New AdRoll Research Finds 81 Percent of Organizations Use Marketing Attribution

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AdRoll, the performance marketing platform, today published its 2017 State of Marketing Attribution report in partnership with Econsultancy. Based on a survey of nearly 1,000 brand marketers and agencies across North America, Europe, Japan and Asia-Pacific, the report provides detailed insight into a marketer's perspective on the changing dynamics of attribution. Now in its second installment, this year's report provides a global comparison, expanded from the European report released in 2016.

The customer journey is becoming increasingly complex and fast-paced with multiple devices and touchpoints. It's essential that marketers understand the effectiveness of their campaigns and how each channel contributes to bringing customers to their businesses in order to effectively spend their budgets. To do this, attribution continues to be a top priority for marketers. AdRoll's 2017 report shows almost four out of five organizations are using marketing attribution, and 51 percent of responding companies in North America are carrying out attribution on all or most of their marketing activities, compared to 39 percent globally.

"Attribution continues to be one of the hottest topics in the industry for a reason: it has huge consequences, such as lost revenue and wasted ad budget, if not done properly," said AdRoll Vice President of Marketing Shane Murphy. "The State of Marketing Attribution report gives a sense of how marketers are dealing with this challenging topic. Marketers are being held to higher standards of measurement and accountability than ever before, and attribution models have the ability to show the true impact our discipline has on the bottom line of a business."

When asked about primary motivations of attribution, 70 percent of company respondents say better allocation of budget across channels was the No. 1 benefit, followed by 64 percent citing a better understanding of how digital channels work together. With the added visibility into where marketing dollars are performing across specific channels, 32 percent have increased their spend on digital marketing channels. Many marketers are seeing the benefits of attribution, however 70 percent of respondents still struggle to act on insights, citing defining the online customer journey as the most significant barrier to more effective usage.

Additional key global findings from the report include:

    --  Single-click attribution models are still the most commonly used: 44
        percent last-click and 39 percent first-click for brand marketers, and
        58 percent last-click and 33 percent first-click for agency clients
    --  Of the 25 percent of marketers using a custom attribution model, 48
        percent deem it to be very effective
    --  59 percent of marketers that have not yet implemented an attribution
        model say that a lack of knowledge is the main obstacle
    --  Joining online and offline attribution is increasing: the report shows
        60 percent of marketers today are using multi-channel attribution,
        compared to 45 percent in 2016
    --  Marketers are split on how they execute marketing attribution: 43
        percent rely on spreadsheets while an equal 43 percent have turned to
        vendor technologies
    --  71 percent of marketers describe their attribution model as very
        flexible (can easily apply multiple models to data), or somewhat
        flexible (multiple models exist but it is time consuming to change them)

"There's increased recognition of the role marketing attribution can play in helping companies to maximize their business outcomes, but knowledge and confidence surrounding the use of various methods could prove to be a stumbling block," said Econsultancy Head of Commercial Research Services Monica Savut. "This year's research shows that companies need to take a more holistic and nuanced approach to attribution, constantly adjusting and refining until the correct balance is achieved."

For further information about this report please visit www.adroll.com/SOMA2017.

About AdRoll:
AdRoll is a leading performance marketing platform with over 37,000 clients worldwide. Its suite of high-performance tools works across devices, helping businesses attract, convert and grow their customer base. The company is home to the world's largest opt-in advertiser data co-op, the IntentMap(TM), with over 1.2 billion digital profiles. AdRoll's goal is to build the most powerful marketing platform through performance, usability and openness.

AdRoll is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Chicago, Tokyo, London, Dublin and Sydney. Learn more at www.adroll.com.

About Econsultancy:
Econsultancy's mission is to help its customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing and e-commerce through research, training, and events.

Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has offices in New York, London and Singapore.
Econsultancy is used by over 600,000 professionals every month. Subscribers get access to research, market data, best practice guides, case studies and elearning--all focused on helping individuals and enterprises get better at digital.

The subscription is supported by digital transformation services including digital capability programmes, training courses, skills assessments, and audits. We train and develop thousands of professionals each year as well as running events and networking that bring the Econsultancy community together around the world.

Subscribe to Econsultancy today to accelerate your journey to digital excellence.

Media Contact: Margaret Pack, mpack@bateman-group.com, (619) 609-3919

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SOURCE AdRoll