5-stage roadmap for successful adoption of Multi-Touch Attribution

With the increase in ad spending and influx of martech companies, analytics for digital advertising and marketing have come a long way. It is easy to get lost in the sea of data that is captured on various measurement parameters. For better understanding and to ensure strategic success of a brand campaign, a Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) model is the best way forward.

MTA is a model that considers various media touchpoints that a single user has engaged with and identifies those touch points to act as enablers for each unique user. To help marketers understand how to effectively utilise this model in the most optimal manner, here is a 5-stage MTA Journey Map, that guides marketers through various steps classified on the basis of 5 common parameters. This map can help marketers to incorporate MTA into their marketing campaigns in a series of stages, which are explained in detail below:

Let’s start with a quick look at the 5 parameters that are evaluated at each stage of the MTA Journey:

• Organisation and People: The core leadership, industry experts, marketers, etc. who will drive the process of MTA throughout the project
• Analytics and Data: User-level data that will be generated from the campaign, stakeholders involved in data mining and collection, conversion methods to accurately calculate conversions from the data collected, etc.
• Partners: Third-party or in-house experts needed for continuous analysis and deployment of MTA
• Skills and Knowledge: Skillsets and information gathering needed at different stages of the MTA process; aimed at helping the organisation in planning and implementing the campaign
• Milestones: The achievements or goals that marketers must achieve at the end of each stage

5 Stages of the Multi-Touch Attribution Journey

1. Initiate MTA process

This stage focuses on understanding the process of MTA, its benefits and the tools needed for successful deployment. Marketers must lay the base, which includes forming the core leadership team, deciding upon different media and nominate data experts who decide the budget and select conversion and measurement methods to scale results and map out the success of the project.

2. Establishing Data Readiness

This stage involves chalking out the action plan and the goals of the project. Here marketers determine the nature of unique user-level data needed to achieve their MTA goals starting with data experts who determine ways to utilise the insights provided and incorporate them into chosen media channels. It is important to ensure that the nature of data matches the specific needs of their MTA campaign. Finally, preliminary reviews of MTA providers must be carried out to find the right fit for the campaign. The final leadership, along with demarcation of roles and responsibilities and a finalised budget is decided upon, keeping in mind the previous steps of this stage, to then set up the first test project.

3. Setup First MTA Project

There is ideally a test run to identify any kinks in the action plan and understand the benefits of incorporating MTA. RFI’s can be issued to partners, to evaluate which partner best meets project requirements. Furthermore, the authenticity and accuracy of user-level data must be tested, and different chosen conversion methods should be tried to find the most suitable one for the project. Lastly, the test plan must be focused around showing the incrementality of pursuing MTA, with experts and analytics catering to the ‘must-haves’ of the project.

4. Implement First MTA Project

The final implementation of the first MTA project will require the core leadership to mark the progress, costs and successes of the campaign. Marketers must focus on ensuring the availability of user-level data, and its linkage to single, unique users. Aggregate data is difficult to accurately convert, and marketers must avoid using this form of data as much as possible or create alternate methods of incorporating it into the campaign. All milestones and lessons of the campaign must be documented for conducting comparative studies with previous non-MTA campaigns.

5. Deployment

This last stage of the MTA process focuses on planning long-term, effective deployment of MTA processes into future marketing campaigns. Collecting and analysing information from the performance of each MTA campaign will help marketers identify what drives user conversions, drawing their focus to touchpoints that generate results. Marketers must also carry out periodic tests for each MTA campaign. Tracking the successes and failures of each campaign will also help calculate the effectiveness of the MTA process, helping marketers identify new and emerging methods of marketing as and when they emerge.

Incorporating MTA into marketing plans can improve personalisation of the campaign, while helping marketers cut down on expenditure and increase their ROI– all through the use of unique, single-user level data to identify what drives the modern consumer. As consumers continue to gravitate towards personalization, even in their interactions with advertisements and marketing campaigns, MTA is quickly emerging as a preferred method of evaluating marketing in the digital age.

By Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India