Credit Crunch: The Death of Last Click Attribution and its Impact on Paid Search Advertising #SESSJ

Is paid search overrated simply because it typically receives the last click and credit for most conversions in a B2B environment?

 For more advanced search marketers, the issue is no longer how to optimize paid search programs, but rather how to make search an integrated part of their overall advertising programs.  Key to this process is “marketing attribution modeling”, which is the process of allocating the appropriate credit to all of the advertising touch points consumers engage before making their purchase.

Paid search is the major beneficiary of ROI based on last click attribution – attribution modeling seeks to siphon credit away from paid search and allocate it more aggressively toward other forms of advertising – specifically TV and display ads.

Marketing attribution modeling is important in understanding where to invest money and how to effectively understand true ROI from search and other marketing tactics.

Lack of attribution  modeling may cause the following issues:

1. Last click measurement may lead to poor investment decisions
2. May slow move to digital investments
3. Paid search can get too much and too little credit

To start solving these issues consider setting up a model to measure first, last and multi-click conversions:

1. Measure last click and pervasive long term value of traffic
2. Utilize 3^rdparty solutions (clearsale/discover)
3. Consider creating a monitoring a split dashboard
4. Setup a revenue dashboard
5. Create influence programs where the conversion goal is to increaese intent-to-purchase interaction

To determine if Attribution modeling  might help improve the performance of your online marketing tactics,

Consider these questions:

1. How often do you compare your online business performance to that of your peers and competitors?
2. How comfortable are you in acting on your website analytics data?
3. Are you able to measure how each online marketing channel is contributing to the ultimate purchase?
4. How confident are you with your current analytics data?
5. Are you assigning accurate credit and measurement with your online campaigns?