurement hierarchy. While the majority do measure marketing results in some fashion, only about half rely on either a marketing mix model (MMM) or multichannel digital attribution solution.
  • How can marketers advance their attribution efforts? Attribution is a journey, and there are guideposts along the way that companies can use to identify what’s needed to move to a more holistic practice. These focus on the state of their culture, data, technology and their desire for better measurement.
  • Are there stories of holistic attribution success? Yes. We profile two firms, Adobe and Mindshare North America (on behalf of a client), that are well on their way to making holistic attribution work.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report discusses the current state of marketing attribution. It shares best practices for moving more advanced measurement practices throughout one’s organization and highlights two firms successfully navigating this shift.

KEY STAT: Holistic attribution is the most advanced form of marketing measurement today, but we estimate fewer than 10% of all companies have achieved this stage of their measurement journey.

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24expert perspectives

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Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. The Current State of Attribution
  3. Questions to Ask
  1. Putting It into Practice
  2. Key Takeaways
  3. eMarketer Interviews
  1. Read Next
  2. Sources
  3. Media Gallery

Interviewed for This Report

Joel Acheson
The Shipyard
Chief Marketing Technology Officer
Interviewed January 10, 2019
Brian Baumgart
Conversion Logic
Co-Founder and CEO
Interviewed January 22, 2019
Mike Bregman
360i
Senior Vice President and Head of Data, Analytics and Technology
Interviewed January 8, 2019
Anthony Ching
Adobe
Head of Product, Experience Intelligence Services
Interviewed January 15, 2019
Ric Elert
Conversant
President
Interviewed January 9, 2019
Mike Finnerty
Neustar
Senior Director, Product Management, Marketing Solutions
Interviewed February 22, 2019
Jeff Greenfield
C3 Metrics
COO and Co-Founder
Interviewed January 10, 2019
Marty Greenlow
Ensighten
CEO
Interviewed January 18, 2019
John Hoctor
Data Plus Math
Co-Founder and CEO
Interviewed January 2, 2019
Pankaj Kumar
NBCUniversal
Senior Vice President, Measurement Innovation, NBCU Insights and Measurement
Interviewed January 28, 2019
Joe LaSala
Analytic Partners
Vice President, Marketing
Interviewed January 8, 2019
John Matthews
Marketing Evolution
President
Interviewed January 16, 2019
Preeti Mehta
Analytic Partners
Senior Director, Project Teams
Interviewed January 8, 2019
Maggie Merklin
Analytic Partners
Executive Vice President
Interviewed November 20, 2018
Ikechi Okoronkwo
Mindshare
Managing Director, Marketing Sciences
Interviewed January 14, 2019
Juan Pablo Pereira
Conversion Logic
Chief Client Officer
Interviewed January 22, 2019
Andreas Reiffen
Crealytics
Founder and CEO
Interviewed January 7, 2019
Lisa Schneider
Merriam-Webster
Chief Digital Officer
Interviewed January 18, 2019
Jon Schulz
Viant
CMO
Interviewed January 22, 2019
Greg Verdino
Verdino & Co.
Managing Partner and Chief Strategist
Interviewed January 11, 2019
Marc Vermut
Neustar
Vice President, Market Strategy, Marketing Solutions
Interviewed January 22, 2019
Skye Yang
Neo
Associate Director, Insights and Analytics
Interviewed January 18, 2019
Katrin Zimmermann
TLGG
Managing Director, Americas
Interviewed January 11, 2019
Alfonso Imbroda
Accenture Interactive
Managing Director, Accenture Digital, Spain, Portugal and Africa
Interviewed January 4, 2019

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authors

Lauren Fisher

Contributors

Ross Benes
Analyst
Nicole Perrin
Principal Analyst
Jillian Ryan
Principal Analyst
Tracy Tang
Senior Researcher