Is 2013 the Year of Affiliate Attribution?
How do you fairly compensate affiliates for their role in the various touch points customers encounter during their purchase path? This is the lingering question that remains for the performance marketing industry today. It’s also a question that’s becoming more relevant as companies become omni-channel, according to Rick Gardiner, CEO of iAffiliate Management, writing for Marketing Land.
“An attribution model allows Internet retailers to track the different ads or “touch points” that result in a sale or other defined action taken by a consumer, giving credit to each touch point that contributed to that conversion,” Gardiner writes.
While some affiliates like this trend away from a last-click model and toward a more comprehensive view, others that have built themselves to be in the right place at the right time might not be so pleased. For companies, affiliate attribution helps them to spot the truly valuable affiliates and weed out marketers that are purely opportunistic.
Gardiner says there are three things to do when creating an affiliate-attribution model: understand the technical requirements, understand your existing data and get all stakeholders involved.
