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• Linear Attribution Model : What Is It and How Does It Work ?

  16 février 2024, par Erin

  Want a more in-depth way to understand the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns ? Then, the linear attribution model could be the answer.

  Although you can choose from several different attribution models, a linear model is ideal for giving value to every touchpoint along the customer journey. It can help you identify your most effective marketing channels and optimise your campaigns. 

  So, without further ado, let’s explore what a linear attribution model is, when you should use it and how you can get started. 

  What is a linear attribution model ?

  A linear attribution model is a multi-touch method of marketing attribution where equal credit is given to each touchpoint. Every marketing channel used across the entire customer journey gets credit, and each is considered equally important. 

  So, if a potential customer has four interactions before converting, each channel gets 25% of the credit.

  

  Let’s look at how linear attribution works in practice using a hypothetical example of a marketing manager, Sally, who is looking for an alternative to Google Analytics. 

  Sally starts her conversion path by reading a Matomo article comparing Matomo to Google Analytics she finds when searching on Google. A few days later she signs up for a webinar she saw on Matomo’s LinkedIn page. Two weeks later, Sally gets a sign-off from her boss and decides to go ahead with Matomo. She visits the website and starts a free trial by clicking on one of the paid Google Ads. 

  Using a linear attribution model, we credit each of the channels Sally uses (organic traffic, organic social, and paid ads), ensuring no channel is overlooked in our marketing analysis. 

  Are there other types of attribution models ?

  Absolutely. There are several common types of attribution models marketing managers can use to measure the impact of channels in different ways. 

  

  • First interaction : Also called a first-touch attribution model, this method gives all the credit to the first channel in the customer journey. This model is great for optimising the top of your sales funnel.
  • Last interaction : Also called a last-touch attribution model, this approach gives all the credit to the last channel the customer interacts with. It’s a great model for optimising the bottom of your marketing funnel. 
  • Last non-direct interaction : This attribution model excludes direct traffic and credits the previous touchpoint. This is a fantastic alternative to a last-touch attribution model, especially if most customers visit your website before converting. 
  • Time decay attribution model : This model adjusts credit according to the order of the touchpoints. Those nearest the conversion get weighted the highest. 
  • Position-based attribution model : This model allocates 40% of the credit to the first and last touchpoints and splits the remaining 20% evenly between every other interaction.

  Why use a linear attribution model ?

  Marketing attribution is vital if you want to understand which parts of your marketing strategy are working. All of the attribution models described above can help you achieve this to some degree, but there are several reasons to choose a linear attribution model in particular. 

  It uses multi-touch attribution

  Unlike single-touch attribution models like first and last interaction, linear attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that considers every touchpoint. This is vital to get a complete picture of the modern customer journey, where customers interact with companies between 20 and 500 times. 

  Single-touch attribution models can be misleading by giving conversion credit to a single channel, especially if it was the customer’s last use. In our example above, Sally’s last interaction with our brand was through a paid ad, but it was hardly the most important. 

  It’s easy to understand

  Attribution models can be complicated, but linear attribution is easy to understand. Every touchpoint gets the same credit, allowing you to see how your entire marketing function works. This simplicity also makes it easy for marketers to take action. 

  It’s great for identifying effective marketing channels

  Because linear attribution is one of the few models that provides a complete view of the customer journey, it’s easy to identify your most common and influential touchpoints. 

  It accounts for the top and bottom of your funnel, so you can also categorise your marketing channels more effectively and make more informed decisions. For example, PPC ads may be a more common bottom-of-the-full touchpoint and should, therefore, not be used to target broad, top-of-funnel search terms.

  Are there any reasons not to use linear attribution ?

  Linear attribution isn’t perfect. Like all attribution models, it has its weaknesses. Specifically, linear attribution can be too simple, dilute conversion credit and unsuitable for long sales cycles.

  

  It can be too simple

  Linear attribution lacks nuance. It only considers touchpoints while ignoring other factors like brand image and your competitors. This is true for most attribution models, but it’s still important to point it out. 

  It can dilute conversion credit

  In reality, not every touchpoint impacts conversions to the same extent. In the example above, the social media post promoting the webinar may have been the most effective touchpoint, but we have no way of measuring this. 

  The risk with using a linear model is that credit can be underestimated and overestimated — especially if you have a long sales cycle. 

  It’s unsuitable for very long sales cycles

  Speaking of long sales cycles, linear attribution models won’t add much value if your customer journey contains dozens of different touchpoints. Credit will get diluted to the point where analysis becomes impossible, and the model will also struggle to measure the precise ways certain touchpoints impact conversions. 

