Performance Attribution Models

Here's how you can use the Page View API to build a custom marketing attribution model in HubSpot. One of my clients reached out to me asking to build their own attribution model. The out of the box tools were missing key interactions like branded search and Capterra. They also wanted to know more about the type of leads they were getting. Like: Close rate, deal velocity, and average sales price. I used the Page View API to pull the contacts associated with the company of a deal. Next, I pulled all interactions and engagements before the close date. Finally, I put them into specific boxes based on their interaction position and referrer. I stored these on the deal as a "Marketing Touchpoint" property. This allowed them to see how different channels at different stages in the funnel influenced revenue, close rate, and deal velocity. By using Scatter Graphs, I was able to create bubble charts that show an X axis of count of deals, Y Axis of the metric I was interested in, and Size for Revenue. By the end of the process, we were able to discern that tradeshows didn't drive much revenue at a particularly fast rate while traditional demand generation methods like Google Organic and Email Marketing had the biggest impact on revenue driven with the lowest sales cycle. This allowed them to readjust their investments so that they matched was working for their organization.

"Google says 10 orders. Meta says 10 orders. My store only received 15 orders total." Just heard this from a frustrated D2C founder, perfectly capturing why attribution is broken. The dirty secret of performance marketing: •Most brands are unwittingly optimizing for attribution theft, not business growth. •When you scale Google while cutting Meta budgets (or vice versa), you're not seeing the complete ecosystem: •Google brand search often harvests demand created by Meta awareness •Meta remarketing often closes sales initiated by organic discovery •Last-click attribution rewards bottom-funnel tactics at the expense of growth One ecommerce brand I analyzed doubled their Google spend in a week while halving their Meta budget. ROAS looked amazing...for exactly 9 days. Then it crashed. Hard. They had cut off the very source that was creating their downstream conversions. Modern attribution requires understanding: → Channel interdependencies → Incrementality testing → True blended CAC (not platform-reported CPA) → Full-funnel visibility The brands winning today ignore platform-reported ROAS entirely. They track real business metrics: -> Actual customer acquisition cost -> New vs. returning customer ratio -> Profit per order -> True MER (marketing efficiency ratio) If you're still measuring channels in isolation, you're optimizing for platform metrics, not business outcomes. What metrics are you using to evaluate real marketing impact beyond platform-reported ROAS?

Demonstrating the impact of marketing efforts on business outcomes is more important than ever for CMOs and their marketing teams. Below are a few tactical examples of various ways to prove out marketing's impact. Closed-Loop Reporting: Implement closed-loop reporting systems to track leads from initial engagement through to conversion. By integrating marketing automation platforms with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, CMOs can attribute revenue to specific marketing campaigns and initiatives. For example, they can track the number of leads generated from a particular email campaign and measure how many of those leads eventually convert into paying customers. Marketing Attribution Models: Develop sophisticated attribution models to accurately attribute revenue and other business outcomes to various marketing touchpoints. This involves assigning credit to different channels and interactions along the customer journey. For instance, multi-touch attribution models can help CMOs understand the contribution of different marketing channels (e.g., social media, content marketing, paid advertising) in influencing a purchase decision, allowing them to optimize budget allocation accordingly. Pipeline Contribution Analysis: Analyze marketing's contribution to the sales pipeline by tracking metrics such as pipeline generated, pipeline influenced, and pipeline velocity. CMOs can collaborate closely with sales teams to understand how marketing activities impact the progression of leads through the sales funnel. For instance, they can measure the percentage of qualified leads generated by marketing campaigns and monitor how quickly these leads move through the pipeline to conversion. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Analysis: Calculate the CLV of customers acquired through marketing efforts to assess the long-term impact on business revenue and profitability. By understanding the lifetime value of different customer segments, CMOs can prioritize marketing strategies that attract high-value customers and drive repeat business. For example, they can track the CLV of customers acquired through referral programs versus those acquired through other channels to evaluate the effectiveness of referral marketing initiatives. ROI Analysis of Marketing Spend: Conduct rigorous ROI analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing investments in generating business outcomes. CMOs can compare the cost of acquiring a customer through different marketing channels with the lifetime value of that customer to determine the return on investment. They can also conduct A/B testing and experimentation to identify the most cost-effective marketing strategies and optimize budget allocation accordingly. By implementing these tactical approaches, CMOs can effectively demonstrate the impact of marketing efforts on business outcomes and make data-driven decisions to drive continuous improvement and innovation in their strategies. #marketingmeasurement #marketinggoals