Understanding the Role of Attribution in Email and SMS Marketing

A well-executed attribution approach forms the backbone of all marketing analysis and strategizing. The question remains, is your brand getting the most out of its marketing attribution? An article from Klaviyo offers a deep dive into six critical attribution questions that every marketer should be asking about their Email and SMS marketing strategies.

Bottom Line: Knowing what works and what doesn’t in your marketing strategy is vital for any ecommerce business, and this article will show you how attribution is key in separating marketing wins from losses.

As businesses evolve, new trends emerge. The future will likely see the development of more sophisticated attribution models, bringing in multi-touch attributions, predictive models, and more intricate data analysis. It’s essential to stay ahead of these trends in order to make the most out of your marketing strategies.

Choosing an Efficient Attribution Model

Problems such as inflated revenue statistics can arise when using disconnected tools across multiple channels. This can lead a brand to mistakenly believe all marketing strategies are working when it’s not entirely the case. Klaviyo alleviates this issue by providing a platform where you can merge multiple channels’ analytics. This helps to give a clear perspective on what’s working and what’s not in your marketing strategies.

Attribution Window: Getting It Right

Klaviyo uses a last-click attribution model across email and SMS. The default attribution windows for email is five days, meaning if a customer makes a purchase within five days of opening an email, their transaction gets attributed to that email. For SMS, it is a 24-hour click model, reflecting the immediate nature of the channel.

Customizing Your Attribution Windows

All businesses are not created equal. What works for one might not necessarily work for others. This is why Klaviyo allows you to customize your attribution settings as deemed fit by your business model. In Klaviyo, the email attribution windows can be adjusted from 1-60 days, and SMS windows from 1-72 hours.

Understanding The Triggers

In Klaviyo, brand owners can also customize the event that initiates an email attribution window. So whether a subscriber opens or clicks on an email or click initiates the attribution, Klaviyo provides the flexibility to effectively implement your preferred marketing attribution model.

Avoiding Redundant Attribution

When you merge email and SMS in one platform like Klaviyo, it’s easier to avoid redundant attribution. In Klaviyo, the last-click model ensures that the customer’s most recent interaction is credited for their purchase, avoiding double-counting of revenue across channels.

Manage Attribution Externally

With Klaviyo, you can have your data and manage it too. Their belief in data ownership means that brand owners can manage last-click attribution in a central hub like Google Analytics. Klaviyo makes this process easier by automatically attaching UTMs to all URLs sent in emails and SMS messages.

Don’t Ignore Attribution

In the ever-changing and competitive marketing landscape, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to marketing attribution. Any clear-cut wrong solution would be ignoring attribution completely. Make a habit of asking the hard questions and choosing platforms that offer flexible, comprehensive attribution strategies that suit your business, like Klaviyo.