Measure Multi-Touch Conversions
Most marketing metrics presume that action has a specific and singular cause: a customer's decision to purchase is attributed to the last thing that the company did to attract their business prior to the occurrence of that purchase.
In reality, your company may "touch" a prospect a dozen times, with a combination of promotional and brand messages, through several different media, and it may not be possible (or accurate) to give full "credit" for a purchase only to the last in the series.
Ultimately, the goal of all communications is to entice behavior - you want a prospect to become a customer, or an existing customer to give you greater share of wallet - so the specific goal of each specific promotion is meaningful not in a one-time action, but as a contributor to generating ongoing patterns of behavior.
Studying Message Interactions
There are no standard methods for measuring the impact of multi-touch marketing, as they are largely considered to be an anomaly: an unintentional side-effect of an activity done for an entirely different purpose. Developing a model for measuring the impact will require innovation and experimentation.
Those factors that are under the control of a company can be tested: you may isolate similar communities and use one as a control group: a television ad in community A, a radio spot in community B, and both in community C, to determine if there is a cumulative effect. Or you may run an ad twice in once community and three times in another.
There are, however, other factors you cannot control: anything a customer does that may affect your messaging to them (initiate a visit or call, communicate about your company with others, etc.). In these instances, it is important to be aware that these things occurred, when possible, but you cannot seek to control them.
Ultimately, you will arrive at a model that considers reach and frequency, and a conclusion of whether you advertising budget would be more effectively spent on reaching a broader audience with less frequency, or a smaller audience with greater frequency.
Case studies are presented that demonstrate a situation in which reach is the more profitable approach, as well as another in which frequency takes precedence. There is not across-the-board answer for all companies and all media.
Another case-study is presented in which an television ad targeted to an older demographic generated sales to a younger demographic via the Web site, which left them a bit flummoxed. They discovered that their ad had been posted to an online video site (by someone else, not them), where it reached a different audience. Had they not caught this, they may have made some dangerous assumptions about the audience reached by their television advertising, and made some bad assumptions in the future based on their experience.
This account teaches us two lessons: First, it's important to keep track of the behaviors of others - you are not the only one communicating your message. Second, an advertisement can have unintended consequences, and if you measure your success very narrowly, you may be misinformed about the effectiveness of your advertising.
Leveraging the Power of Multi-Touch
The information you gather when measuring the impact of multi-touch advertising will help you to make more informed decisions that take into account the effectiveness of the media, alone and in combination, in influencing consumer behavior. Some concepts follow.
The most recent touch point is the very last contact made with the customer prior to an event (such as a purchase). This is the de facto standard of most marketing to this day, as the most recent touch point is credited with eliciting the behavior.
There is also the question of the event: if there is a delay between an initial inquiry and a sale, there may have been one or more touch points between them, and it may be argued that the MRTP before the inquiry was partially to credit, as was the MRTP before the sale was closed.
The first touch point is the first (intentional) communication to the customer, which sets the tone of communication and creates the all-important first impression, making them more or less receptive to future messages.
There may be some difference of opinion between direct marketers 9who wish to consider the first touch point in a specific campaign) and a brand marketer (who may wish to consider the first touch point the customer ever had).
Apportioning credit (called "match") for a behavior among their various touch points is a matter of some debate: which touch point to credit for "success," or how to apportion credit among multiple ones.
There appears to be no "scientific" method, nor much customer research that would bring an answer to light. Sometimes, the nature of the business leads a marketer to give more weight to one or the other.
It's very wonky:
- In some instances, the most recent touch gets more weight, and previous touches a decreasing portion of the credit (50%, 25%, 10%, 10%) as it is reckoned that the most recent is strongest in the mind of the customer
- In other instances, the first touch gets more weight, and follow-on touches get a token credit (80%, 5%, 5%, 5%, 5%) for their role in reinforcing the initial message
- Sometimes, even credit is given to all touches
- Sometimes, touches that were targeted to a person are given extra weight
- Sometimes, touches that are more specific to the action taken (buy product X) are given more weight to that action than those of a more general nature
Again, there is no good mathematical model for all industries, media, messages, etc. - but the effectiveness of multi-touch marketing (and the fact that the traditional approach is often based on flawed assumptions) merit giving the matter due consideration.