In businesses big and small, marketing attribution is becoming a more and more popular practice, and it should be a part of your business operation going forward.

For many small business owners, marketing attribution is still quite a confusing prospect. What is it? How does it work? And how will it benefit your business?
Here’s a basic introduction to marketing attribution and how it can help.

What is Marketing Attribution?

In short, marketing attribution is used by businesses to track the success of their marketing campaigns and their impact on revenue. Until recently, it was more or less impossible to do this, with businesses using a number of rudimentary methods to try and gather any data on what marketing techniques were and weren’t working.

Now, using a collection of inbound marketing methods and reporting tools, business can utilise reliable data to understand the impact and ROI of their marketing methods, and look to better tailor their efforts for the future.

What Set Up Should You Use?

Within marketing attribution, there are different types of model available that vary in their complexity and require different levels of investment. The first choice a business needs to make is between a single-touch and multi-touch model.

Single-Touch Model

If your business is just starting in market attribution, your best bet is beginning with a single-touch model. A single-touch model tracks a specific conversion point all the way through to revenue.

This will give you data on what conversion points are working well as lead generators and offer an understanding of better content development and positioning, as well as customer behavioural patterns.

Multi-Touch Model

A multi-touch model tracks multiple touch points and is suited to businesses that can invest the increased time, money and infrastructure required to set it up, not to mention further resources to then analyse the more detailed data it provides.
Multiple reports mean you can take a deeper dive into your marketing campaigns and provide more detailed intelligence, giving you the advantage of making more efficient changes to your future marketing approach.

Either way, attaching an attribution model to your business isn’t enough to get results. To reap the rewards, you’ll need to dedicate a portion of your resources to understanding the model and the benefits of the data provided.

Call Tracking is the Missing Piece

As businesses strive for a full and complete marketing attribution package, call tracking is steadily becoming a bigger feature in businesses’ attribution models.

Call tracking determines how a prospect calls your business, using the cloud to bridge the gap between sales calls and advertising spend. Companies like Mediahawk are offering a range of call tracking packages that are enabling businesses to better understand their online and offline marketing efforts and attain a better ROI.

With over two thirds of businesses not effectively tracking their marketing spend, introducing your business to effective market attribution is a great way to get a step ahead of the competition. And with a range of models available, you should be able to find the right fit for your brand.