The importance of attribution 

Back in 2011, Google and Econsultancy produced a white paper that surveyed over 600 marketeers and agencies to learn what we thought about attribution. Their findings came as no surprise with 72% agreeing that marketing attribution enables better budget allocation. Google haven't updated this survey with a more recent one but despite this it is likely to only have got higher as time has gone on, with the current emphasis within the marketing industry on Conversion Rate Optimisation and making every penny count.

The reason attribution is useful is because credit can then be applied to effective digital marketing channels as per the insight you are seeing. By building, customising and comparing channels you can optimise the impact of your online marketing strategy and set a reasoned budget based on realistic results. 

If you only look at the last click then you get an incomplete picture of your conversions. More insight leads to more intelligence, and that can potentially impact your digital marketing decisions so that you reach out to the most relevant audience and direct them to the most effective journey to convert on your website.

How does Multi-Channel Funnels work?

You can setup Multi-Channel Funnels easily within Google Analytics. Each Funnel shows interactions within a 30 day window prior to conversion. The metrics these reports provide are:

• Assisted conversions so you can attribute different marketing channels
• Time lag helps to understand the average duration it requires for your prospects or leads to mature to a conversion
• Path length identifies the number of touch points or interactions that the user has prior to a conversion
• Top conversion paths visualise the route your conversions take

Benefits of Multi Channel Funnels

• See all the digital marketing channels you use attributed to conversions in one place
• They use Goals and eCommerce data that you already track in Google Analytics - so no additional setup is required.
• You can quickly create and tweak bespoke attribution models so there's no time commitment associated to gaining multi-channel funnel conversion tracking.
• It's a handy place to compare channel 'values' such as paid and organic search, referrals, email and other marketing channels you might be utilising.
• Each step includes a percentage change metric so you can identify where there is an effective transition in a users ourney and also where improvements may be needed in the case of a significant drop off in traffic from step to step
• Visualise the data instantly in the easy to use interface

Google see Multi-Channel Funnels as moving beyond the last click to really see how your marketing channels work together to create sales and conversions. Here is a short video from Google on MCFs.

We think that if you want to better understand your digital marketing efforts and optimise your online strategy then it helps to see a complete picture of the steps your conversions are attributed to. This intelligence leads to improving the effectiveness of your marketing based on channel performance and gives you the insight you need to make the right digital marketing budget decisions.