  Should you use a linear attribution model ?

  A linear attribution model is a great choice for any company with shorter sales cycles or a reasonably straightforward customer journey that uses multiple marketing channels. In these cases, it helps you understand the contribution of each touchpoint and find your best channels. 

  It’s also a practical choice for small businesses and startups that don’t have a team of data scientists on staff or the budget to hire outside help. Because it’s so easy to set up and understand, anyone can start generating insights using this model. 

  How to set up a linear attribution model

  Are you sold on the idea of using a linear attribution model ? Then follow the steps below to get started :

  

  Choose a marketing attribution tool

  Given the market is worth $3.1 billion, you won’t be surprised to learn there are plenty of tools to choose from. But choose carefully. The tool you pick can significantly impact your success with attribution modelling. 

  Take Google Analytics, for instance. While GA4 offers several marketing attribution models for free, including linear attribution, it lacks accuracy due to cookie consent rejection and data sampling. 

  Accurate marketing attribution is included as a feature in Matomo Cloud and is available as a plugin for Matomo On-Premise users. We support a full range of attribution models that use 100% accurate data because we don’t use data sampling, and cookie consent isn’t an issue (with the exception of Germany and the UK). That means you can trust our insights.

  Matomo’s marketing attribution is available out of the box, and we also provide access to raw data, allowing you to develop your custom attribution model. 

  Collect data

  The quality of your marketing attribution also depends on the quality and quantity of your data. It’s why you need to avoid a platform that uses data sampling. 

  This should include :

  • General data from your analytics platform, like pages visited and forms filled
  • Goals and conversions, which we’ll discuss in more detail in the next step
  • Campaign tracking data so you can monitor the behaviour of traffic from different referral channels
  • Behavioural data from features like Heatmaps or Session Recordings

  Set up goals and conversions

  You can’t assign conversion values to customer journey touchpoints if you don’t have conversion goals in place. That’s why the next step of the process is to set up conversion tracking in your web analytics platform. 

  Depending on your type of business and the product you sell, conversions could take one of the following forms :

  • A product purchase
  • Signing up for a webinar
  • Downloading an ebook
  • Filling in a form
  • Starting a free trial

  Setting up these kinds of goals is easy if you use Matomo. 

  Just head to the Goals section of the dashboard, click Manage Goals and then click the green Add A New Goal button. 

  Fill in the screen below, and add a Goal Revenue at the bottom of the page. Doing so will mean Matomo can automatically calculate the value of each touchpoint when using your attribution model. 

  

  If your analytics platform allows it, make sure you also set up Event Tracking, which will allow you to analyse how many users start to take a desired action (like filling in a form) but never complete the task. 

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  Test and validate

  As we’ve explained, linear attribution is a great model in some scenarios, but it can fall short if you have a long or complex sales funnel. Even if you’re sure it’s the right model for your company, testing and validating is important. 

  Ideally, your chosen attribution tool should make this process pretty straightforward. For example, Matomo’s Marketing Attribution feature makes comparing and contrasting three different attribution models easy. 

  Here we compare the performance of three attribution models—linear, first-touch, and last-non-direct—in Matomo’s Marketing Attribution dashboard, providing straightforward analysis.

  

  If you think linear attribution accurately reflects the value of your channels, you can start to analyse the insights it generates. If not, then consider using another attribution model.

  Don’t forget to take action from your marketing efforts, either. Linear attribution helps you spot the channels that contribute most to conversions, so allocate more resources to those channels and see if you can improve your conversion rate or boost your ROI. 

  Make the most of marketing attribution with Matomo

  A linear attribution model lets you measure every touchpoint in your customer journey. It’s an easy attribution model to start with and lets you identify and optimise your most effective marketing channels. 

  However, accurate data is essential if you want to benefit the most from marketing attribution data. If your web analytics solution doesn’t play nicely with cookies or uses sampled data, then your linear model isn’t going to tell you the whole story. 

  That’s why over 1 million sites trust Matomo’s privacy-focused web analytics, ensuring accurate data for a comprehensive understanding of customer journeys.

  Now you know what linear attribution modelling is, start employing the model today by signing up for a free 21-day trial, no credit card required. 

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• How to Choose the Optimal Multi-Touch Attribution Model for Your Organisation

  13 mars 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips

  If you struggle to connect the dots on your customer journeys, you are researching the correct solution. 

