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If you’re an acquisition marketer, you should be very familiar with attribution. Without it, you have no visibility into which marketing channels and campaigns are performing well. And even though attribution is critical to measuring success (or failure), only 17 percent of marketers measure the ROI of all of their marketing activities, and about 39 percent said that they measure the ROI of most of their activities, according to this recent report by Kantar Millward-Brown. That’s a huge missed opportunity, especially when the tools exist today to achieve proper attribution and ROI.
Before we talk about the how, let’s start from the beginning.
In short, closed-loop attribution is about understanding how your investment in paid marketing channels is driving business growth. Just looking at traffic from paid search, for example, doesn’t give you any actionable insight. What if you’re driving tons of traffic from a particular keyword that’s not converting? Without knowing that, you’ll continue spending search budget on a poor-performing keyword.
This problem is amplified when you’re a company that does a lot of business over the phone. Given that calls convert at 10x the rate of clicks, looking only at call volume means you could be missing out on a significant amount of revenue. Being able to see which calls actually converted — and tie that back to a marketing channel — gives you that sweet closed-loop attribution. For example, in the following graph you can see that “best insurance” is driving the most conversions, even though the call volume is not the highest.
Having a complete view of how your marketing spend is driving conversions opens up new opportunities for optimisation. You now have the data to make better decisions about which keywords to invest in, or how you should be optimising your landing pages to drive more inbound calls.
If you’re interested in going deeper, AdStage covers additional benefits of closed loop attribution and reporting in this post.
Closed-loop attribution begins with consolidating your campaign data in one place, such as in Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics. You’ll want to make sure that the other marketing technologies (CRM, call tracking etc) you’re using integrate with your tool of choice. The closed-loop reporting approach begins with consolidating all ad network data in one place. By connecting campaigns with conversion data, marketers can understand the ROI of each ad campaign and easily calculate the revenue broken down by each lead source.
For example, when you are using Invoca to get attribution for conversions that happen on the phone, you can push the data collected by Invoca into your analytics platform. This way you can see all of your attribution sources, including those that occur offline, in one place.
Accurately attributing phone calls to specific marketing campaigns remains a crucial yet challenging task for many marketers. Unlike online interactions where clicks and form submissions offer clear attribution paths, phone calls are often more indirect. This lack of a direct link makes it difficult to determine which marketing activity (e.g., email, social media ad, online ad) ultimately sparked the call.
Traditional call tracking methods further complicate the attribution process. Techniques like call forwarding and click-to-call features can mask the true origin of a call, hindering efforts to trace it back to the initial marketing source.
Fortunately, solutions exist to overcome these challenges and provide clear attribution for phone calls. Dynamic number insertion (DNI) is a powerful tool that enables marketers to achieve precise tracking of call origins. We dive deeper into our capabilities in our other blog post, What Is Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) and How Does It Help Marketing?, but at a high level, DNI assigns unique phone numbers to specific marketing campaigns. This allows for pinpoint identification of where each call originated, providing invaluable data for attribution purposes.
Call tracking software further strengthens the attribution process by capturing comprehensive data on incoming and outgoing calls. This data includes details like call duration, caller information, and, most importantly, the specific marketing channel or campaign that triggered the call. By combining DNI and call tracking software, marketers can establish a clear link between their marketing efforts and phone call conversions. This enables them to accurately attribute calls to specific campaigns, measure campaign effectiveness with greater precision, and ultimately optimise their marketing strategies for better ROI.
Closed-loop attribution often raises concerns about complexity, cost, and data privacy. We’ll take a closer look at each of these and hopefully squash any hesitation you might have about following through:
At first glance, implementing closed-loop attribution may seem daunting. Many organisations worry about the complexity of integrating new tools into their existing systems, fearing disruptions to their workflows and the need for extensive technical expertise. Additionally, the thought of overhauling current telephone or software infrastructure can create significant apprehension, leading some businesses to hesitate in adopting these advanced solutions.
However, Invoca is here to alleviate these concerns. We simplify the implementation process with a single line of JavaScript code that can be added to your site—no major infrastructure changes required. Plus, our dedicated account representatives and customer success managers provide hands-on support throughout the onboarding process, ensuring a smooth transition. With easy one-click integrations with major martech tools, you can effortlessly incorporate Invoca data into your existing workflows, eliminating the need for manual data scraping. By addressing these challenges head-on, Invoca makes closed-loop attribution not just achievable, but also efficient and effective.
The upfront cost of closed-loop attribution may feel like a significant investment, but the return is well worth it. By providing businesses with clear insights into which marketing efforts are driving revenue, Invoca empowers you to optimise spending, reduce waste, and maximise ROI. This capability allows you to identify and cut underperforming channels while reallocating budgets to high-performing ones, leading to more efficient marketing strategies.
Over time, this precision can translate to substantial financial gains that far outweigh the initial implementation costs. Many businesses find that the solution effectively pays for itself as they enhance their marketing efficiency and improve their ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) from campaigns. With Invoca, you’re not just investing in a tool; you’re investing in the future profitability of your marketing efforts.
In today’s regulatory landscape, data privacy is a valid concern, especially with laws like GDPR and CCPA. Fortunately, closed-loop attribution can be designed with privacy in mind. By leveraging anonymised data and ensuring proper consent from users, businesses can maintain compliance while still benefiting from detailed customer insights. A best practice is to work closely with legal and compliance teams to build privacy-focused data collection processes.
Invoca takes data privacy and security compliance seriously, implementing robust policies to ensure adherence to regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Our platform is designed to manage data collection transparently and securely, providing you with peace of mind as you access valuable insights. With features that safeguard user information and support regulatory compliance, Invoca enables you to confidently leverage customer data without compromising privacy or security.
Invoca customer Weitz & Luxenberg began using Invoca along with a lead collection product called Shuttle, giving them the ability to attribute marketing dollars spent to retained cases, allowing them to follow clients through the whole funnel and optimise all of their marketing spend. What was once a huge gray area became a 1:1 relationship between marketing dollars spent and clients retained.
And that’s not just attribution for digital. Weitz & Luxenberg advertises through the internet, television, radio, magazines — virtually any media type you can imagine. According to Director of Business Operations Bill Denninger, “No matter where our ad is, with Invoca we get the attribution. It’s no longer a gut-check — now I have the proof, I know whether or not the ad buy is working and if it’s making the right people call.” You can check out the full case study here.
If there’s one thing we want to encourage you to prioritise this year, it would be to get a handle on getting closed loop attribution for all of your marketing efforts. It will uncover new insights about campaign performance, potentially significantly shifting your strategy and budget allocations.
Want to learn more about how Invoca can help you improve your marketing attribution? Check out these resources:
