Attribution Under the Microscope: A Call to Action | Sponsored Content

This post was contributed and sponsored by Catalina Marketing.

In The CMO Club and Catalina Marketing survey, 46% of CMOs admitted their companies do not have a unified measurement approach across offline and online media. It should come as no surprise then that 72% cited a business growth rate of 10% or less last year.

There’s a lack of understanding today around which marketing platforms and creative most significantly impact consumer behavior. This makes it increasingly difficult for companies to achieve real growth. However, the brands that are forging a clearer path to growth are disrupting the conventional wisdom of measurement and seriously rethinking their marketing mix and attribution methodologies.

Catalina Marketing reveals four steps from their latest The CMO Club Solution Guide: The Real Drivers of Brand Growth in a Digital World.

No. 1: Close your attribution gaps.

Look for ways to reduce silos and integrate your online and offline data to create a complete picture. Find a light-touch solution that is easy to implement across the organization. Instead of building it yourself, look for a suite of services from a single provider with a strong and growing set of open source partners that integrates across channels, DSPs and publishers. This approach gives you immediate access to the latest offerings and expertise as they come to the market, saving you time and money.

No. 2: Measure everything.

Measure across all types of digital media so you can understand which parts of your digital media spend are working and which aren’t. Look for solutions that include linear and connected TV, and those that also deliver data and audience segments programmatically.

No. 3: Focus on purchase behavior.

The best multitouch attribution models operate along the purchase funnel and include in-store purchases at the 1:1 shopper ID level. Multitouch attribution tied to shopper purchase history allows you to track more than just clicks and sales. You can also identify customers with different profiles, like those who are new to the brand, new to the category or repeat buyers.

No. 4: Be nimble and be quick.

Look for solutions that deliver near real-time data, updated daily, that hook into retail point-of-sale systems. By working with granular, UPC-level purchase data, you can create brand or retail-specific options. This means you can optimize campaigns in-flight based on everything from the creative that’s most effective to the UPCs that are driving sales.

With this added context, CMOs can better understand the impact of their media dollars. They can identify unique customers by device and within a household, know which channel sequence best drives conversion and uncover whether it was their messaging—or a competitor’s—that ultimately put their product in the cart. Using this holistic approach to multitouch attribution is key to creating a far clearer growth strategy.

Looking to pull back the curtain on the current state of marketing measurement to uncover actionable insights? Download The CMO Club Solution Guide: The Real Drivers of Brand Growth in a Digital World, and learn how attribution models can prove efficiency and effectiveness online and offline.




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