Learning About New Google Attribution

Google Marketing Next was held in San Francisco last week, and one of the biggest pieces of news coming from it was the release of Google Attribution. This is a free solution that can pull data from Google Analytics, AdWords or DoubleClick Search to allow online marketing services a more holistic view of conversion actions across channels and devices for attribution modeling and bidding information.

Google Attribution could have a big effect on various internet marketing areas. Let’s look at the basics.

What is It?

Google Attribution is the simplified version of Attribution 360, an enterprise-level program that came in 2014. Attribution integrates with each of Google Analytics, Google AdWords and DoubleClick Search, and does not require any additional site tagging.

How it works: A Google Analytics view that’s already associated with an AdWords or DoubleClick Search account is linked, and Attribution is populated with channel performance data from the Analytics view. Marketers are then able to assign an attribution model to their conversion events – just like in Analytics, models can be compared side by side. Modeled conversion data can then feed back into AdWords or DoubleClick Search to inform bidding decisions.

What Problems Does it Solve?’

Google Attribution is aiming to solve two distinct issues with this update:

• How to see and credit upper- and mid-funnel interactions: Google Attribution is focused on understanding the full customer journey, not just the last-click impact, per Google’s Bill Kee. Last-key focus may miss appropriate credit for a given conversion. Showing advertisers that more of their search and display ads played a role in the conversion will lead to much better bidding decisions.
• How to inform bidding based on full-funnel attribution data: By automatically sending data into AdWords, advertisers can see the conversion impact of keywords and adds based on conversion path data.

How Does it Differ From AdWords Attribution or Analytics?

Google has been trying for several years to move AdWords away from being an exclusively last-click platform, and toward a more flexible platform. The attribution tool introduced in 2014 is for search funnels only – it doesn’t report on whether users interact with multiple ads, or provide any insight on the interplay of ads with marketing efforts from other channels unless advertisers are using data-driven attribution. Google Attribution, though, provides the cross-channel context that's missing.

Attribution will also make Analytics a more in-depth tool. All attribution models in Attribution include more touch points than Google Analytics, and also includes data-driven attribution – a machine-learning model that helps advertisers understand how touch points increase the likelihood of conversion given a particular sequence of exposures.

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