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Attribution: The Unsung Hero of Marketing Success
Why Your Marketing Strategy Needs More Than Just Guesswork
Picture this: you’ve launched a marketing campaign with vibrant creatives, catchy copy, and a solid budget. But a month later, you’re staring at the results, trying to figure out what worked. Was it the LinkedIn ad targeting C-suite executives? The email nurture campaign? Or maybe that webinar you hosted? If you’re not tracking attribution, you’re essentially guessing—and guesswork isn’t a marketing strategy.
Attribution is the secret weapon that turns chaotic data into actionable insights. It tells you which of your efforts deserves the gold medal and which ones need a hard pivot. Yet, despite its importance, many marketers overlook attribution or think it’s too technical or complex. It’s time to change that mindset.
Why Attribution Matters More Than Ever
The buyer’s journey today isn’t a straight path. People don’t see an ad and immediately click “buy.” They might discover your brand on LinkedIn, read a blog post, sign up for a newsletter, and only after several interactions, decide to make a purchase. Without attribution, it’s like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.
Attribution models help you understand which touchpoints in this journey are driving real results. They help you answer critical questions like:
- Which campaigns are worth scaling?
- Which audiences are engaging with your content?
- Where are you wasting time and money?
With marketing budgets under constant scrutiny, attribution isn’t just a tool—it’s your lifeline for smarter decisions.
Common Misconceptions About Attribution
The most common misconception about attribution is that it assigns success for THE channel that should get the credit for the conversion. It’s often an area of misunderstanding between executives and marketing professionals. While understanding how and where your marketing channels are being effective, it’s rarely as straightforward as assigning success to one channel instead of considering the overall influence and strategy of a full funnel approach.
For example, Google is often a channel that receives undeserved credit as the main source of conversions for companies. In most situations, prospects heard about or saw the offer through some other medium. It could be LinkedIn, Meta, Programmatic, billboards, referrals, etc. Like most people, as the interest in the offer grows, they’ll most likely Google the offer or the company. Once they convert, it appears that Google was the main channel responsible for the conversion, where in truth it was simply at the tailend of the decision. Buying cycles in B2B are often long, which can run months or even years. When ready, prospects are most likely to Google the offer again or go directly to the site rather than wait for an ad to pop up on other platforms.
Instead of looking at attribution to give credit to one channel for conversions, it should be looked at in a way to assess the different ways prospects engage and ultimately convert for a company. Use each channels reported metrics to optimize and assign budget accordingly.
Breaking Down Attribution Models
Let’s simplify the jargon. Attribution models determine how credit is assigned to different touchpoints along the buyer’s journey. Here are the main ones to use on LinkedIn:
- Each-Click Conversion: Gives credit to ALL ad interactions (great for understanding all the ads that helped influence the conversion).
- Last-Click Conversion: Credits the LAST ad interaction before conversion (useful for pinpointing the closer).
- Key Page View: Set this up to understand the behavior of your traffic to see how many high-intent pages their visiting based on the campaign.
When it comes to LinkedIn Ads, understanding your model can help you optimize spend and target more effectively. It’s important to use both of these models in order to understand all the ads that help influence your conversions and the final ad that tipped the scales and drove the close.
How Attribution Drives Funnel Optimization
Attribution isn’t just about numbers—it’s about seeing the bigger picture. Here’s how it impacts each stage of your funnel:
- Bottom-of-Funnel (Conversion): You’ll know which touchpoints seal the deal, whether it’s a retargeting ad or a pricing page visit.
- Top-of-Funnel (Awareness): Attribution shows which ads are grabbing attention and driving traffic.
- Mid-Funnel (Consideration): It highlights which resources (case studies, webinars) are nurturing leads.
For example, you may show a conversion from your Linkedin campaigns, but Google & Meta also show a conversion. These can all be the same person that converted, but the data is showing you more of the journey. They may have seen the ad on LinkedIn, engaged with an ad on Meta when being retargeted, then Googled the company/offer and ended up converting. Attribution helps you optimize your spend and ads on each channel and between channels.
Moving Forward: Implementing Attribution Strategies
Here’s how to get started with attribution without feeling overwhelmed:
- Track, Analyze, Adjust: Attribution is a continuous process—use insights to refine your efforts regularly. Use platform attribution to optimize campaigns, and overall attribution to optimize your marketing ecosystem.
- Baseline metrics: Each month note the overall influence on traffic, leads, quality of leads, held sales calls, conversions, & Sale Value.
- Leverage Tools: Platforms like LinkedIn Ads and Google Analytics make attribution manageable, but 3rd party tools will help show you touchpoints across channels.
- Separate channel attribution for optimization: Each platform gives attribution tracking, but these should be used to optimize those specific channels.
Conclusion
Attribution isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the backbone of data-driven marketing. It helps you focus on what works, cut out what doesn’t, and ultimately grow your business smarter. By embracing attribution, you’re not just collecting data—you’re gaining clarity, confidence, and control over your marketing future.
So, the next time someone asks, “How do we know this is working?” you’ll have an answer backed by hard data—and maybe even a bigger budget to boot.