Real Attribution Insights: more than simply splitting commission

Determining the optimal attribution model in the online marketing world can be challenging. Many marketers try to find the “one correct answer” to this by using complex models and deep analyses on historical data. However, when starting with attribution, solely looking back on how commissions would have been allocated to touchpoints is not the way to go, since attribution models transform performance campaigns completely and take them to a whole new level.

When clients get in touch with TradeTracker’s specialists about setting up Real Attribution campaigns, the first question that is asked is always: “How will this new model influence my current publisher base’s commission earnings?”. This question sounds very simple to answer, but is simply impossible to address due to the enormous change that Real Attribution campaigns go through in the first months after launch.

Less than 20% of your prospective publishers are active

Many campaigns that use a last click model are not suitable for every type of affiliate, as not all affiliates are able to compete in the fight for the last click. These affiliates have started to prioritise other channels for their sources of income, excluding last click affiliate campaigns. With Real Attribution, these publishers have become active again and have started to generate earnings by promoting these performance-based campaigns. It’s worth noting that all kinds of publishers, from small bloggers to media houses consisting of hundreds of employees, are now using the performance channel again to find new streams of income.

Since advertisers now have the possibility to motivate every publisher in the market, instead of maintaining a strong focus on the current 20%, individual publisher performance becomes dependent on their actual added value. Involving a greater number and variety of site types increases campaign performance, whilst also boosting brand visibility and value. By including additional partners in the performance channel, the number of transactions in which the “old” publishers were involved increased through the extended reach of the network, creating higher overall returns for these publishers as well.

Change in publisher behaviour

Another important factor that makes it impossible to define a Real Attribution model based only on historic affiliate campaign data is the publisher’s behaviour. As publishers are now rewarded for their actual added value to a consumer and a purchase, publishers need to adapt their business models. Publishers which tended to be in a converting role are now also pushing themselves into initiating roles to add value across the board and earn more commission. Those advertisers which reward selected publishers by including their impressions as valid touchpoints in conversion paths see tremendous increases in both views and traffic from publishers which convert in a later stage.

From last click set commission values to a single CPO

In the past 3 to 5 years, a trend has emerged in which advertisers use analytical data to determine the value of individual publishers and change the last click commission amount of these publishers accordingly. However, this merely leads to deduplication instead of attribution.

With Real Attribution, advertisers are now able to relate their analytical insights to an actual Attribution Model, remunerating the publisher base by determining a single Cost Per Order (CPO) and allocating this according to their set model. When using a single CPO, advertisers know upfront what they spend per transaction and that the commission is paid to partners which add value.

If you’d like to hear more about the results and additional revenue Real Attribution can bring to you, contact your local TradeTracker team!