Attribution: The Marketing Enigma

Mentioning attribution to a fellow marketer is a bit like a wizard saying the word ‘Voldemort’—you just don’t go there.

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What Is Attribution? 

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If you’re not up to speed, attribution refers to the process of determining which marketing platforms have contributed to a sale. So as you probably guessed, it’s a pretty important metric, as it’s essentially how businesses determine whether it’s worth investing time and money into a particular platform. Sounds useful, right? Well, yes. But there’s a catch. 

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The Issue With Attribution: 

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You see, the issue with attribution is that no matter how hard you try, you’re never going to be able to get it exact. The reason is that most of these marketing platforms - including Google, Meta, Pinterest, and Klaviyo - have different attribution models and all to take credit for a conversion. Why? Because at the end of the day, these platforms are going to try to claim a piece of the pie so they can showcase a return on your investment, in order to encourage the advertiser to invest more in the platform.

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The problem for advertisers and businesses arises when both platforms take credit for the same purchase, leading to a double up of metrics. I’m sure you’ve been in meetings with clients or received a monthly report from your digital strategist, only to notice that the results in the backend of Shopify don’t align with the purchases recorded in the report. Unfortunately, this can often lead to the assumption that an agency is inflating results. And look, to be fair, the results are inflated, but they’re not doing it on purpose. They’re merely presenting the data provided to them by the platforms. 

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This becomes frustrating for business owners who are counting their pennies, wanting to make sure every dollar they invest into a platform is worth it. 

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The Marketing Ecosystem: 

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That brings me to my next point, which is that the best way to look at your marketing strategy is like an ecosystem - filled with many moving parts, all of which are important. Let’s take the following example: 

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Sam is targeted with an ad one night while scrolling through his Instagram feed. The ad shows someone modelling a cool hoodie. He’s never heard of this brand before, but he’s sufficiently intrigued, so he clicks over to their organic page and hits follow. 4 days later he’s scrolling his feed and sees an organic post from the same brand and is reminded of the hoodie. He prefers to shop on his laptop so he heads to his desk and looks the brand up on Google. Then, once he’s on the website he decides to subscribe to the email list to receive a 15% off code prior to purchasing the hoodie. 

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In the above scenario, both Google, Meta, and the email flow will claim the purchase, leading to three purchases in the backend when, in reality, it's only one. This is due to Meta’s 7 attribution window, along with Klaviyo’s 5 day model and google last click attribution. 

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Our Thoughts On Attribution Tools: 

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Now, for some, the doubling up of conversions doesn’t sit right with them, leading to the implementation of attribution tools like Triple Whale to help provide a better understanding of where a conversion is actually coming from. However, it’s important to note that subscriptions to these platforms don’t come cheap. Plus, at the end of the day, they have their own financial interest at heart, which means their attribution may not be entirely accurate either (not that we're cynical or anything...).

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The Consensus: 

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So where does that leave us? Well if you want the hard truth, there’s no perfect answer... 

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Unfortunately, for marketers and business owners, attribution is, and will likely continue to be, an enigma that we’ll never quite understand. BUT, so long as your results are on the upward trajectory from a profitability perspective, then it begs the question - how important is attribution really? 

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Think of it like this: if a person hadn’t been targeted with a Meta ad, they never would’ve known to follow you, which means they never would’ve seen your organic post—and so the story goes…

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So really, while it’s farfetched for the platforms to give themselves 100% of the credit for a purchase, they did all play a role in getting that purchase. 

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SO moral of the story? Try not to get too caught up on attribution. Instead, focus on your overall growth. Of course if you’re not seeing conversions attributed at all, that’s a sign it might be time to pull back spend on that particular platform. But if you continue to see conversions and a positive ROAS, it’s likely a sign that removing that element from the overall strategy would impact multiple other touch points.

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