Attribution as a football team;

Put your “players” in the right positions!

Checking out a keeper on the number of goals he scores? Chances are you will never be satisfied with his performance. There is a good chance that you will remove him (incorrectly) from the selection. We do not judge a keeper by the number of goals he scores. However, we still do something similar with our online channels in many cases.

“I don’t get it …”

I tried to explain to a group of account managers at a publishing house what attribution models are and how you can use them to find out the place of a channel in a customer journey / customer purchase funnel. A number of them did not understand this. In the car back home I was thinking how I could make this clear. At that moment I came up with the idea to make a comparison with a football team. Not only must players be able to work well together, they must be well attuned to each other, they must also be judged on the role that they must play. A goalkeeper does not score and a striker does not stop penalties (with some exceptions).

From print to display

I take the example of a traditional publishing house because they struggle enormously with this. They offer (a strong) reach but are judged by many customers on CTR and conversion … The expectation at the start of a campaign is often wrong (the nonsense of a high CTR).

The “big advantage” of the measurability of online campaigns compared to print also presents a considerable challenge. We could not measure “clicks” with those print ads. That was also not the purpose of the advertisement. It was about reach, the right message at the right time to the right person. If you then make the link with a customer’s journey, then this channel can only be used for awareness. Let us know that you exist, organize an event, are also open on Sundays, open a new branch, launch a new product …

Assessing a display campaign on the number of clicks and conversion is therefore not or hardly relevant. The task of regular display advertising is to create brand awareness, awareness among the target group. Let us therefore judge that channel on those factors.

Deploy your team for your company or employer

You have a clear proposition, you know your target group and your distinctiveness. You know exactly how to describe your place in the market. You also have a clear answer to the question “for which customers are you not” (fuck range, go for impact).

With these things in mind, you are going to use online channels (read: your team) that will contribute to the ultimate goal; conversion (read: score).

AW = Awareness | CO = Consideration | PR = Preference | PU = Purchase | LO = Loyalty | AD = Advocacy

Each player has his own qualities, link these to a customer purchase funnel and you already have a part of your setup.

Train your players

Optimize the different channels on the KPIs that are relevant to that channel. A process that you will never be finished with; It can always be better. However, I see this happening far too little. An AdWords campaign that does not deliver ‘enough’ is interrupted or limited in the budget instead of investigating whether the right keywords are being used, the right search type, an appealing advertisement and a strong landing page.

I exaggerate a bit in some examples but I see a lot happening every day.

Teach your coach to communicate

Many ‘wrong’ decisions are made because the statistics are not interpreted correctly. In this comparison, the coach of your team is your statistics package (eg Google Analytics). The coach sees everything happening but often makes statements that few people understand;

“It’s the same song again”
“That’s another cook”
“We are running after the facts”
“The three points are inside”

Luis van Gaal

We can all read statistics, but correct interpretation and conversion to action points is a job in itself!

So make sure you understand what your statistics package tells you to gain more insight into the location of a channel. I personally get a lot of relevant information from reports such as ‘Best conversion paths’ and the ‘Model comparison tool’ in Analytics.

The perfect setup does not exist

Unfortunately, there is no perfect setup. Few customers will come to a conversion via the same route. However, we can optimize the channels based on these reports.

A web shop with air handling equipment sold an average of 1 device per day via AdWords at an average of € 135 per conversion (costs per conversion). AdWords only looked at which clicks lead directly to a sale. By analyzing the position of AdWords in the customer purchase funnel of this company, we soon discovered that many interrupted keywords did play an important role in the purchasing process. However, many of these keywords were at the very beginning of the purchasing process.

Someone has some mold on the wall at home in the basement due to high humidity. This person generally does not have a single understanding of air treatment, so perhaps Google will search for ‘dehumidifier’.
This immediately presents a major challenge for the webshop; it is difficult for the target group to determine which product offers a solution to the problem they currently have. It is therefore interesting for this company to come into the picture at the start of the search for the solution of the problem; “We are happy to help you make the right choice”.
Since most devices cost between € 200 and € 1,500, many visitors to the web shop will take a closer look and / or make a comparison by also viewing the web shop of a competitor. Maybe there will be a little consultation with the partner before going ‘directly’ to the webshop and ordering the product. This conversion will therefore be assigned to direct traffic in many standard reports.

