Brands are spending thousands of dollars and sometimes millions of dollars on social media marketing, but there is always one question that seems to linger and be the common denominator for every brand: “How do we know what’s actually working and what’s not?”
Most brands assume that the more likes, comments, shares, and basic engagement metrics mean success, but without the proper attribution and hierarchy understandings, the decisions you’re making are being made in the dark.
Brands need to understand what channels, platforms, content types, touchpoints and more drive not only engagement, but also conversions. Let’s break down why the attribution and hierarchy concepts are a necessity and how a few major brands use them to optimize their marketing tactics.
The GPS: Attributions
The Attributions are the process of identifying specifically what marketing channels/platforms (specifically talking about social media) contribute to having more conversions. Think of attributions like you are giving credit, where credit is due.
For example, imagine you are running a paid ad on Instagram, sending out email blasts and sharing organic content on TikTok. A potential customer sees the Instagram ad, clicks on the ad and visits your website, but doesn’t purchase anything. The same potential customer then gets a promotional email from you and clicks on the link to your website, puts a product in their cart, but still doesn’t purchase anything. But later on, the same customer finds you on TikTok and clicks on the website link in your profile, and finally makes the purchase.
Without the proper attributions, you may think TikTok was the sole drier of that purchase. However, the reality is that the email blast and Instagram played major roles in bringing in and nurturing that customer.
Within social media there are three types of attribution models.
- First Touch Attributions: which is giving credit to the very first interaction (which for this example would be the Instagram ad.)
- Last Touch Attributions: which is giving credit to the very last interaction (which for this example would be TikTok)
- Multi Touch Attributions: which distributes the credit across all interactions (which for this example would be Instagram, the email and TikTok)
Nike, as a real brand example, mostly uses multi-touch attributes to understand and track customer interactions across all platforms and channels like, their website, their social media platforms and their retail stores. This allows them to optimize their campaigns and divide their marketing budgets effectively.
Structuring Data: Hierarchies
A Hierarchy is how data is organized and categorized. Without having a structured hierarchy, a brands data can become messy and difficult to understand/extract valuable information.
A Hierarchy helps brands understand which content formats, (static photos vs videos), platforms (Instagram vs TikTok vs LinkedIn vs X), campaign types (awareness vs conversions) and more perform the best. They also make sure that the marketing budget is distributed based on data driven insights. Lastly, Hierarchies organize data in a better and structured way to make it easier for brands/marketing teams to create reports that are actionable.
For example, Coca-Cola divides its marketing analytics by product type, region, and campaign objectives. Doing this allows them to compare and contrast performances across different markets and platforms to better refine strategies.
Implementing Attributions and Hierarchies
You and your brand can use UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters. This allows you to track where traffic and engagement is coming from.
You and your brand can also use platforms like HubSpot, Google Analytics and Sprout Social (to name a few) to help track attributions.
You and your brand can define a clear data structure that categorizes campaigns by content type, objective and platforms for an easy analysis.
Lastly, you and your brand can regularly analyze the data you have received and adjust/refine strategies based on the performance the data shows.
Conclusion
Attributions and Hierarchies are essential for maximizing ROI in marketing analytics, especially social media marketing. By understanding how different interactions contribute to conversions, how many there can be; and also organizing data effectively; you and your brand can make better, smarter and data-driven decisions!
So are you ready to take your marketing to the next level? If you are, make sure to click here for more blog posts like this one!