Last-Click Focus Distorts Conversion Metrics

The last step on the customer's conversion path is not necessarily the most important one, but it's the easiest to see, so some marketers still use a simple "last-click" standard for conversion credit. This ignores all the other parts of a marketing campaign that may drive conversions. But even marketers who allocate conversion credit across touch points -- using an even spread, time-decay or ad hoc attribution approach --are missing the mark, according to a Digiday article by Paul Pellman, CEO of Adometry.  Conversion credits that are arbitrarily assigned don't produce reliable metrics, argues Pellman. He urges analysis of all touch points in the path to conversion -- taking into account the relative performance of varying channels, campaigns, creatives or placements -- to calculate each touch point’s true contribution to conversion. The end result of an advanced attribution approach, Pellman avers, is that marketers will be able to more reliably optimize conversions, revenue, ROI, reach, and lifetime value. For the full article, see http://www.digiday.com/brands/why-last-click-analytics-dont-tell-the-whole-story/