Attribution is one of the most debated topics in marketing right now.
And for good reason. Leaders want proof. Teams want clarity. Everyone wants confidence that marketing is driving revenue.
But here’s the hard truth we see time and time again:
Most attribution issues are not technical.
They’re foundational.
Before you touch your attribution model, your dashboards, or your reporting tools, there are five questions every marketing team should answer. Skipping them is why attribution so often creates debate instead of decisions.
1. What decision is this report actually supposed to enable?
This is the most important question, and the one most teams skip.
Too many reports exist because:
“Leadership asked for it”
“We’ve always tracked this”
“The tool makes it easy”
But if no one can clearly answer what decision a report is meant to support, the report will never be trusted or used.
Before fixing attribution, ask:
Is this meant to inform budget allocation?
Is it meant to guide campaign optimization?
Is it meant to support executive planning?
If the decision isn’t clear, the model won’t matter.
2. Which data sources do we actually trust today?
Not which ones are perfect.
Not which ones should be trusted.
Which ones are trusted right now.
Most attribution debates start because different teams are pulling from different sources:
Marketing automation
CRM
Spreadsheets
BI tools
When everyone brings a different number to the same meeting, confidence disappears.
Clarity starts by agreeing on:
Which systems are considered reliable
Where known gaps exist
What data is “directionally accurate” versus executive-ready
Trust beats complexity every time.
3. Who owns revenue reporting?
This is where many teams get stuck.
Revenue reporting often sits in a gray area:
Marketing owns part of the funnel
Sales owns pipeline and close
Operations owns systems
Leadership wants answers
When everyone owns it, no one owns it.
High-performing teams assign a clear owner responsible for:
Definitions
Governance
Validation
Ongoing refinement
Shared input is healthy. Shared ownership is not.
4. Where does the data break before it reaches the dashboard?
Attribution problems rarely start at the report level.
They usually come from:
Inconsistent lifecycle definitions
Broken handoffs between systems
Poor data hygiene
Manual workarounds that compound over time
Before changing models, teams should map:
How data flows
Where it’s transformed
Where it’s delayed or lost
Fixing issues upstream creates more clarity than any reporting layer ever will.
5. What level of clarity is “good enough” to move forward?
Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Many teams delay action because they’re chasing:
Complete attribution
Total visibility
One definitive number
The teams that move faster agree on what’s “good enough” to:
Make decisions
Adjust strategy
Reallocate resources
Attribution should support momentum, not slow it down.
Where real progress starts
Attribution is a tool, not a strategy.
When teams focus first on:
Clear ownership
Trusted data
Decision-driven reporting
Attribution stops being a source of tension and starts becoming useful.
If your reports spark debate instead of action, it’s not a signal to buy new tools.
It’s a signal to step back and fix the foundation.
