STRATEGY | REPORTING
Attribution Audit
Stop Wasting Money on Non-performing Campaigns
A complete review of your channels, campaigns and marketing technology platforms to determine what's working, what's not, and how to improve them.
Giving you insight to marketing ROI, and actionable budgeting data.
What is Attribution?
Attribution is the process of working out what activities result in traffic, leads, customers and revenue.
For example, attribution allows you to answer questions such as:
- did our Google Ads spend result in good quality leads and customers?
- did our Facebook advertising result in sales on our ecommerce store?
- did our LinkedIn advertising result in repeat customers?
- did our email marketing grow our revenue this quarter?
- which campaign should we increase budget for?
Accurate attribution is crucial for giving you visibility into what's working for your business.
Sounds obvious right? Sadly, for many businesses, the tools for accurate attribution haven't been set up correctly, or maintained...
The Problem
Here's a really quick way to check if you have an attribution problem:
[1] Go into your favourite analytics platform (eg Google Analytics, HubSpot Analytics) and check your Sources report (ie to view the traffic you get from each channel).
[2] Look for the Direct traffic channel. If your direct traffic is a high proportion of your traffic, then you have an attribution problem. Here's an example:
In contrast, here's an example of a site with good attribution - notice how direct traffic is much lower:
Wait, what's Direct Traffic?
Not sure what Direct traffic is? Direct traffic is the 'source' that traffic gets assigned by analytics programs if they can't tell where the traffic has come from. ie it's 'unknown' traffic!
This is a big problem if you spend a lot of money on paid advertising, but can't report on it accurately. We've worked with businesses who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Retargeting & YouTube Ads, but can't tell what results they return.
If you can't analyse to see what's working, you can't make informed decisions about where to allocate budget.
The Solution
Our 6 Step Attribution Audit process gives you clarity on your attribution issues and how to fix them.
- Step 1: Check Setup of Tools
- Step 2: Review Reports
- Step 3: Highlight Issues
- Step 4: Fix Issues
- Step 5: Review Reports Again
- Step 6: Setup Dashboards
In the following video we walk through the 6 steps in more detail:
The Attribution Audit is ideal for mid-large companies who have been spending money on paid campaigns for more than 6 months.
It is ideal as a regular review as well (eg annually).
Note: This is not designed for new websites (we have a separate Google and Tracking Setup offering for new sites).
Why Organise an Attribution Audit?
If you've been using paid channels (eg Facebook & Instagram ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Remarketing platforms) for a while, you should accumulated a good set of data to analyse for insights and decision making. But if you can't accurately view the channels and which campaign in each has driven results, then you have an attribution problem.
It's time to review your setup and ensure your attribution reporting is accurate and actionable.
We review your marketing technology stack, work with your teams and suppliers and analyse results to determine issues and recommend fixes..
Who is the Attribution Audit ideal for?
The Attribution Audit is ideal for:
- Mid-large companies
- Who have been using a range of channels (including paid and email) for more than 6 months
- Who feel that they are not seeing accurate reporting of attribution of results
What's Included in the Attribution Audit?
The Attribution Audit includes:
- initial discovery calls with you and your team(s) and suppliers to
- understand the extent of your marketing technology and advertising platforms
- understand how you report on sales and revenue
- understand integrations with systems (eg SAP, NetSuite, HubSpot, Shopify)
- a full review of your marketing channels across organic, social, paid, email and referral traffic
- grades against each area in the Attribution Audit Checklist
- highlighting of issues
- recommendations for improvement
- a walkthrough of the findings and answers to any questions you have
- an actionable checklist to help you start improving your attribution issues
Attribution Areas Reviewed
- Tools
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics (and goal tracking)
- Pixels and tracking across
- Google Ads
- Remarketing platforms
- HubSpot
- Google Tag Manager
- Reports:
- Google Analytics reports
- Acquisition> Channels
- Conversions > Goals
- Conversions > Ecommerce
- HubSpot reports
- Traffic Analytics
- Ads
- Lists and Views
- Custom Reports
- Google Analytics reports
What's NOT included in the Attribution Audit?
The Audit does not include implementation that requires coding development (eg integration flows with other systems). For example, if conversion data is stored in a system such as SAP, NetSuite or Adobe Commerce (aka Magento), this will require custom coding integration development - which isn't included in the Audit.
How Much Does the Attribution Audit Cost?
Please view our Pricing page for details on the costs for the Attribution Audit.
Cost depends on your company size, number of channels and integrations (eg if sales and revenue data is in separate systems such as SAP, Adobe Commerce or NetSuite).
What are the Benefits of the Attribution Audit?
You've been spending money to get results - and things can get overwhelming.
You made a significant investment into Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and more - make sure your dollars are driving a good return.
Our Attribution Audit service has helped clients to:
- Uncover incorrect tracking of results
- Highlight issues and assign priorities to fix them
- Reduce wasted spend caused by a non-performing campaigns
- Discover surprise channels that are working and can be expanded
- Optimise channels to save time and money
- Achieve better engagement with contacts and customers
- Improve reporting processes and visibility
Download the Attribution Audit brochure
Click the image below to download the Attribution Audit slide deck brochure:
If you'd like to discuss whether the Attribution Audit is a fit for your business, book a discovery call.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
How much does the Attribution Audit cost?
Please view our Pricing page for full details.
Cost depends on your company size, number and complexity of channels, integration points and number of internal teams and external partners to coordinate with.
-
How long does the Attribution Audit take?
This depends on the size and complexity of your business. Small businesses with standard setups can take 2-3 weeks, whereas larger companies with multiple channels, platforms and integrations points can take 3-6 months.
-
Do you have an Attribution Audit brochure I can download?
Yes, you can download an Attribution Audit brochure from the section above in the page.
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Who is the Attribution Audit ideally suited for?
The Attribution Audit is suitable for mid-large companies who have been using paid channels for at least 6 months.
It is especially ideal for companies who are using multiple channels.
If it not ideal for new websites, or businesses using a single channel and small budgets.
-
What is the waitlist waiting time for the Attribution Audit?
We typically advise a waiting time of 3-4 weeks before we can commence your Attribution Audit, however this depends on how many in the queue ahead of you, as well as the size of those portals.
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How qualified are your team to do the Attribution Audit review and implementation?
The XEN team are extremely well qualified to help with your Attribution Audit review and implementation.
- We've been working with a range of mid-large companies for more than a decade
- Extensive experience across digital marketing technology platforms, and advertising platforms
Please check the XEN About page for details of the team and our certifications.
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I'm already working with another agency, is this a problem?
We'd expect this.
You're likely working with a range of ad management agencies, who manage the campaigns.
We're not going to take over any of their function. Instead we'll be working closely with them to check if we can improve the reporting they get back.
If they have better visibility on attribution, they can get you better results.
You other agencies will consider this a benefit to them (ie not a threat).
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This sounds like an analytics review, is that correct?
Yes, at its simplest this starts with a review of your analytics.
But it grows from there, so that you can achieve visibility across all your channels, not only in terms of traffic, but also in revenue and ROI.
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If you'd like to discuss whether the Attribution Audit is a fit for your business, book a discovery call.
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