9 Top Marketing Attribution Software Tools in 2024

In a 2023 survey conducted by Statista, it was revealed that 70% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in the United States prioritize measuring sales and revenues. Additionally, nearly 56% focus on digital, web, and mobile performance, while 43% emphasize content engagement. These metrics highlight the diverse strategies CMOs employ in their marketing efforts.

In order to understand this dynamic landscape, Marketing Attribution Software comes into play, providing crucial insights for data-driven decision-making. In this blog, we’ll discuss Marketing Attribution, explore the role of Marketing Attribution Software, and discuss various attribution models that empower marketers to make well-informed decisions.

What is Marketing Attribution?

Marketing attribution is a data-driven methodology that assigns value to each touchpoint in a customer’s journey, helping marketers understand the contribution of individual channels and interactions to the desired outcome. This process enables businesses to identify and prioritize the most effective marketing strategies, optimize resource allocation, and make informed decisions based on concrete insights.

This approach empowers strategic decision-making, offering key benefits:

• Identify high-impact channels for strategic refinement.
• Allocate the budget effectively based on touchpoint performance.
• Prioritize and enhance marketing approaches.
• Gain comprehensive insights into customer journeys.
• Focus efforts on channels with the most significant impact.

Simply put, marketing attribution is not just a data analysis tool; instead, it serves as a strategic guide, directing marketers toward a more effective and efficient path to success.

Types of Marketing Attribution Models

1. Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA):

Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), in its various forms, provides marketers with a practical approach to understanding the collaborative efforts of different touchpoints in driving conversions. These models offer valuable insights, allowing businesses to refine their strategies for optimal impact. Let’s explore the key sub-models:

• First-Touch Attribution:

This model attributes that when a customer decides to buy something, the credit for that decision goes to the first thing they saw or interacted with. It highlights how important it is for customers to know about a product before buying it.

• Last-Touch Attribution:

Last-touch attribution gives the most credit to the last thing a customer interacts with before purchasing. It points out the specific channel that played a direct role in sealing the deal.

• Linear Attribution:

This model evenly distributes credit across all touchpoints in the customer journey, recognizing each interaction’s contribution, regardless of its position.

• Time Decay Attribution:

Recognizing that interactions closer to the conversion often have more impact, time decay attribution assigns increasing value to touchpoints as they get closer to the conversion event.

• First-and-Last Model:

The First-and-Last Touch Attribution Model offers a simplified view of attribution, focusing on the starting and ending points of the customer journey. While it might not capture the entire narrative, it provides clear insights into the crucial touchpoints that initiate the journey and bring it to a successful close.

Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) is a practical tool for marketers seeking to understand the collective impact of various touchpoints in driving conversions.

For example, if a customer discovers a product through a social media ad but only purchases engaging with multiple content pieces. Then, first-touch attribution might overlook the comprehensive journey.

Or if a customer extensively engages with a webinar but briefly clicks on a display ad, then linear attribution would give equal weight to both, potentially undervaluing the webinar’s influence.

The drawbacks of MTA models highlight the necessity for diversified approaches such as Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM). Let’s understand what marketing mix modeling (MMM) is in detail.

2. Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)

Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is a data-driven analytical process that evaluates the effectiveness of various marketing elements by considering a comprehensive mix of factors. Unlike attribution models focusing on customer touchpoints, MMM explores the broader marketing environment, encompassing online and offline channels.
Components:

• Offline and Online Channels:

MMM assesses the performance of both traditional offline channels (TV, radio, print) and online channels (digital advertising, social media, email marketing).

• External Factors:

It considers external influences such as economic conditions, seasonality, and industry trends that may impact marketing success.

• Market Conditions:

MMM analyzes how variations in market conditions, including competitive dynamics and consumer behavior, influence marketing outcomes.

While attribution models like multi-touch attribution highlight specific touchpoints, marketing mix modeling provides a holistic view of marketing effectiveness by considering the entire marketing mix. It offers a more comprehensive understanding of how various elements collectively contribute to outcomes, enabling strategic decision-making.

Suppose a retail brand implements a new advertising campaign across television, digital platforms, and social media. MMM would analyze the direct impact of these advertising channels and consider how economic fluctuations or seasonal trends might affect consumer response. This broader analysis allows marketers to refine their strategies for optimal impact.

One drawback of MMM is that it often requires considerable historical data to generate accurate insights. For new products or businesses without extensive historical data, MMM may not provide robust predictions. Other attribution models, like Multi-Channel Attribution (MCA), can overcome MMM’s data dependency by focusing on real-time customer interactions. Let’s learn how MCA impacts.

3. Multi-Channel Attribution (MCA)

Multi-Channel Attribution (MCA) provides a comprehensive understanding of how a consumer’s online and offline activities contribute to a sale. MCA recognizes the complex nature of the customer journey, considering various touchpoints and channels.

