Attributing revenues to marketing touchpoints is one of marketers’ biggest challenges. Holistic approaches to attribution help marketers plan media budgets, optimize within channels, and drive incremental outcomes for their business in the most cost-effective way. But putting such approaches into place can be unwieldy—and it’s getting harder.
Within digital media channels, probably the longest-standing gap in measurement information lies with the walled gardens—a group that includes Google, Facebook, a host of other walled social platforms, and Amazon. Some in the industry are also talking more of walled gardens—or attempts to build them—in the connected TV (CTV) or over-the-top (OTT) space.
In October 2020 research by marketing tech consultancy DemandLab and marketing research firm Ascend2, 44% of marketing professionals worldwide said social media marketing was among the most difficult digital marketing channels to attribute sales revenues to.
US digital media professionals surveyed in October 2020 by Integral Ad Science suggested that the lack of transparency on the part of these walled gardens might result in less advertiser spending. Specifically, 63% of respondents thought insufficient transparency with respect to media quality metrics was most likely to affect Facebook, followed by 31% who said the same of YouTube and 28% who cited Instagram. The difference in responses between Facebook and Instagram, when the two platforms use the same buying and reporting interface, is notable.