The year was 2017 – I was a stressed out, 26-year old who had been getting my behind beaten at my full-time job and the side business I was trying to get off the ground. What I remember most about that time was the frustration I felt everyday. I put all of my energy into influencers and PR to find that viral moment I thought would get me on the map in an instant. In my head, the fantasy went like this: I was going to get featured on BuzzFeed or get a shoutout from a large influencer and my business would explode in sales. I convinced myself that that’s all I needed for success – a sudden jackpot of exposure.
I didn’t understand back then that all of this amounted to a pipe-dream, a fallacy. It’s also a common perception by many who fundamentally misunderstand marketing. Now having been a marketer for over a decade, I can ironically chuckle at marketing memes that poke fun of a marketer’s number one pet-peeve: being asked to make something go viral. I chuckle knowing that I was one of those business owners at one point racking my brain trying to hit a one-hit-wonder, hoping for a miraculous shoutout.
I eventually got featured on BuzzFeed but it launched to crickets. While BuzzFeed receives a ton of traffic to their website, the article featuring Karif didn’t amount to a avalanche of traffic for me.
The point is, I eventually had to confront that I had no understanding of marketing and that magical virality I was hoping the universe would grant me, was non-existent. In my final push for getting the customers my business desperately needed, I decided that I couldn’t push social media advertising away any further. In the years after starting Facebook ads – I would learn, after burning through my small bi-weekly day-job salary for 3-4 months, that marketing is more of a slow game and advertising, when done correctly, could give me consistent sales and customer growth week over week.
It’s now been 7 years since I first dipped into online advertising. However, just two years after finding my footing with Facebook ads, Apple announced its iPhone iOS 14 privacy updates, completely transforming the world of online advertising upside down me, a newbie. I was able to navigate the massive data loss and the drastic CPA increases that occurred as a result of this update by learning about attribution. The more I became familliar with the impact of the iOS 14 updates (which was really where advertising was headed in only a matter of time, anyways), the less I looked at it as a threat.
Understanding attribution from paid channels goes beyond Facebook advertising – more channels are going to get impacted as more privacy regulations or settings unfold. The advertising world changes at rapid speed so some of what I’ll discuss below may not even apply in little as 6 months, but the concepts are constant and should be beneficial regardless of the platforms you use to advertise, track or report. Here we go, in no particular order of importance:
Never directly believe what in-platform reporting tells you. Only use it as a gauge. The only true metrics you can believe are those that happen in platform, I.e. engagement metrics and IG/FB shop or in-platform lead generation conversions
Platform reporting metrics should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism and used primarily as directional indicators rather than absolute truth. While platforms like Facebook and Instagram can accurately track engagement metrics and direct conversions that occur within their ecosystems (like Instagram Shop purchases or Facebook lead form submissions), they often struggle to accurately attribute conversions that happen outside their platforms. This is especially relevant in today’s privacy-focused digital landscape, where cross-platform tracking has become increasingly limited. The key is to understand that while in-platform metrics provide valuable insights, they should be considered as just one piece of a larger measurement framework, not as the sole source of truth for campaign performance.
Evaluating your ad spend efficiency (MER) across platforms is a triangular examination between 3 reports: ad platform, 3rd party analytics and website of sale/lead capture
To accurately measure your marketing return on investment (MER – Marketing Efficiency Ratio), you need to analyze data from three distinct sources. First, examine the ad platform’s reporting to understand their attribution claims. Then, cross-reference this with data from third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics, which provide a more neutral view of traffic sources and conversion paths. Finally, compare these against your actual website or e-commerce platform’s sales data, which represents the ground truth of your business performance. This triangulation method helps identify discrepancies between different tracking systems and provides a more complete picture of your marketing effectiveness. By comparing these three data sources, you can better understand which channels truly drive results and make more informed decisions about your marketing spend.
Understand your spend-to-reach ratio to properly measure true impact on traffic levels
One of the most crucial metrics in digital advertising is understanding the relationship between your ad spend and the reach you achieve. This ratio helps determine how efficiently your budget is being used to reach your target audience. For example, if you’re spending $1,000 to reach 100,000 people one month, but the next month you need $1,500 to reach the same audience, this could indicate rising costs in your market or issues with your targeting. By monitoring these metrics over time, you can identify trends, optimize your campaigns, and make data-driven decisions about budget allocation. Additionally, comparing your reach metrics against actual website traffic helps validate the accuracy of platform-reported data and ensures you’re getting genuine visibility for your investment.
Don’t underestimate the influence of brand (unquantifiable marketing efforts) on overall performance goals
While digital marketers often focus on measurable metrics like ROAS, CTR, and conversion rates, the impact of branding activities can be more subtle yet equally powerful. Brand building through content marketing, PR, social media presence, and community engagement creates a foundation of trust and recognition that enhances the performance of direct response campaigns. For instance, a strong brand presence can lower customer acquisition costs, increase conversion rates, and improve customer lifetime value – even though these benefits can’t be directly attributed to specific brand initiatives. This is why successful marketing strategies balance both performance marketing and brand building activities, understanding that while one drives immediate results, the other creates long-term value that amplifies all marketing efforts.
Understanding attribution led me to a critical realization – the upending of the traditional sales funnel as a marketing concept in the modern context and the importance of an omni-channel strategy. The traditional sales funnel has become increasingly obsolete in today’s complex digital landscape – the idea that your consumer’s journey is linear is not how the real world works.
People don’t move from awareness to consideration to purchase in a straightforward path. Understanding the humans behind the click makes attribution realistic. The “hey day” of online advertising spoiled us – attribution, or tracking a customer’s click-to-click online, has never been nor will ever be a perfect science.
