When it comes to marketing metrics, you are either eating at the table or being eaten. Without Adobe Marketo Measure (formerly Bizible), everyone sitting at the table will simply say, “You can’t sit with us.” Marketo Measure gives marketing automation the ability to track the customer journey from first touch to closed/won, while providing visibility into which channels are driving this journey. What do you need to know before you take your seat and eat the most delicious meal full of marketing attribution?
The Ingredients
The goal of marketing attribution is to understand how their efforts affect pipeline, sales, and ROI. Which channels perform the best? How should we be spending our valuable time, resources, and budget? Marketo Measure touchpoints are the first step in determining the answer to these questions. Touchpoints are used to measure interaction with marketing, and there are two primary types of touchpoints – online and offline. Online touchpoints are created via the Marketo Measure JavaScript on your website, while offline touchpoints are created via activities such as webinar and trade show attendance. These touches then need to be categorized by channels and subchannels to help determine which types of marketing are most successful. Think of the touchpoint as the groceries and the channels are the aisles in the store. While a grocery store may sort food by meat, dairy, and produce, Marketo Measure categorizes touchpoints into channels such as Paid Search, Social, Events, and more. These channels can then be further broken down into subchannels to determine where a channel shines. If paid social is the most successful channel, for example, it would be helpful to know what percentage of this success can be attributed to Facebook versus Linkedin.
Break out the Cookbook
Now that you have gathered and categorized all of your touchpoints, it is time to decide how you want to map out the buyer’s journey. Marketo Measure comes with five out-of-the-box attribution models that can show a buyer’s journey. This is the recipe for (tracking) success. The first two models are First Touch and Lead Creation and are examples of single-touch attribution. In these models, 100% of the attribution credit is given to either the first point of marketing contact or the point at which the person becomes a lead. The other models are U-Shaped, W-Shaped, and Full Path and are more complex, multi-touch models. These paths rely on distribution of attribution among four milestone touchpoints: first touch (FT), lead creation (LC), opportunity (OC), and close/won (CW). The U-Shaped model divides the attribution credit evenly between FC and LC, while the W-Shape assigns FT, LC, and OC 30% attribution each and the remaining 10% is given to any intermediate touchpoints. Full Path includes all four of the milestones, assigning 22.5% credit to each point, with the remaining 10% going to intermediary touches. The custom model allows marketers to choose which stages are included, and how much attribution should be assigned to each. Choosing the model that works best for your company’s business needs is important for reporting on a lead’s movement through the funnel.
Set the table
Once your marketing journey has been established, it is time to analyze the data and report on it. This is the last step before you can finally take your seat at the table. Marketo Measure comes with its own UI in the Discover Dashboard. This is where you can drill down into elements such as ROI, Spend, Pipeline Revenue, Deals, Opportunities, Contacts or Leads. This can be used to prove marketing’s impact on the movement through the funnel. Use the reporting functionality to answer – where do my leads come from? How much do I pay per opportunity or win? What is my true ROI? Where should we place our marketing spend? In addition to the built-in reporting capabilities, business intelligence platforms Tableau and PowerBI can be leveraged.
Now that the touchpoints have been tracked and categorized, an attribution model has been chosen, and reports have been created, it is finally time to take a seat at the table. Marketo Measure has given you the opportunity to track the buyer’s journey and shows how and why marketing drives this journey. To get help with our attribution and your buyer journey contact us today!