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Paid social, and Facebook in particular, is great for driving awareness that bubbles into conversions. Finding an attribution model that accurately measures the impact that paid social ads are having on your topline results is key to scaling up customer acquisition. More traditional attribution models, such as last click, tend to favor the channels that usually take place towards the end of the funnel (ex. paid/organic search and direct). Paid social advertising is a great way to generate demand for your business by introducing customers to your product or service, so the value of these channels is often underestimated when only looking at the more traditional attribution methods. According to Facebook, 45 percent of digital touchpoints are missed by traditional measurement tools.
The best way to really understand the effect of your paid social ads is to look at cross-channel measurement as well as Facebook’s data-driven attribution model. This model (available within the Facebook Attribution tool) shows you the incremental impact of your Facebook campaigns across all placements on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. Facebook assigns fractional credit to campaigns based on the incremental value that they are bringing to your business. Although the data-driven model only shows the incremental impact of Facebook campaigns, it can also help you see how your paid social efforts are assisting other channels to conversion.
Tools to Help You Track Attribution
There isn’t a “one size fits all” attribution model for any business. Taking an iterative approach to testing and measuring the impact on your business is key, as any attribution model you choose will have its own set of limitations. Once you establish the attribution model, you’ll need a tool to track how well your content is performing.
Free tools like Google Analytics are useful, but additional features are only available through paid premium versions.
Attribution Models in Facebook Analytics
Facebook Analytics is a free and powerful tool that allows you to customize the details of your “click” and “view” attribution windows. For paid social specifically, Facebook Analytics and Attribution are among the best tools available. However, some people understandably resist allowing Facebook to “grade its own homework”. Having multiple platforms measuring your performance can help “triangulate” on the most accurate measurement, and also act as a check against overly relying on a single channel or platform’s point of view.
Similar to how each attribution model has pros and cons, so do the tools / platforms available to measure attribution. If you have questions about attribution broadly, or specifics for your business, reach out to us here: