Croud is very proud to be one of Google’s selected partners, certified to operate Attribution 360 (A360), which launches in beta today.
Proud, and excited too, because A360 is the Tesla Roadster of measurement platforms. It’s a premium offering. It’s powerful, intelligent, and potentially very disruptive.
Intelligent and disruptive
Attribution 360 is the delightful and long-awaited resolution to a short list of Google-stack attribution challenges (see the Feature Facts below). Of all the new features, the brightest highlight – for me – is the campaign-level Spend Optimizer.
There are diminishing returns on marketing budgets, and clients naturally ask:
- How do I set my CPA targets?
- Higher CPAs might mean higher conversion volumes, but at what point does the increase stop?
- What’s the right budget balance across all my channels and audience tactics, which work together as a system?
These questions occur to every digital marketer, but answering them is a complex challenge. A360’s Spend Optimizer does it for you, at campaign level. Automatically.
When you consider Spend Optimizer alongside A360’s Media Mix Modelling, and TV Attribution, a clear picture begins to form: this is part of a journey, from “digital performance” to “advertising”.
The journey from performance marketing to advertising
Conversion Attribution is the practice of crediting marketing activity with a fair measure of its success, especially where it’s designed to support conversion but not to cause it immediately. Being unable to credit activity fairly is a barrier to growth for businesses: it can leave marketing teams bound to unbalanced media plans; or even force clients to gamble, to take strategic risks in the absence of insight.
Attribution 360 is a platform to release businesses from this predicament, like never before. It looks to me like a platform to support Google’s expanding scope too: from purveyors of essential Direct Response; to a multi-channel, multi-media Advertising business.
And since this is a journey, it means change
Both Google and its partners in Attribution 360 are all careful to stress: changes to the way a business attributes success are a serious undertaking. Servicing the product is about data implementation and analysis; but equally, it’s about education and stakeholder management. This is change for businesses, which means Change Management.
The credibility of a new measurement tool is delicate, and, in practice, only as sound as the data that feeds it. Even once stakeholders understand the work ahead, and the metrics that they’re enabling, their faith must be carefully protected: by solid data and the clear, confident resolution of any data discrepancies.
Ultimately, when you’re investing in a best-in-class solution, you need to see results. In the hands of a uniquely (Croudie Network)-resourced, multi-channel digital agency like Croud, clients can apply Attribution 360’s insight, in campaigns, with maximum effect.
Feature Facts
Attribution 360
- Focuses on data-driven modelling of conversion metrics
- Attributes across unlimited path lengths (during the lookback window)
- Optionally applies Google’s “device graph” for cross-device paths
- Offers APIs in and out of the platform, including for cost data, automated reporting and bid management
- Collects data via pre-existing implementations of DoubleClick Campaign Manager and Google Analytics; and if those technologies are already cleanly implemented…
- Can be up and running in 48 hours