  Multi-channel attribution models allow you to better understand the users’ paths to conversion and identify key channels and marketing assets that assist them.

  That said, each attribution model has inherent limitations, which make the selection process even harder.

  This guide explains how to choose the optimal multi-touch attribution model. We cover the pros and cons of popular attribution models, main evaluation criteria and how-to instructions for model implementation. 

  Pros and Cons of Different Attribution Models 

  

  First Interaction 

  First Interaction attribution model (also known as first touch) assigns full credit to the conversion to the first channel, which brought in a lead. However, it doesn’t report other interactions the visitor had before converting.

  Marketers, who are primarily focused on demand generation and user acquisition, find the first touch attribution model useful to evaluate and optimise top-of-the-funnel (ToFU). 

  Pros 

  • Reflects the start of the customer journey
  • Shows channels that bring in the best-qualified leads 
  • Helps track brand awareness campaigns

  Cons 

  • Ignores the impact of later interactions at the middle and bottom of the funnel 
  • Doesn’t provide a full picture of users’ decision-making process 

  Last Interaction 

  Last Interaction attribution model (also known as last touch) shifts the entire credit allocation to the last channel before conversion. But it doesn’t account for the contribution of all other channels. 

  If your focus is conversion optimization, the last-touch model helps you determine which channels, assets or campaigns seal the deal for the prospect. 

  Pros 

  • Reports bottom-of-the-funnel events
  • Requires minimal data and configurations 
  • Helps estimate cost-per-lead or cost-per-acquisition

  Cons 

  • No visibility into assisted conversions and prior visitor interactions 
  • Overemphasise the importance of the last channel (which can often be direct traffic) 

  Last Non-Direct Interaction 

  Last Non-Direct attribution excludes direct traffic from the calculation and assigns the full conversion credit to the preceding channel. For example, a paid ad will receive 100% of credit for conversion if a visitor goes directly to your website to buy a product. 

  Last Non-Direct attribution provides greater clarity into the bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFU). events. Yet, it still under-reports the role other channels played in conversion. 

  Pros 

  • Improved channel visibility, compared to Last-Touch 
  • Avoids over-valuing direct visits
  • Reports on lead-generation efforts

  Cons 

  • Doesn’t work for account-based marketing (ABM) 
  • Devalues the quality over quantity of leads 

  Linear Model

  Linear attribution model assigns equal credit for a conversion to all tracked touchpoints, regardless of their impact on the visitor’s decision to convert.

  It helps you understand the full conversion path. But this model doesn’t distinguish between the importance of lead generation activities versus nurturing touches.

  Pros 

  • Focuses on all touch points associated with a conversion 
  • Reflects more steps in the customer journey 
  • Helps analyse longer sales cycles

  Cons 

  • Doesn’t accurately reflect the varying roles of each touchpoint 
  • Can dilute the credit if too many touchpoints are involved 

  Time Decay Model 

  Time decay models assumes that the closer a touchpoint is to the conversion, the greater its influence. Pre-conversion touchpoints get the highest credit, while the first ones are ranked lower (5%-5%-10%-15%-25%-30%).

  This model better reflects real-life customer journeys. However, it devalues the impact of brand awareness and demand-generation campaigns. 

  Pros 

  • Helps track longer sales cycles and reports on each touchpoint involved 
  • Allows customising the half-life of decay to improve reporting 
  • Promotes conversion optimization at BoFu stages

  Cons 

  • Can prompt marketers to curtail ToFU spending, which would translate to fewer qualified leads at lower stages
  • Doesn’t reflect highly-influential events at earlier stages (e.g., a product demo request or free account registration, which didn’t immediately lead to conversion)

  Position-Based Model 

  Position-Based attribution model (also known as the U-shaped model) allocates the biggest credit to the first and the last interaction (40% each). Then distributes the remaining 20% across other touches. 

  For many marketers, that’s the preferred multi-touch attribution model as it allows optimising both ToFU and BoFU channels. 

  Pros 

  • Helps establish the main channels for lead generation and conversion
  • Adds extra layers of visibility, compared to first- and last-touch attribution models 
  • Promotes budget allocation toward the most strategic touchpoints

  Cons 

  • Diminishes the importance of lead nurturing activities as more credit gets assigned to demand-gen and conversion-generation channels
  • Limited flexibility since it always assigns a fixed amount of credit to the first and last touchpoints, and the remaining credit is divided evenly among the other touchpoints

  How to Choose the Right Multi-Touch Attribution Model For Your Business 

  If you’re deciding which attribution model is best for your business, prepare for a heated discussion. Each one has its trade-offs as it emphasises or devalues the role of different channels and marketing activities.

