Study: Marketers Renew Interest in Cross-Channel Attribution

When it comes to collecting and evaluating audience data, marketers can choose from a multitude of tactics. Recent research suggests there’s an increased interest in cross-channel measurement and attribution this year, edging ahead of former go-to tactics like general audience analytics and programmatic media buying.

Almost 60% of US digital marketing and media practitioners polled in January 2017 by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Winterberry Group said they expect to be engaged in cross-channel measurement and attribution this year.

That’s certainly a different story from the past two years, when just over a third of respondents said this was a focus. The research also showed that interest in cross-channel measurement and attribution had fallen between 2015 and 2016.

Today, consumers are convenience-driven, which often means device-agnostic. So with that in mind, they’re picking the channel that’s well, the most convenient, whether that’s looking down at their mobile phone or ahead at the store shelf.

As a result, the retail industry is taking a more serious stance on cross-channel marketing by incorporating both online and offline tactics, and gaining greater insight into their customer base. About four in 10 retail marketers worldwide said they will implement cross-channel attribution initiatives in 2017, according to a Yes Lifecycle Marketing survey.

While doubling down on cross-channel attribution, the IAB/Winterberry Group survey found there were some tactics that respondents said they’d be spending less energy on. These included general audience analytics, programmatic media buying for more mature markets and predictive modeling.

The decreasing interest in programmatic for established formats is particularly interesting, considering recent news about advertisers boycotting Google over objectionable content near ads. Apparently, marketers want to take a more hands-on approach in deciding where their ads appear and don’t appear.

Courtesy of eMarketer