Attribution is the process of linking the desired marketing outcome or activity to a promotional effort or efforts.  For example, directly linking a customer’s purchase to a banner ad.  Or even more complexly, seeing the ad off line via a catalog or print ad, searching for the site on Google…seeing the paid advertising… then going to the site.   

In the world of multi-channel marketing, correctly understanding and attributing the real source driving the purchase is no easy task at best.  At worst, it can contribute to channel over or under performance and spend and may mask your true ROI. 

 There are many reasons this problem exists, they include:

•  Data tracked in different tools and stored in different places

• Integration of click and customer identified data (PII)

• Tracking across channels

• Budget restrictions

• Analytical tool and people limitations

The heart of solving the allocation issue is to create an integrated customer data resource.  This links together all of the data sources in both your on and off line customer engagement.  This creates a single way to track and understand customer behavior.  It allows you to develop multi-channel allocation models, instead of a more limited one channel to action model.

Next week I will discuss how to transform a integrated data resource into a customer intelligence capability.