MCA takes a holistic approach to paint a full picture of the customer journey. It recognizes that consumers interact with multiple touchpoints across various online and offline channels before making a purchase. By considering the entirety of these interactions, MCA strives to attribute value to each contributing element.
For example, consider a customer journey where a consumer first discovers a product through a social media ad, then engages with an email promotion, visits the website through a search engine, and finally purchases after receiving a personalized offer through a mobile app. MCA would analyze each touchpoint’s impact, attributing value based on the customer’s journey.

The primary challenge in Multi-Channel Attribution is connecting customers’ online and offline behavior. Consumers seamlessly transition between digital and physical touchpoints, making it difficult to track and analyze the entire journey.

• Unified Customer Profiles:

By enabling marketers to track customer interactions across online and offline touchpoints helps facilitate more accurate attribution.

• Foot Traffic Analytics:

By integrating foot traffic data into attribution models, marketers gain insights into the impact of physical touchpoints on the customer journey.

• Location-Based Tracking:

By attributing store visits or offline engagements to specific online touchpoints, marketers can enhance the accuracy of attribution.

• Point-of-Sales Integration:

By providing a direct link between customer interactions, both online and offline, and the final conversion at the point of sale, enhancing the accuracy of attribution.

The Best marketing attribution tools and software for 2024

1. DiGGrowth
2. HubSpot
3. Ruler Analytics
4. Dream Data
5. Attribution
6. Factor.ai
7. Improvado
8. Demandbase
9. Cake

1. Diggrowth

There are a plethora of attribution models available, but in a short time, Diggrowth has become one of the prominent marketing automation tools among marketers. This robust platform offers precise marketing analytics and attribution features, guiding marketing leaders and their teams toward a revenue-focused approach. Diggrowth’s strength is accurately attributing revenue and pipeline to various marketing expenditures.

Recognizing the increasing importance of combining online and offline strategies, DiGGrowth introduces “phygital” insights. It doesn’t stop at traditional attribution models; it takes you on a journey with end-to-end visualizations. This attribution software gives you a holistic view, capturing the complexity of the modern customer journey. From tracking that first anonymous touchpoint to seamlessly following known users through their interactions, DiGGrowth is designed with your understanding of the customer journey in mind.

Key Features

DiGGrowth simplifies the reporting process with its comprehensive out-of-the-box reporting capabilities.
Marketing leaders can quickly access crucial insights, allowing for swift decision-making.
A key strength of DiGGrowth lies in its utilization of machine learning, acting as a powerful decision engine.
It enables marketing professionals to justify spending and make informed decisions to drive higher revenue.

Why DiGGrowth Stands Out as Best Marketing Attribution Software?

DiGGrowth gives you clear insights into marketing effectiveness, addressing the diverse needs of different roles within your marketing team. The software provides custom marketing dashboards and reports, enabling you to effectively measure and demonstrate the value of marketing performance.
The platform streamlines your marketing programs, campaign planning, and reporting, offering tailored dashboards specifically designed for your role as a marketing operations manager. DiGGrowth empowers you as a performance marketer to measure channel performance and showcase your value through holistic reports.

Pro Tip- With DiGGrowth, you can proactively enhance your marketing strategy by regularly fine-tuning attribution models through its advanced machine-learning capabilities. It also provides end-to-end user journey visualizations to identify critical touchpoints and optimize strategies precisely, ensuring a substantial impact on revenue.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics and Dashboard software is another powerful tool for evaluating marketing campaign success. Offering built-in analytics, reports, and dashboards, the platform provides a holistic view of marketing performance.

HubSpot’s unique strength lies in seamlessly integrating CRM and marketing data, allowing businesses to credit various touchpoints accurately throughout the customer journey. The platform excels in contact attribution reporting, meticulously recording each customer interaction and associated revenue in individual contact records.
Additionally, it offers revenue attribution reporting that enables businesses to identify high-performing channels and areas that require enhancement. HubSpot empowers users with detailed insights, fostering strategic decision-making for optimized marketing strategies and maximized revenue impact.

3. Ruler Analytics

Ruler Analytics is another popular marketing attribution and call-tracking software that stands out for its closed-loop attribution system. Centralizing all revenue and conversions in a single location, Ruler tracks every anonymous website visitor.

It precisely notes customer conversions via phone calls, forms, or live chat, seamlessly pushing data to your analytics/CRM platform. Notably, Ruler Analytics goes beyond standard online interaction focus.
Ruler integrates with CRM systems, call tracking solutions, and diverse data sources, attributing offline interactions like phone calls and form submissions back to specific marketing campaigns. This comprehensive approach sets Ruler Analytics apart, offering unparalleled insights into the full spectrum of customer engagements.

4. Dreamdata

Dreamdata is a leading B2B revenue attribution platform popular for its ability to collect, integrate, and refine all revenue-related data. With Dreamdata, you gain actionable insights into the drivers of your B2B revenue.
The platform’s performance feature allows you to measure and analyze the efficiency of various revenue-generating activities to maximize effectiveness, improve ROI, and minimize waste.

Dreamdata offers comprehensive insights into customer journeys. Visualize interactive timelines for each account in your pipeline, providing a deep understanding of your sales process. This feature enables strategic decision-making and optimization of your B2B revenue strategies. Dreamdata is your key to unlocking valuable insights for driving business success.

