Rise of social, mobile leads to spike in marketing attribution

New York—The rise of social media and growing use of mobile devices has led to an increased interest in marketing attribution, according to a new report by Econsultancy and Adobe Systems. (Marketing attribution tracks a user's behavior prior to an online ad sale.)

“Making Sense of Marketing Attribution” was based on an online survey of more than 700 marketers predominately based in Europe and North America. It found that marketing attribution has moved past the early adopter phase and is now used in some way by the majority of respondents.

According to the report, 28% of agency and client-side respondents attributed sales to the last click, while 26% of clients and 36% used a more sophisticated approach.

Companies are seeing the benefits of improved marketing attribution models, with 70% of respondents citing “justifying digital spending,” 66% citing “building an understanding of the customer journey,” and 58% pointing to “optimizing the media mix,” the report found.