{"id":11479,"date":"2021-04-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.queryclick.com\/?p=11479"},"modified":"2023-08-01T15:58:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T15:58:31","slug":"the-current-state-of-attribution-4-things-weve-learned-from-industry-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corvidae.ai\/blog\/the-current-state-of-attribution-4-things-weve-learned-from-industry-events\/","title":{"rendered":"The Current State of Attribution: 4 Things We’ve Learned from Industry Events"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Attribution is a growing industry (which is expected to be worth over $3 billion by 2023<\/a>!) so, it\u2019s crucial that marketers have a deep understanding of its importance and how it can be used to solve the day-to-day challenges that come with biased reporting and multichannel, multidevice buying journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how do marketers currently see the world of attribution? We\u2019ve noticed a few marketing attribution<\/a> trends while attending virtual industry events over the recent months that we wanted to shed a light on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are 4 things we\u2019ve learned about the state of attribution in 2022\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Marketers aren\u2019t confident that there\u2019s a sufficient solution for the removal of third-party cookies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The removal of third-party cookies is imminent. And if you\u2019re a marketer, you\u2019ll be very aware of that fact; you will have read the blogs, downloaded the guides, attended the webinars. But despite the abundance of information available about the issue, it\u2019s become more and more clear that marketers don\u2019t feel they\u2019re adequately prepared \u2013 or have enough options when it comes to a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a fireside chat with Quantcast during March\u2019s Festival of Marketing<\/a>, Catherine Woodward, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at leading furniture retailer, DFS<\/a>, summed this up perfectly. When asked if she felt the industry was prepared for the cookieless future<\/a>, Catherine responded:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of information out there. I\u2019m yet to see much in terms of the solutions [\u2026] We\u2019re at that stage of moving from \u2018Okay, we understand the problem. We accept there\u2019s an issue coming, and we can\u2019t ignore it.\u2019 But we need to change that mindset to \u2018How are we going to fix that\u2019 and \u2018What\u2019s the solution going to be?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t escape, the change in data collection is going to be huge for marketers. And we all know the last-minute panic most businesses experienced when GDPR was introduced. To ensure these impending changes don\u2019t create the same chaos, marketers need to be prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s key to remember, is that these changes will impact more than the ability to show the right ads to the right audience at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not ready for the removal of third-party cookies, then your (probably already very flawed<\/a>) analytics are going to suffer massively. This is something that DFS are already aware of as Catherine shared her view:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the targeting of our activity, it\u2019s about the measurement of it. If we don\u2019t know what partner or what publisher is performing for us, how can we optimise our plans? How can we take them forward and grow the business?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why having control over your own first-party data – being able to collect and then use that to make data-driven decisions that will drive growth – is crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Attribution can seem over complicated and hard to explain to peers outside the marketing function<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Attribution can be a difficult proposition for a lot of marketers and \u2013 as uncovered by research from Bright Pearl<\/a> \u2013 there is a huge disconnect between having an omnichannel strategy and implementing it. With 91% of retailers saying they have the strategy in place or planned \u2013 and only 12% reporting they have the right technology in place to support it<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And often, attribution is given a bad rap because marketers have been burned in the past; by using the attribution tools<\/a> that come bolted on to their \u201coff-the-shelf” analytics platforms – such as GA360 or Adobe Analytics – which can\u2019t give accurate reports and so result in a confused marketing strategy and a lot of wasted budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a webinar<\/a> with QueryClick\u2019s CEO, Chris Liversidge and Head of eCommerce at QUIZ, Haroun Saleemi, we discovered that 63% of the audience believed marketing attribution was an important part of their marketing stack<\/strong>. Although it\u2019s over half, that meant that there was still over 1\/3 of attendees who felt otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon seeing these results, the above point was echoed by Chris:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI do wonder how much of that is a cohort of people that have tried and written off attribution as something that can work for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And if attribution seems like a foreign land to those within the marketing function, it\u2019s highly unlikely that anyone who works outside the department will be bought into the solution either, as Haroun explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI think one of the key issues really is complexity. We\u2019ve been presented with a few attribution options in the past, and it just seems over complicated, difficult to understand what the model actually is. And if I can\u2019t understand that, how can I communicate that across to the rest of the business?<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If you want to take some of the complexity out of attribution, check out our jargon-free glossary of attribution terms you should know<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Marketers struggle to justify the need for an attribution solution to company stakeholders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no denying that attribution matters. Customer journeys are becoming more complex, spanning multiple touchpoints across varying devices – meaning marketers have an enormous amount of data to deal with. And the last 12 months have accelerated this even further. As everyone has been forced to stay at home, more people have had time to spend online – something which David Robinson, COO at Petsathome<\/a>, referred to as \u201cnesting\u201d in a session at the Retail Bulletin\u2019s Omnichannel event<\/a> at the beginning of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the sheer amount of data that\u2019s now available, marketers know that the key to achieving business growth is through utilising that data to optimise your marketing spend<\/a>. But often, marketers lack the right tools \u2013 or have too many siloed tools – to do this and the biggest hurdle they face is in being able to effectively relay the importance of investing in new pieces of MarTech, such as an attribution tool<\/a>, to company stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stakeholders, especially CFOs, want to see immediate results from investments and so tend to steer away from any marketing activity that\u2019s viewed as a \u2018slow-burner\u2019. In fact, QueryClick’s research<\/a> found that 68% of Marketing Directors report that internal stakeholder pressure actively restricts the option to employ marketing activity with longer term payback<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While discussing how Confused.com<\/a> broke category norms to grow their market share by 50% at last month\u2019s Festival of Marketing, CMO Sam Day shared his experience of presenting a long-term brand project to the CEO and CFO and shared some insights into how to get company stakeholders on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do you get buy-in from stakeholders?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Speak their language<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The key takeaway around securing buy-in from internal stakeholders was to communicate your case to them in language they understand. For example, if you\u2019re talking to the CFO then use phrases such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n