  To reach a consensus, the best strategy is to evaluate each model against three criteria : Your marketing objectives, sales cycle length and data availability. 

  Marketing Objectives 

  Businesses generate revenue in many ways : Through direct sales, subscriptions, referral fees, licensing agreements, one-off or retainer services. Or any combination of these activities. 

  In each case, your marketing strategy will look different. For example, SaaS and direct-to-consumer (DTC) eCommerce brands have to maximise both demand generation and conversion rates. In contrast, a B2B cybersecurity consulting firm is more interested in attracting qualified leads (as opposed to any type of traffic) and progressively nurturing them towards a big-ticket purchase. 

  When selecting a multi-touch attribution model, prioritise your objectives first. Create a simple scoreboard, where your team ranks various channels and campaign types you rely on to close sales. 

  Alternatively, you can survey your customers to learn how they first heard about your company and what eventually triggered their conversion. Having data from both sides can help you cross-validate your assumptions and eliminate some biases. 

  Then consider which model would best reflect the role and importance of different channels in your sales cycle. Speaking of which….

  Sales Cycle Length 

  As shoppers, we spend less time deciding on a new toothpaste brand versus contemplating a new IT system purchase. Factors like industry, business model (B2C, DTC, B2B, B2BC), and deal size determine the average cycle length in your industry. 

  Statistically, low-ticket B2C sales can happen within just several interactions. The average B2B decision-making process can have over 15 steps, spread over several months. 

  That’s why not all multi-touch attribution models work equally well for each business. Time-decay suits better B2B companies, while B2C usually go for position-based or linear attribution. 

  Data Availability 

  Businesses struggle with multi-touch attribution model implementation due to incomplete analytics data. 

  Our web analytics tool captures more data than Google Analytics. That’s because we rely on a privacy-focused tracking mechanism, which allows you to collect analytics without showing a cookie consent banner in markets outside of Germany and the UK. 

  Cookie consent banners are mandatory with Google Analytics. Yet, almost 40% of global consumers reject it. This results in gaps in your analytics and subsequent inconsistencies in multi-touch attribution reports. With Matomo, you can compliantly collect more data for accurate reporting. 

  Some companies also struggle to connect collected insights to individual shoppers. With Matomo, you can cross-attribute users across browning sessions, using our visitors’ tracking feature. 

  When you already know a user’s identifier (e.g., full name or email address), you can track their on-site behaviours over time to better understand how they interact with your content and complete their purchases. Quick disclaimer, though, visitors’ tracking may not be considered compliant with certain data privacy laws. Please consult with a local authority if you have doubts. 

  How to Implement Multi-Touch Attribution

  Multi-touch attribution modelling implementation is like a “seek and find” game. You have to identify all significant touchpoints in your customers’ journeys. And sometimes also brainstorm new ways to uncover the missing parts. Then figure out the best way to track users’ actions at those stages (aka do conversion and events tracking). 

  Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough to help you get started. 

  Select a Multi-Touch Attribution Tool 

  The global marketing attribution software is worth $3.1 billion. Meaning there are plenty of tools, differing in terms of accuracy, sophistication and price.

  To make the right call prioritise five factors :

  • Available models : Look for a solution that offers multiple options and allows you to experiment with different modelling techniques or develop custom models. 
  • Implementation complexity : Some providers offer advanced data modelling tools for creating custom multi-touch attribution models, but offer few out-of-the-box modelling options. 
  • Accuracy : Check if the shortlisted tool collects the type of data you need. Prioritise providers who are less dependent on third-party cookies and allow you to identify repeat users. 
  • Your marketing stack : Some marketing attribution tools come with useful add-ons such as tag manager, heatmaps, form analytics, user session recordings and A/B testing tools. This means you can collect more data for multi-channel modelling with them instead of investing in extra software. 
  • Compliance : Ensure that the selected multi-attribution analytics software wouldn’t put you at risk of GDPR non-compliance when it comes to user privacy and consent to tracking/analysis. 

  Finally, evaluate the adoption costs. Free multi-channel analytics tools come with data quality and consistency trade-offs. Premium attribution tools may have “hidden” licensing costs and bill you for extra data integrations. 

  Look for a tool that offers a good price-to-value ratio (i.e., one that offers extra perks for a transparent price). 