By connecting the AdWords campaigns to the place in the purchasing process and also assessing the correct KPIs, this webshop now sells more than 7 devices per day (indirectly) via AdWords at around € 30 per conversion (costs per conversion). Not because we are ‘more convenient’ with AdWords than the previous agency that managed the campaigns, but because we take the ‘journey of a customer’ into account.

Now we also see AdWords regularly coming back at the end of the purchasing process, but when we zoom in on the different campaigns these are mainly product-oriented campaigns. Campaigns with brand, model and type as keyword. Quite logical, you know which specific product you need and only find out where you can buy the best. Also adjust the content of your ads accordingly. Someone who is still orientating will probably not benefit from a product-specific offer. Someone looking for the brand, model and type will probably not benefit from a very general advertisement.

It may sound obvious, but for the more than 200 clients that I have been able to work for, it has hardly happened that enough attention is paid to this.

Attribution models

In this example we see that the ROAS (return on advertising spend) of paid search traffic is highest in the ‘First interaction model’. Display has the highest ROAS in the ‘linear model’. This display campaign is primarily intended to approach visitors who do not convert with a customized message (retargeting). AdWords is primarily focused on offering a solution to the problem that the ‘seeker’ is facing.

If we zoom in further on the campaigns, we can even see what the ROAS is in the various attribution models per ad group, per keyword and per ad.

It is NOT a smart way to make the statistics look more positive. It is a tool to find out if your channels deliver what and what place they have in the purchasing process.

My ‘team’

Websley

Your website or webshop. Often the most important striker in your team, every cross (read: visitor) must be converted into a goal (read: conversion)

Semmy

Your advertising campaign in the search engine. Depending on the keyword, it can contribute to almost all phases of the purchasing process, often focused on ‘consideration’ and ‘purchase’. Is paid per click.

Leo Seo

The organic findability of your website or webshop. Depending on the keyword, it can contribute to almost all phases of the purchasing process. Is (usually) paid per hour that someone is working on this,

Ali Sociali

The social media, both your organic reach and any sponsored messages. Is good for spreading good content, to start a conversation with your target group. Don’t just focus this on the ‘purchase’ phase, because that is not social. Also an important player in the process after the ‘purchase’.

Sir Display-a-lot

Your display advertising, also the pacemaker of the game. Provides a large reach but will not score much. Is (usually) paid per thousand impressions.

Erik Meel

Email marketing can also be used in multiple phases of the purchasing process, but in many cases it will prove most effective in the phases after the ‘purchase’.

AppieAndiOS

Your apps can be used as a striker but also in many other positions, depending on the function.

Affili Aafke

Potentially your best (not the most important) striker. Plays individually and is only paid per lead, conversion or other promotion.

Remco

Remarketing mainly fills the gap between ‘awareness’ and ‘purchase’. If properly trained a valuable midfielder. Is (usually) paid per thousand impressions.

Stan Tistiek

Your statistics package that you may not understand. Ensure that Stan can oversee everything and learn to understand him (more effectively than teaching him a different ‘language’).

Know your ‘opponent’

You should know the opponent of your team. What is the reason that, for example, 97% of my visitors look but do not buy (with a conversion rate of 3%). The better you know the opponent, the better you can match your own team to this. Remove any resistance by, among other things, the use of ‘micro copy’ (The power of micro copy).

Other “opponents” may be;

• Not mobile friendly
• Lack of trust
• Failure to keep your promise
• Too many distractions
• No clear call to action
• Too much choice
• Ask for too much information
• Price / delivery conditions
• Lack of distinctive character
• Individual deployment channels instead of an integrated approach
• Etc…

Waste of online marketing budget

I am surprised how much budget is wasted by companies (P&G cuts into online advertising). Often because the people who manage the budget do not have enough knowledge. That can be about the specific channel or about the basic facets of MARKETING. An ‘AdWords expert’ often has little ‘marketing’ background and the online marketer often has too little knowledge of, for example, AdWords, Analytics, Facebook (ads), etc.

The ‘marketing’ in ‘online marketing’ is therefore missing in many cases.
Let the expert do the executive work but ensure that it is fed by someone with a marketing / entrepreneurial background who never forgets to think about basic things such as proposition, target group, distinctive character, objective, etc.

The next generation of marketers will have to be able to communicate with the ‘channel specialist’.