How can we achieve objective attribution measurement in marketing?

In today’s rapidly evolving marketing landscape, achieving objective attribution measurement is one of the most critical challenges for B2B organizations. As businesses invest heavily in digital marketing strategies, the need to accurately measure the effectiveness of these investments and their impact on revenue becomes essential. However, relying on a single attribution model can often lead to flawed results and missed opportunities. Instead, a layered approach to attribution measurement can offer a more comprehensive and objective view of marketing performance, addressing key concerns such as demand creation, demand capture, and pipeline conversion.

In this post, we will explore how businesses can implement a more nuanced, objective attribution measurement framework, ensuring marketing efforts are properly evaluated and optimized for success.

The Problem with Traditional Attribution Models

One of the most significant issues with traditional attribution models, such as last-touch or first-touch attribution, is that they fail to capture the full picture of marketing performance. These models often overemphasize one interaction and neglect the complexity of the buyer journey, which includes multiple touchpoints across various channels.

Chris Walker points out that many companies attempt to use a single attribution tool across the entire customer lifecycle, which inevitably leads to flawed analysis. “B2B companies try to use one tool to measure the effectiveness across the entire customer lifecycle, and it’s entirely flawed,” Walker states. This approach often leaves businesses blind to the true drivers of demand creation, demand capture, and pipeline acceleration.

Moving Beyond Single-Touch Attribution

To achieve objective attribution measurement, it’s crucial to adopt a multi-faceted framework that addresses the different stages of the customer lifecycle. Marketing investments typically fall into four key categories:

1. Demand Creation
2. Demand Capture
3. Pipeline Conversion
4. Account Expansion

Each of these categories requires a different approach to measurement, and blending all activities into a single attribution model can obscure the actual effectiveness of specific marketing efforts.

Demand Creation and the Role of Qualitative Data

Demand creation is one of the most challenging aspects of marketing to measure, primarily because many of the activities involved—such as brand awareness campaigns, word-of-mouth referrals, and social media influence—don’t leave clear digital footprints. As Walker highlights, “Most of the things that happen in demand creation, especially the most effective ones, do not get tracked in a digital touchpoint.”

In this stage, relying solely on quantitative metrics can be misleading. Instead, businesses must incorporate qualitative data, such as self-reported attribution and customer surveys. Self-reported attribution allows businesses to directly ask customers how they heard about their brand, providing insights that are often missed by digital tracking tools. While qualitative data may not provide the precision of automated metrics, it offers valuable directional insights that help marketers make smarter decisions.

The Importance of Layering Attribution Models

A one-size-fits-all approach to attribution measurement doesn’t work because different marketing activities serve different purposes. For instance, demand capture efforts—such as paid search campaigns and intent data collection—are more suited to last-touch attribution, where the goal is to identify the final interaction that pushed a customer into the sales funnel.

On the other hand, pipeline conversion and account expansion require models that track multiple touchpoints and measure the overall impact of marketing efforts on sales velocity and deal size. In these cases, Walker suggests using a “tipping point” model to assess what interaction ultimately led to a customer decision.

By layering these different attribution models, companies can better understand which marketing activities are driving success at each stage of the customer lifecycle. This holistic approach ensures that the entire funnel is properly evaluated and optimized.

The Role of Self-Reported Attribution and Sales Feedback

Self-reported attribution and sales discovery calls can serve as powerful tools to bridge the gaps left by traditional attribution models. Sales teams, using platforms like Gong, can record discovery calls to capture insights into what sources of information customers found most valuable during their buying journey. “Self-reported attribution becomes one combined with manually input from sales or automated Gong call recordings,” Walker notes.

In addition to self-reported attribution, customer surveys and direct feedback from sales calls can provide rich, actionable insights that help marketers understand which channels and campaigns are genuinely influencing customer decisions. This triangulation of data—from self-reported attribution, sales insights, and traditional tracking tools—creates a more complete and objective view of marketing performance.

Creating Purpose-Built Measurement Models

For businesses seeking to achieve objective attribution measurement, it’s essential to create purpose-built measurement models that align with the specific objectives of different marketing activities. These models should be customized based on the goals of each campaign, whether it's demand creation, demand capture, or pipeline conversion.

Walker emphasizes the importance of separating measurement by purpose: “When you make an investment, make a binary choice of what is the primary purpose of this investment, and then you put it in that category.” By clearly defining the purpose of each marketing investment, businesses can implement the most appropriate measurement strategy, rather than applying a blanket attribution model across all activities.

Implementing a Balanced Attribution Strategy

A balanced attribution strategy not only requires the use of multiple models but also demands that businesses re-evaluate how they allocate marketing resources. Too often, marketing budgets are disproportionately funneled into activities that are easiest to measure, such as Google Ads or performance marketing. However, as Walker points out, this can lead to underinvestment in areas like demand creation and pipeline conversion, which are more difficult to track but just as crucial to long-term success.

By shifting focus toward a more balanced approach—where marketing dollars are distributed across the full funnel and measured appropriately—companies can achieve greater clarity in their marketing performance and make more informed investment decisions.

Conclusion: Embracing Complexity for Objective Attribution

Achieving objective attribution measurement in marketing is not about finding a one-size-fits-all solution but about embracing the complexity of the modern buyer journey. By layering different attribution models, incorporating qualitative insights, and tailoring measurement strategies to the specific goals of each marketing activity, businesses can develop a more accurate and objective understanding of their marketing performance.

This approach not only leads to better decision-making but also ensures that marketing investments are optimized for maximum impact at every stage of the customer lifecycle. In an increasingly competitive landscape, those businesses that can effectively measure and adapt their marketing strategies will ultimately come out on top.