Figuring out the most beneficial attribution strategy is as much a technical challenge as it is an intuitive one. Marketers have to find the right tools to accurately track conversions across the many different marketing channels available as well as know which of the 11 attribution models to implement on each channel in order to pinpoint and reveal the most important user behaviors in their user’s often complex conversion journeys.
At this point, no one would argue the importance of tracking the results of marketing efforts. But the current number of variables involved (e.g. different channels, ad formats, devices, attribution windows, etc.) has turned the task into an undertaking more like the search for the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Are marketers sticking with the last click, or has everyone moved on to multi-touch methods? Below, 4 app marketers share their current attribution strategy and why it’s the right choice right now.
Attribution Strategies: Who’s using what and why
Rocío Pérez, Liligo
“Right now we work with a last-click attribution model, even though we are aware of the model’s limitations. For instance, last-click doesn’t consider the full journey of the user and it ignores many interactions that happen along the way. Additionally, sometimes platforms have different attribution windows by default, or we accidentally set campaigns with different attribution windows, which ends up not only affecting the performance but also causes discrepancies between platforms and internal reports.
Every marketer dreams of a multi-channel attribution model that would measure the complete path of the user and makes it possible to assign a value to each platform accordingly. I think attribution technologies will improve quickly but right now, I do not see the solution to our issues on the market. Even still, we will need to review our attribution windows soon internally and choose the most suitable one for our business model.”-Rocío Pérez, Acquisition Manager at Liligo.
Michael Jessen, eCooltra
“We are using a multi-touch model together with last-click attribution for our online activities. Multi-touch attribution is important for us because our users use multiple devices and are impacted on several platforms. We analyze each touchpoint in our user’s registration journey in order to understand which most impact the completion rate. We then try to understand why some potential users don’t complete registration on certain channels and look for trends. In this way, our multi-touch model has allowed us to optimize the overall performance.”- Michael Jessen, Mobile Marketing Manager at eCooltra.
Etienne de Guébriant, Etermax
“At the moment we are using only last-click attribution. I personally feel all the other attribution models are not yet effective for mobile. The main benefit I’ve seen using last-click is we avoid a lot of fraud. Using multi-touch attribution would be opening the door for fraudsters, since they would be able to generate clicks as they please. That being said, I think it’s important to judge each network differently. Are they a video SDK network? Are they an affiliate or a DSP? You want to make sure you’re addressing each network by what they are. Having a “one size fits all” mentality will cause you a lot of trouble in the mobile industry”.-Etienne de Guébriant, UA Team Leader at Etermax.
Lorenzo Rossi, Free2Move
“In the past, we have relied on last-click with a 7-day attribution window, but recently we have been testing out 1-day post-view attribution for some specific channels (e.g. for programmatic tests). We also have been trying 20-day windows for pre-installed campaigns. I can’t say yet that there have been clear advantages or benefits, but in my opinion, it makes sense to adapt the attribution model and window according to the nature of the channel and to experiment.” -Lorenzo Rossi, Head of Marketing at Free2Move.
