As Australian SMEs invest more in digital marketing, understanding which activities actually drive results becomes critical. That’s where attribution modeling comes in. Simply put, it’s about working out which of your marketing touchpoints – like a Facebook ad, an email campaign, or a Google search result – deserve credit for a sale or lead.

For too long, businesses have relied on ‘last-click’ attribution. This gives 100% of the credit to the very last thing a customer did before converting. While easy to track, it’s often misleading. Imagine someone sees your ad on social media, then clicks on a Google search result a week later, and finally buys something. Last-click attribution ignores the initial awareness created by your ad. It’s like saying the final push of a car is the only thing that made it move!

More sophisticated models spread the credit across multiple touchpoints. Here are a few common approaches:

• Linear Attribution: Every touchpoint gets equal credit. It’s a simple way to acknowledge all interactions.
• Time Decay Attribution: Touchpoints closer to the sale get more credit. This recognises that recent interactions are often more influential.
• Position-Based Attribution: Gives the first and last touchpoints the most credit, with the rest distributed evenly. This acknowledges both awareness and conversion.
• Data-Driven Attribution: Uses machine learning to analyse your specific customer journeys and assign credit based on actual behaviour. This is the most accurate, but requires significant data.

Choosing the right model depends on your business and customer behaviour. For businesses with short buying cycles, a time decay or position-based model might be suitable. For longer, more complex journeys, data-driven attribution – becoming more accessible to SMEs – offers the greatest insight. We’re seeing more Australian businesses adopt these advanced methods as data platforms improve.

Don’t get bogged down in perfection. The goal isn’t to find the *absolute* truth, but to move beyond last-click and gain a more nuanced understanding of your marketing’s impact. Start by identifying all your key touchpoints, then experiment with different models to see which provides the most actionable insights. The better you understand where your ROI comes from, the more effectively you can allocate your marketing budget and drive growth.

To get started, we recommend auditing your current marketing channels and identifying all the ways customers interact with your brand. From there, consider a trial of a multi-touch attribution tool to begin testing different models.