Michael Lamontagne

One of the topics that I’ve been interested in recently is attribution modeling. Its becoming easier in the digital space to track consumers full purchase path across all digital media but now smart marketers are asking how we should be attributing conversion behavior between the different media.

I took part in a session on attribution modeling at the Omniture Summit. It was by far the most interesting session of the entire conference.  Below are a few key takeaways.

• Nobody has a solution for how to do attribution modeling.
• Attribution modeling needs to be customized for each business.
• Even attribution across all channels is not the best method. This was one point that everybody agreed upon.
• Marketers should consider layering in additional information such as media budget weights and consumer feedback to help determine the proper attribution weights.

I just finished readying a Forrester Wave report on Attribution Management companies. Below is a link to the Forrester report.

Q4 2009: Forrester Interactive Attribution

The report found that a company called ClearSaleing offers the best solution for interactive attribution management. Based on a recent review and product demo of ClearSaleing, I certainly understand why ClearSaleing came on top. Their dashboard is easy to understand and can help companies better understand how each digital media is important to the purchase path. It is important to note that I have only reviewed ClearSaleing in great detail.

Forrester Wave Interactive Attribution

In recent months I have become increasing interested in attribution modeling largely due to frustration of the last click model. While there are many studies that discuss how different online media such as search and display work well in tandem and can generate a lift in key metrics, there didn’t appear to be a great way of measuring this impact easily. The companies outlined in the report have taken great efforts to help clients measure the impact and importance of different media and how they work together to achieve a specific goal.

The one area of weakness across all attribution management solutions is the lack of an offline measurement component. Some companies offer solutions to help address the issue but it is not comprehensive and leaves much to be desired.

I encourage any company or person who is interested in using measurement as a key part of their business practices to consider looking into attribution measurement.

Below is a great article about the struggles of m-commerce.

To summarize the article, here are some of the key points:

• Mobile remains one of the fastest and most pervasive technologies in the U.S. and across the world.
• Mobile e-commerce continues to struggle due to consumers lack of comfort with order products on their mobile devices. Some notable excepts include low cost items such as pizza.
• Another issue that is plaguing m-commerce is the number of mobile platforms, which makes it difficult for companies to develop full strategies on a specific platform.

Excerpt

“There’s no question that mobile web use is on the rise. Recent reports tell us that cellular networks worldwide are seeing major increases in growth. In fact, there are even concerns that the current infrastructure won’t be able to keep up with the new demands. According to one research firm, 3G traffic in developed markets will increase by 20% by the end of 2014 but some operators will face HSPA capacity shortfalls as soon as mid-2010, if not earlier. Forrester Research also recently predicted that more than a third of Europeans will be accessing the mobile internet by 2014.”

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mobile_e-commerce_is_struggling.php