Marketing Team Meeting around a table
Read Part 1 of the B2B Marketing Attribution Dilemma to untangle the complexity. Here, we discuss a few potential strategies that can provide a better gauge of marketing impact during complex buyer journeys.
For smaller deals, build measurement strategies that focus on first touch/ last-touch models. MQLs, Marketing Sourced pipeline, Customer Acquisition Cost, can be good measures here. Even for small deals, above the line marketing cover, digital, PR or media features might have influenced buying decisions. So, take a holistic view while attributing campaign impact.
For influenced deals, advanced models like multi-touch scoring, Account Based Marketing measurement/engagement, Full path attribution with weighting (assign different weightings to various touchpoints) or W-attribution models can be suitable.
Influenced pipeline, revenue, lead scoring, customer engagement measurement for target or high value accounts can be effective measures. Therefore, factor in engagement metrics such as email opens, downloads, web visits; Lead nurturing progression (online interest, content consumption); Pipeline influence (account /deal level), content influence(whitepapers, videos, success stories) at various stages of the deal journey.
Attribution isn’t one-size-fits-all. Experiment with different models, track performance, and adjust weightings as you gather data.
Conduct periodic reviews to validate the accuracy of attribution reporting. You might end up shifting from a first touch to a U-shaped model for even small deals, based on specific industry audience behaviour.
Attribution is as good as the data you capture and process. Ensure robust policies and training are in place to capture relevant data from channels & touchpoints across marketing, sales, partner and business ops teams.
Your CRM is normally the motherlode of data. It needs to integrate seamlessly with the marketing automation stack. Your core attribution for direct and influenced impact stems from this data. If the CRM/automation tools/databases are not updated regularly, then automated reporting, modelling and insights won’t paint the right picture for leadership teams.
Digital dashboards from proprietary platforms on LinkedIn, Meta might not give you a complete view due to challenges in attribution tracking on those platforms, and due to operating system changes. Tools like triplewhale or wetracked, can surface additional insights and close the loop for digital attribution and tracking.
Use tools like Marketo Engage, Hubspot, Bizible for multi-touch attribution. For high value ABM approaches solutions such as Demandbase, 6 sense have a set of tools that can provide account level attribution. These AI infused tools will have advanced algorithms to track customer journeys, predict which touchpoints (content, channels, engagement) have the most impact on revenue, particularly for deals where the journey involves multiple decision-makers.
The tech stack can be further integrated with account discovery tools like zoominfo, lusha to identify web engagement, and analytics tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics.
In some scenarios where you engage with siloed channels, you will need to factor in Market Mix Modelling(MMM) and brand/conversion lift studies..
Following which, Power BI or Tableau dashboards can be utilized to put together a holistic reporting view for a full path attribution model and impact.
Often, these roles might fold into other responsibilities that marketing or business ops teams hold. However, the distinction has been made here to highlight a few capabilities that leaders need to actively consider.
Basic B2B marketing attribution reports tend to over rely on single touch models, and ignore assisted conversations. While it makes for simpler reporting, it’ll not show the impact that marketing has on business conversations.
Cross-functional alignment is key! If a conversation starts in sales – the marketing team can help progress these conversations with the right content/avenue to interact through in-person or digital channels. However, if the attribution model for large deals is focused on first/last touch, and such a touchpoint doesn’t factor towards the team’s KPIs, there’ll always be friction.
Marketing, Sales, Customer Success teams are all pulling towards the same goal. The attribution model needs to have enough intelligence built in, to split between linear/multi-touch requirements and foster this collaboration.
Companies with mature marketing functions (that integrate sales enablement, data-driven insights, and multi-touch attribution as a practice) tend to have higher marketing influence on revenue, as marketing plays a strategic role in lead nurturing and deal acceleration.
Leaders should do periodic reviews to validate the accuracy of attribution reporting. Cross-check your model’s alignment with actual sales outcomes. However, also consider if there are extraneous factors like product/sales/marketing changes that might have contributed to an impact on outcome.
Perhaps funding might have been cut, during a marketing campaign. Or there might have been changes in sales or customer success team structures. These are likely to impact the effectiveness of GTM campaigns and results.
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In conclusion, setting the right B2B marketing attribution models, Key Performance Indicators and encouraging a culture of continuous learning are also key steps to consider while building functioning and sustainable marketing for B2B organizations.
Vineeth Abraham is a seasoned B2B marketing professional with over 14 years of experience in enhancing brand recognition, driving demand generation, and executing integrated multi-channel marketing strategies. He has a proven track record of leveraging data-driven approaches and leading cross-functional teams to achieve measurable business outcomes across the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Vineeth’s expertise spans both SaaS and traditional products. He has delivered innovative marketing strategies in diverse organizational settings, across both global corporations like IBM, Microsoft, Meta, and more entrepreneurial product and services focused organizations. Connect with Vineeth on LinkedIn to learn more about his marketing and consulting experience.
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