2015: The Year We Get Closer to Resolving the Great Attribution Agitation
Will this finally be the year that marketers are able to effectively attribute their marketing efforts?
Will this finally be the year that marketers are able to effectively attribute their marketing efforts?
Mobile is supremely important for marketers. If it isn’t, it should be. In 2014, we finally saw previously skeptical marketers stepping up to test, justify, and grow dedicated mobile budgets. This trend is a distinct acknowledgement of just how dominant smartphones and tablets have become in the consumer day-to-day experience. Think of how often you look at your phone. Perhaps you’re even reading this very article on a smartphone.
So as marketers now embrace mobile’s place in the average consumer’s day and thus its place in the new path to purchase — it’s never been more important to focus on multichannel impact and attribution. In fact, I predict 2015 will be “the year of attribution,” though I’ll also predict we’ll end the year, not with the solution, but rather with a necessarily better understanding of the possibilities.
No matter what you call it (mobile-first, cross-channel, omni-channel), the exponential number of factors involved in harnessing a strategic solution that both accounts for and optimizes all the moving parts and outcomes, demands a long-term, methodical approach. This is good news because it also means long-term opportunity, near-term low-hanging fruit, and an arena in which to pioneer the building blocks of tomorrow’s solutions. This is also an alert and call for action.
There is no one formula for success. However, I would recommend a strategy comprised of immediate, achievable goals, and long-term overarching initiatives. In other words, have the seamlessly integrated and attributable personalized omni-channel experience in your future view, but focus on concrete (even sub-channel specific) wins in the short-term. These various building blocks are the ones that will eventually combine to deliver the Holy Grail solution.
Consider that the path to mobile voicemail began with an answering machine. We’ve already come so far. So, just like that, as we push the envelope with regard to attribution, new technologies will continue to accrete and combine. Attribution is currently just out of reach on the top shelf, but with new technologies serving as building blocks, the best-in-class will eventually be able to reach it. We’re getting there.
Here are some developments that we should expect to see in 2015:
We love to dub “the year of” whatever the platform du jour may be. As an industry, we champ at the bit to do so, as proof of maturation or justification of our investments. Yet, as mobile ad-tech continues to mature, and adoption steadily rises — we need not fret the year-of designation. We’re getting over it, getting it on the possibilities, and fully appreciating the long-term opportunity that is mobile-led, fully attributed ad marketing.