How do you convince the board about attribution modelling?

Last month, we hosted an online panel discussion on attribution modelling and all the challenges that come with it, such as selling and emphasising the importance of attribution to the board and senior management.

Joining our CEO John Readman on the panel was brand and marketing consultant, formerly of Belstaff, Reiss and M&S, Alex Kelly. We were also joined by Cormac Folan, a digital director formerly of T.M. Lewin and Paddy Power and Modo25’s performance marketing manager, Tom Pickard.

It was an interesting debate with the expert panel delving into topics such as where to start with attribution modelling, why last click attribution is problematic and measuring the effect of both online and offline media.

One key question that came up during the webinar was the board or senior management’s involvement in digital marketing and how you convince them about attribution modelling. Many directors are feeling outmatched by the pace of changing technology, emerging risks, and new competitors.

A McKinsey survey in 2015 found that only 17% of directors said their boards were sponsoring digital initiatives, and in earlier McKinsey research, just 16% said they fully understood how the industry dynamics of their companies were changing.

One important aspect of attribution, is the lack of understanding and getting other members of the organisations involved in the process and strategy.

When it comes to selling attribution to the senior team, Alex Kelly, ex Marketing and Communications Director at Belstaff answered first: “I’d start with telling them that they’ve been lied to. This is part of the problem, everyone looked at digital as the savior, which it is, and it is the dominant channel. You have to sort of explain to people about the ‘dark arts’ of digital marketing and some of the things we’re looking at often aren’t correct. Attribution is a journey.”

As someone who is involved in attribution modelling and strategy as part of their day to day role with clients, Tom Pickard, Modo25’s Paid Performance Manager said: “It’s going to be different by brand.

You have to understand your own business and brand to get an idea of how long you need to understand an attribution model over because if you run some branding activity, you’ll have an idea of how long that branding activity is going to stay in customers minds and sort of continue to influence decisions, and that’s probably the length you need to run an attribution report.”

You can watch the full webinar and more clips from the session on our YouTube channel.

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