The pitfalls of Mobile Attribution

Finding out the effectiveness of mobile advertising campaigns and what led to a customer’s decision making should be plain sailing. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult and because of this, mobile advertisers are suffering the consequences.

Ascertaining which marketing touchpoint has lead to a user completing a certain action is often tricky to work out. Advertisers often work with third parties or one of the big mobile attribution companies, but they also receive data directly from their own sources. So therefore, they receive lots of different information, often telling them conflictive things and therefore, working out which tactic caused a user to convert and purchase is up in the air.

The most common attribution approach is “last-click”, in which a purchase is attributed to the network or media partner that served the last ad the user clicked before downloading an app or completing a purchase. More often than not, the “last click” gets all the credit for an online sale, But this doesn’t mean it was the main method in conversion. By designating 100% of the conversion credit to a single action, marketers discredit any efforts they’ve made in investing in other marketing techniques or channels. Most consumers take action from multiple sites before actually going on to complete a purchase.

The mobile marketing industry is more than 10 years old. Something as important as measurement shouldn’t still be this complicated. One reason for this issue is that the top mobile attribution players are so competitive with one another. They don’t wish to collaborate and avoid the idea of setting mobile attribution standards, demanding that all media vendors accept third-party attribution rather than self-attribution.

To make sure an attribution model is delivering the highest possible value, marketers must constantly assess possibilities for adjustments in their approach. It’ll take more techniques and technical infrastructure to better visualise the different media interactions leading to conversion; but a multi-touch attribution model will ultimately help us make more informed and intelligent budget decisions. Because, if done correctly, we’ll be able to construct a clearer view of which channels, or vendors generate the most value therefore pointing us in the right way so we are able to drive sustainable revenue growth.

The inconsistencies with mobile attribution must be highlighted and dealt with in order to continue. We must start asking questions and understand how conversions are being calculated. It’s time to get serious about mobile attribution. If advertisers can better understand what’s working and what’s not, they will be able to spend their money in the channels they know are more likely to convert and therefore boost the rentability of their campaigns.

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The pitfalls of Mobile Attribution.