5. Attribution

Attribution is your go-to multi-touch attribution software. This platform excels at precisely identifying the impact of marketing touchpoints in your sales funnel. It goes beyond by seamlessly integrating and analyzing every marketing touch, channel, and account in your buyer’s journey, right down to individual buyers.

Attribution goes the extra mile in user-friendliness, providing an effortless setup, an intuitive interface, advanced visualizations, and unlimited reporting flexibility. It offers data fidelity and detailed performance insights through its patented attribution engine and rules-based cohorts. This ensures precise allocation of conversions and revenue, making it a reliable choice for businesses seeking comprehensive and accurate analytics.

6. Factors.AI

Another popular marketing attribution tool is Factors.AI. It gives marketers in-depth insights into the impact of sales and marketing activities on pipeline and revenue. Offering robust features like campaign and content attribution, Factors.AI ensures a comprehensive view of your marketing metrics.

Campaign Attribution allows precise tracking to optimize budget allocation by quantifying return on ad spend. Its content attribution feature evaluates the impact of ungated assets, like blogs and videos, facilitating strategic adjustments. Notably, Factors.AI stands out by incorporating offline touchpoints, such as events and outreach emails, enhancing attribution modeling for a more holistic understanding of your marketing impact.

Key Takeaways

• Consider specialized tools like DiGGrowth for accurate marketing analytics and attribution
• Ensure compatibility with CRM systems, advertising platforms, and analytics tools for a comprehensive attribution model.
• Focus on goals such as understanding customer journeys, optimizing ad spend, and improving ROI.
• Leverage features like machine learning-driven attribution and end-to-end user journey visualizations for precise decision-making and revenue-focused marketing strategies.
7. Improvado

Improvado attribution is another tool you can find valuable in your marketing efforts. This platform sets itself apart by applying standard and custom attribution models to unified, normalized data sets, all while using unique customer identifiers. This approach gives you a comprehensive view of your customer journey, enabling an accurate assessment of the link between your marketing endeavors and revenue generation.

With Improvado Attribution, you can consolidate your entire digital footprint, from the first touch to the lifetime value. The platform optimally distributes value across all touchpoints, providing you with a precise understanding of how your marketing efforts impact revenue. This tool gives you insights into specific touchpoints that contribute significantly to your overall success, empowering you to make informed decisions for your marketing strategies.

8. Demandbase

Designed for the cloud, Demandbase is a versatile platform that uses attribution insights into every step of your B2B buyer’s journey. With Demandbase as your B2B solution, you can optimize your marketing and sales pipelines as well as drive conversions through personalized content and meaningful customer engagement.

With Demandbase, evaluate the contribution of diverse marketing campaigns and sales activities. From dissecting the initial stages of the funnel to assessing the effectiveness of closing deals, it provides comprehensive insights. This marketing automation tool is your key partner in boosting your experiences and securing impactful results from your marketing and sales endeavors.

9. CAKE

The last tool on our list is CAKE, a dynamic marketing attribution software designed specifically for performance marketers. It excels in optimizing your digital campaign performance and maximizing return on ad spend.
CAKE’s multichannel solution lets you comprehensively measure the effectiveness of your campaigns across various channels, gaining valuable insights to refine your strategies and enhance overall performance.

When it comes to marketing attribution, CAKE allows you to identify impact and strengthen channel performance, elevate overall campaign success through smart insights, and ensure data protection and privacy.
Pro Tip: With CAKE’s marketing attribution software, you can use dedicated team support to eliminate risks, handle challenges, and maintain credibility in your marketing efforts.

Marketing Attribution Software: Making the Right Choice

Choosing the right marketing attribution software is essential considering the numerous options available.
To make the best choice, define your goals and identify key features. Ensure it smoothly integrates with your existing marketing tools, prioritize scalability, and look for a user-friendly interface.
Don’t overlook accuracy and customization options, and leverage trial periods for hands-on testing.

“Marketers and C-level executives are feeling an increased demand to prove the effectiveness of their ad campaigns and marketing initiatives. For instance, 59% of marketing leaders said they face high levels of pressure from CEOs to show the impact of their efforts, according to the August 2021 CMO Survey sponsored by the American Marketing Association, Deloitte, and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. We believe marketing attribution has the potential to address this issue.” – martech.org

Conclusion

As marketing becomes increasingly data-driven, the importance of accurate attribution cannot be overstated. The diverse landscape of marketing attribution software offers a range of tools, each with unique strengths. From comprehensive analytics to machine learning-driven insights, these tools empower marketers to understand customer journeys, optimize ad spend, and drive revenue. Choosing the right software, such as DiGGrowth, is crucial for obtaining precise analytics and revenue-focused insights.

Citations

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1385322/most-measured-marketing-metrics-united-states/
https://martech.org/marketing-attribution-what-it-is-and-how-it-identifies-vital-customer-touchpoints/
https://techbootcamps.utexas.edu/blog/attribution-modeling/
https://ouci.dntb.gov.ua/en/works/9ZjyJ289/
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1548-643520210000018007/full/html