Getting attribution right

Strategy Consulting 16 October 2018

As far as digital marketing is concerned, attribution is unquestionably one of the major stakes in these last years. Nevertheless, the concept of attribution still seems to be a fuzzy subject. So what exactly is attribution and which model should you choose?
It is in order to answer these questions that a taskforce lead by Facebook dealt with the challenges of attribution.

The proliferation of connected devices and marketing levers has led to an increasing fragmentation of the customer journey. Thus, new challenges in terms of tracking have emerged over the last few years. It is these challenges that attribution is facing.

As a matter of fact, digital attribution refers to a set of different methods that aims to reconstitute the digital journey of a client that has resulted into a conversion: its challenge is to measure the effectiveness of each lever mobilized during a marketing campaign.

Let us say, for example, that a customer discovers a product through a sponsored post on Facebook from his laptop. Eager to learn more, he asks his voice assistant Google Home to inform him about the product. He is not convinced. However, a few weeks later, after seeing a pre-roll video spot on YouTube from his iPad, he changes his mind. The next day, he finally decides to order the product from his mobile phone.

What is the marketing lever that led to conversion? How can we track it?

In order to answer these questions, the taskforce, led by fifty-five, Facebook, Eulerian, La Redoute and Criteo, examined issues related to the issue of attribution. Thus, in producing this white paper, the ambition was to answer the following questions: