Attribution Modeling :: Oh the Places You’ll Go

When I was 12 years old, a computer expert came to our school, speaking about the future of technology. He told us every citizen in America would no longer need to use postal mail to send letters–we would soon be able to write letters electronically.

Mark Hughes, CEO
C3 Metrics

The same is true for these:

- Bike versus Car
- Dial-up versus Broadband
- Regular cable versus High-Def

Once you experience the benefit of transformational innovation–there’s no turning back.

Now, the online advertising industry ($70 billion spent globally each year) is reaching a new point where there’s no turning back. Today’s online measurement systems defining $70 billion of success, are woefully inadequate. Or…wrong.

Let’s reveal the problem.

Imagine you’re managing a multi-million dollar online ad budget. And you learn that today’s outdated online ad tracking systems give 100% transaction credit to the very last clicked or last viewed ad before an online transaction.

Example: if four Internet ads contribute to a transaction; today’s outdated systems allocate entire credit to the fourth, last ad–ignoring the first three ads, which actually drove the revenue.

Zero credit to revenue drivers, and 100% credit to the last ad placed. Frightening.

But enter the full funnel media attribution model (disclosure…I’m the CEO of C3 Metrics). Robust media attribution systems like this recognize credit should be assigned to a team of Internet ads versus the last ad.

So how does attribution modeling work?

At a basic level, C3 assigns credit to Originators, Assists, and Converters within a transaction.

A media attribution model should capture all online media sources from the top of the funnel where sales are originated…all the way down to the very bottom of the funnel. So in a $100 transaction, an Originator would receive a fraction of $100 attributed to them—and the Assist and Converter also receive fractional credit of the $100 amount attributed to them respectively.

100% of revenue credit is thus attributed and split among Originators, Assists, and Converters—accounting for the actual drivers of revenue, and matched to media cost to then determine, you guessed it, return on investment (a simple ratio C3 calls, Attributed Revenue-to-Spend Ratio).

But not all attribution models are created equal. Read here for seven key details you should know before using any attribution system. But if you find the right attribution system, where will it take you?

If you remember the book, “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” it’s a book you can’t put down, because you want to get to the end–that’s where you discover how everything turns out.

So in the longest-running attribution study of its kind (2 yrs), here’s how full funnel attribution turns out:

a) Seven-figure efficiency creation in the advertiser’s online ad budget
b) Display ROI improvement of 160%
c) Search ROI improvement of 98%
d) Accurate economic model to measure affiliate performance

It turns out well: millions of dollars in profit.

To quote the last page of Oh the Places You’ll Go,

Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Full funnel attribution is here—once you go, you’ll never look back.