The quest for marketing attribution is a tale as old as…well, marketing. One of the most famous quotes on the topic dates back to the nineteenth century, when Philadelphia retailer John Wanamaker (supposedly) lamented, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”
Fast forward to today and marketing attribution has become central to digital marketing. Thanks to a vast suite of tools and technology, we can seamlessly track customers across a number of touchpoints to see what’s driving revenue and what’s not.
But not everyone is happy about that.
While Mr. Wanamaker would be delighted by the state of marketing attribution today, others are concerned that businesses and platforms are infringing on user privacy. This has sparked a number of changes that have left the future of marketing attribution unclear.
Editor's note: This topic can get pretty technical, so we've put a glossary of important terms at the end of the article for your reference.
At its core, marketing attribution relies on the ability to track individual users' behavior across websites and devices. As you might expect, this has raised concerns about privacy from individuals, legislators, and platforms alike.
In response, there have been a number of changes that will shape marketing attribution moving forward. Here's a summary of the highlights:
For nearly 20 years, Google has used third-party cookies to track user behavior across the web for both Google Analytics and its ad network. But new legislation — notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) — have given users the ability to limit cookies or opt out of them entirely. Some countries, including Austria, France, and Italy, have even gone so far as to outlaw Google Analytics as we know it.
In response to the growing pressure to protect user privacy, Google is phasing out third-party cookies from Chrome in 2024 (a move that Safari and Firefox have already made).
In 2021, Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a privacy feature requiring third-party apps to seek users' permission to track them across other applications and websites. As a result, only 25% of iOS users have now opted into external activity tracking.
This policy had a significant impact on Meta, which relied on Apple’s third-party app data to serve up personalized ads to its users. In an earnings report following the iOS update, Meta CFO Dave Wehner estimated the change would cost the company around $10 billion in lost sales due to weaker ad targeting.
As platforms fight to keep users on their sites for as long as possible, "zero-click" content is dominating organic search and organic social.
Thanks to features like snippets and knowledge panels, nearly two-thirds of Google searches now end without a click. Similarly, content algorithms for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all prioritize native content over those with external links. The effects can be pretty drastic, with one study from Hootsuite finding that LinkedIn posts without links get 6x more reach than those with links.
The truth is, “perfect” marketing attribution has never really existed — even with all the cookies and tracking in the world. Buyer’s journeys are rarely straightforward, so any attribution model is bound to have blindspots.
Just think about how many times you’ve scrolled past an ad or gotten a word-of-mouth recommendation that led you to make a purchase later on. These kinds of touchpoints are impossible to track but undoubtedly influential in the path to purchase.
This doesn’t mean marketing attribution will be useless going forward — it’s still important to gather as many insights as you can! But you'll want to make some tweaks to your marketing strategy as you navigate the new frontier of marketing attribution.
With third-party data becoming increasingly scarce, marketers need to double down on collecting first-party and zero-party data. Here are some ways you can gather more information about your customers:
In content marketing, the rules of engagement (literally) are always changing. Here's how you can adapt your content strategy to the new marketing attribution landscape.
We’ve long championed the benefits of marketing and sales alignment, but it will truly be essential going forward. Your sales and customer support teams can share important details about your customers that you might have missed before, including:
Digital marketing is already complicated enough. In a post-cookie world, it will only be harder to find the right channels and messaging to reach your customers online. An experienced digital marketing partner can help you adapt to the new challenges and opportunities ahead.
WEBITMD has been helping businesses connect with their customers online since 2008. To learn more about how we can help you grow, reach out to us or download our Growth Stack Guide.