Why Last-Click Attribution Is Costing You Budget

Did you know that most marketers (78.4%) use last-click attribution and web analytics to measure how effective their media is? If your team also uses last-click attribution, then you may already know that it’s not always all it’s cut out to be.

Last-click attribution gives final interactions before a sale or desired action 100% of the credit. That doesn’t tell the whole story, though, which can make it harder for your marketing team to understand the customer journey. In fact, with last-click attribution, you largely ignore all earlier interactions, even if one of them was more important in building brand awareness or pushing the customer down the funnel and toward a sale. That may be why just one in five marketers feels confident that last-click attribution is a reasonable and accurate reflection of a platform’s long-term impact on their branding and business overall.

That matters because without clear insight, you may undervalue upper-funnel channels, like display ads or video campaigns, while overvaluing bottom-of-funnel channels, like retargeting efforts or paid search. When you do that, you’re at risk of dividing marketing funds disproportionately and not getting the greatest return on your investment. 

Key Examples of Overinvestment

How can overinvestment in search and retargeting look for your brand? 

Imagine this. You have a last-click bias that you’re unaware of. While your customers first see a display ad, then read a blog, then go on to watch a video, you only really consider the retargeting ad you send — and pour money into your retargeting campaign. As a result, the trickle of potential customers slows down.

Or, you notice that many people are clicking through and making a purchase when you use a specific keyword — let’s say “summer sandals.” So, you amp up your spend on search, but you start to notice that you’re not only overpaying for keywords, but also getting a low return on ad spend (ROAS). Since you only look at clicks from a specific keyword search, you may be missing the bigger picture (such as the conversions driven by social or CTV).

In any case, when you use last-click attribution, you don’t see the full picture. And, at the same time, you’re more likely to invest in the bottom of the funnel or obvious touchpoints that drive sales, all while ignoring other touchpoints and interactions that may have influenced your customer base.

The Alternative Attribution Models — and When To Use Them

The good news is that there are alternative marketing attribution models that you can use to improve your approach. Some include:

1. Multi-touch models, which distribute credit for interactions across all interactions, not just the final one. This gives you a better understanding of the customer journey from start to finish.

2. Time-decay attribution, which weighs interactions closer to the sale/desire action more highly but doesn’t ignore initial touchpoints, giving you more data into what pushes customers closer to a desired action.

3. Data-driven attribution, which uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or statistical methods to create an estimate of the value of each touchpoint. That way, you can more accurately set up your marketing budget allocation. 

Adtaxi Connects Media Exposure To Downstream Conversions

With Adtaxi, every media exposure, not just the final click, matters. Adtaxi connects media exposure to downstream actions, allowing you to see how search, social, programmatic, and other channels are influencing conversions throughout the funnel. 

Whether through offline attribution models, multi-touch reporting, or identifying view-through and non-click influences, your brand needs to understand where customers are coming from, what influences them, and when they decide to interact with your brand the way you want them to.

Ready to see what your marketing is doing for you and how different attribution models can help? Talk with Adtaxi today.

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