  Set Up Proper Data Collection 

  Multi-touch attribution requires ample user data. To collect the right type of insights you need to set up : 

  • Website analytics : Ensure that you have all tracking codes installed (and working correctly !) to capture pageviews, on-site actions, referral sources and other data points around what users do on page. 
  • Tags : Add tracking parameters to monitor different referral channels (e.g., “facebook”), campaign types (e.g., ”final-sale”), and creative assets (e.g., “banner-1”). Tags help you get a clearer picture of different touchpoints. 
  • Integrations : To better identify on-site users and track their actions, you can also populate your attribution tool with data from your other tools – CRM system, A/B testing app, etc. 

  Finally, think about the ideal lookback window — a bounded time frame you’ll use to calculate conversions. For example, Matomo has a default windows of 7, 30 or 90 days. But you can configure a custom period to better reflect your average sales cycle. For instance, if you’re selling makeup, a shorter window could yield better results. But if you’re selling CRM software for the manufacturing industry, consider extending it.

  Configure Goals and Events 

  Goals indicate your main marketing objectives — more traffic, conversions and sales. In web analytics tools, you can measure these by tracking specific user behaviours. 

  For example : If your goal is lead generation, you can track :

  • Newsletter sign ups 
  • Product demo requests 
  • Gated content downloads 
  • Free trial account registration 
  • Contact form submission 
  • On-site call bookings 

  In each case, you can set up a unique tag to monitor these types of requests. Then analyse conversion rates — the percentage of users who have successfully completed the action. 

  To collect sufficient data for multi-channel attribution modelling, set up Goal Tracking for different types of touchpoints (MoFU & BoFU) and asset types (contact forms, downloadable assets, etc). 

  Your next task is to figure out how users interact with different on-site assets. That’s when Event Tracking comes in handy. 

  Event Tracking reports notify you about specific actions users take on your website. With Matomo Event Tracking, you can monitor where people click on your website, on which pages they click newsletter subscription links, or when they try to interact with static content elements (e.g., a non-clickable banner). 

  Using in-depth user behavioural reports, you can better understand which assets play a key role in the average customer journey. Using this data, you can localise “leaks” in your sales funnel and fix them to increase conversion rates.

  Test and Validated the Selected Model 

  A common challenge of multi-channel attribution modelling is determining the correct correlation and causality between exposure to touchpoints and purchases. 

  For example, a user who bought a discounted product from a Facebook ad would act differently than someone who purchased a full-priced product via a newsletter link. Their rate of pre- and post-sales exposure will also differ a lot — and your attribution model may not always accurately capture that. 

  That’s why you have to continuously test and tweak the selected model type. The best approach for that is lift analysis. 

  Lift analysis means comparing how your key metrics (e.g., revenue or conversion rates) change among users who were exposed to a certain campaign versus a control group. 

  In the case of multi-touch attribution modelling, you have to monitor how your metrics change after you’ve acted on the model recommendations (e.g., invested more in a well-performing referral channel or tried a new brand awareness Twitter ad). Compare the before and after ROI. If you see a positive dynamic, your model works great. 

  The downside of this approach is that you have to invest a lot upfront. But if your goal is to create a trustworthy attribution model, the best way to validate is to act on its suggestions and then test them against past results. 

  Conclusion

  A multi-touch attribution model helps you measure the impact of different channels, campaign types, and marketing assets on metrics that matter — conversion rate, sales volumes and ROI. 

  Using this data, you can invest budgets into the best-performing channels and confidently experiment with new campaign types. 

  As a Matomo user, you also get to do so without breaching customers’ privacy or compromising on analytics accuracy.

  Start using accurate multi-channel attribution in Matomo. Get your free 21-day trial now. No credit card required.

• lavu/atomic : add support for the new memory model aware gcc built-ins

  28 octobre 2014, par James Almer

  lavu/atomic : add support for the new memory model aware gcc built-ins
  __sync built-ins are considered legacy and will be deprecated.
  
  These new memory model aware built-ins have been available since GCC 4.7.0
  Use them by default when available except for __atomic_compare_exchange_n(),
  
  which is slower, and is instead implemented as a fallback for when and if gcc
  
  removes the legacy __sync built-ins.
  Reviewed-by : Michael Niedermayer <michaelni@gmx.at>
  
  Signed-off-by : James Almer <jamrial@gmail.com>
  

  • [DH] configure
  • [DH] libavutil/atomic_gcc.h