November 22, 2013

Optimizing Marketing’s Influence on the Customer Journey

Gabrielle Doby | UWEBC Communications Student Assistant

“We really want to understand the customer journey, but it’s becoming more and more complex. So we need to break it down and understand how each event contributes to the journey,” said Natasha Moonka, Product Marketing Manager, adometry.

Speaking at the November 7, 2013 Web and Multichannel Marketing Peer Group meeting, Natasha Moonka, adometry, discussed data attribution to match organizational objectives.

Speaking at the November 7, 2013 Web and Multichannel Marketing Peer Group meeting, Moonka discussed how to measure and optimize marketing data to enhance the customer experience. With the influx of data most organizations are now facing, Moonka said the challenge is to correctly attribute various customer events and their contribution to organizational growth and strategic objectives.

Moonka outlined five steps in implementing attribution of customer data and leveraging it to match organizational goals:

1. Determine the Objective
   Start the attribution process by identifying the organization’s objective, such as reaching the right audiences in the right places, working cross-functionally across channels, and others. Understanding the end objective and the current context of attribution in relation to other optimization efforts will help identify appropriate models for attribution.
2. Justify the Investment
   Justifying cross-channel marketing efforts is especially difficult due to the often siloed nature of cross-channel marketing. Moonka recommends clearly defining responsibility and ownership of cross-channel efforts. Moonka said, “The right attribution solution and cross-channel measurement solution should pay for itself overtime.”
   
   
3. Compare Solutions
   After identifying the direction and justification of data measurement investment, it is necessary to consider the possible methodologies for implementing a solution. Moonka acknowledged the popularity of rule-based processes for analyzing attribution including “last touch,” “even,” and “ad hoc” methodologies. While these rule-based approaches may be appropriate for organizations with smaller data sets, Moonka introduced a fractional approach that is deployed by external partners or highly developed internal units. Fractional approaches use algorithms to accurately identify which channels can be attributed to sales.  
4. Prepare for Attribution
   After choosing a methodology for attribution, it’s time to implement the solution. Moonka said that organizations should seek to recognize where advertising events and conversion events occur. Identifying these events and setting the proper metric for each event are key steps in a fractional approach to attribution.  
5. Evaluate Success
   According to Moonka, quantifying the success of an attribution strategy is challenging in terms of a standard metric like ROI, because of the complicated margins. Instead she recommends measuring results with return on marketing investment (ROMI).  

Moonka suggests defining a scorecard that enables an organization to match initial objectives with final results. “Once you’ve defined the minimum baseline objectives, define a scorecard for each goal in terms of success for the organization, because then you’ll be that much more likely to tie to it in the end,” she said.

Organizations are constantly challenged to make better use of customer data. Correctly attributing that data is the first step in understanding what drives the customer journey.

Member companies can access Natasha Moonka's Mediasite recording and other meeting materials here.