The scale of success of an affiliate marketing program can depend on your ability to understand the customer journey and accurately attribute conversions. That’s why attribution rules are so crucial.
While the traditional last-click attribution model has long been the norm, it’s time to move beyond this simplistic approach and embrace more sophisticated attribution rules.
In this guide, we’ll explore how attribution rules can revolutionize your affiliate marketing strategy and empower you to make more informed decisions.
Why Move Beyond Last-Click Attribution?
The last-click attribution model, while simple to implement, often fails to capture the full complexity of the customer journey. It gives undue credit to the final touchpoint while ignoring the influence of earlier interactions. This can lead to misallocation of commission and missed opportunities for optimizing performance. By adopting attribution rules and implementing multi-touch attribution strategies, you can gain deeper insights into the various touchpoints along the customer journey and ensure that credit is assigned more accurately.
Common Attribution Models Beyond Last Click:
First-Click Attribution:
In the first-click attribution model, the affiliate who initially referred the customer is credited with the sale. This model is particularly useful for identifying top-of-funnel influencers who introduce customers to your brand or product. It acknowledges the importance of awareness-building and customer acquisition efforts, allowing you to reward affiliates who play a pivotal role in driving initial interest.
Linear Attribution:
Linear attribution distributes credit evenly across all touchpoints in the customer journey. This model recognizes the contributions of multiple affiliates throughout the conversion path, regardless of their position. It provides a more holistic view of how different affiliates collaborate to influence the final purchase decision. Linear attribution is ideal for campaigns with complex, multi-channel marketing strategies where multiple affiliates may be involved in the conversion process.
Time Decay Attribution:
Time decay attribution assigns greater weight to touchpoints that occur closer to the time of conversion. It acknowledges the diminishing influence of early interactions and gives more credit to affiliates who engage with customers just before they make a purchase. This model is well-suited for industries or products with short purchase cycles, where the most recent touchpoints are often the most influential in driving conversions.
Custom Attribution Rules:
Some affiliate networks offer merchants the flexibility to create custom attribution rules based on specific criteria or conditions. These rules can take various factors into account, such as the type of affiliate, the referral source, the order value, or the customer’s behavior. By tailoring attribution rules to your unique business goals and objectives, you can ensure that commissions are awarded in a way that aligns with your strategic priorities.
As affiliate marketing continues to advance, it’s essential to move beyond the limitations of last-click attribution and embrace more sophisticated attribution models. If you get good at leveraging attribution rules, you can gain more valuable insights to inform your business decisions.
The more robust your attribution, the more you can attribute conversions, and reward affiliates based on their true contribution to sales, and attract more affiliates to promote your products and services.