Truly understanding the customer journey; the case for attribution made with real data

For any advertiser to construct effective cross-channel digital advertising campaigns, it’s important to first understand their customers journey and their interactions with each channel through that journey.

Multi-touch conversions are critical in developing an understanding of the customer journey: only 50 percent of users convert through a single touch meaning  the remaining conversions are driven by users who engage across channels, or are engaging with a single channel multiple times (see Figure 1 below).

These multi-touch users are important because they are more valuable, yielding a 26 percent larger average order value than users who convert on the first touch alone (see Figure 2 below). Using cross-channel media to usher these valuable multi-touch users toward conversion is a key component of digital advertising.

Knowing this, it is important Advertisers use cross-channel paths to investigate the role that cross-channel media is playing in the lead up to conversion.  It may be useful to identify three different types of user interaction based on where a channel occurs in the conversion path:

1. Introducer: An introducing channel is the first touch in the user journey, 

2. Influencer: Influencing channels engage with a user between their first touch and their eventual conversion. 

3. Closer: The closing channel is that through which a user converts,

The chart above shows the relative strength of each channel in the multi-touch conversion path for an example client at Adobe Media Optimizer. Here, display has been broken down into the three main types of RTB media available through a demand-side platform for Adobe Media Optimizer—prospecting (VT), retargeting (RT) and the Facebook Exchange (FBX)—which can play fundamentally different roles in the conversion funnel.

The plot shows how frequently (of the total number of multi-path conversions in which it was involved) a given channel was an introducer, influencer, or a closer.

Various types of digital media are clearly involved at different points of the conversion process, ultimately reflecting the fact that they represent different parts of the multi-path conversion funnel. Prospecting display, for instance, performs best as an introducing channel but is a much weaker closer, whereas the opposite is true for retargeting: significantly better closer and a weaker introducer.  Leveraging the relative channel strengths is an important component of an effective cross-channel media campaign.

Benefiting from these insights, here are five tips for digital professionals seeking to administer a successful cross-channel advertising campaign:

1. Ensure unified tracking is deployed across all your advertising channels

2. Leverage your customer insights

3. Use an appropriate attribution rule: recognize that ‘last event’ attribution will not take into account the user journey and is therefore flawed in a cross-channel context. 

4. Maintain reactivity: use your attributed performance data to maintain a malleable media strategy that can react to your market dynamics. 

5. Testing is the key to success:

We know that half of all conversions require multiple touch points. But how can advertisers determine the right mix? With the abundance of data and technology choices, the complexity to manage multiple channels requires machine learning aligned with human guidance. Marketers need to create an environment of excellence within their teams, and use technology and algorithms to make these critical and real-time decisions

The above is a limited summary from the  just published Adobe Media Optimizer Cross- Channel White Paper you can get your own copy here.