Category: Network News

It’s important as a merchant to understand
which online channels are driving sales and conversions. Attribution models can
help analyze the data.

What are attribution models?  

It’s important for merchants to understand where
their sales and conversions come from. An attribution model is a set of rules
that helps gather and analyze this information. Attribution modeling can come
in a few shapes and sizes, so let’s explore some of the different ways to make
use of marketing attribution models. 

Why is marketing attribution important? 

There are many pathways a customer may take before ultimately
making a purchase or conversion. They might simply click an ad, visit your
website and make a transaction – but in most cases, there’s a lot more to the
journey than that.  

For example, a customer might first click on a banner ad and
visit your website but not make a purchase. Then, days later they might be
served a retargeting ad, which they click, but again does not lead to a sale.
While on your site they may have visited your blog and learned a little more
about the brand and product, and they might then follow your business on social
media. The following week they see a post with a link that ultimately leads to
them finally making the conversion.  

Which marketing channel should be credited for the sale? Was it
the original ad that introduced the brand? Was it the retargeting ad? How
important was the blog? Did it all come down to the social media
post?  

As a business, understanding which marketing channels have the
greatest impact is essential to your continued success. It helps you align your
strategy with the data, so you can place more emphasis and budget on what you
know works.   

Marketing attribution models allow businesses to analyze each of
these channels, or touchpoints, and determine which of them had the most significant
impact on gaining a conversion.  

What are the
different marketing attribution models? 

There are a number of different attribution models that each
distribute the value across touchpoints differently. Touchpoints describe any
point where a potential customer interacts with your business on the sales
journey: it could be display advertising, SEO, social media, email marketing,
paid search, and so on. 

The most common marketing attribution models are:  

Last-click attribution models

Also known as last interaction or last-touch attribution,
last-click attribution places all of the credit on the last
interaction the customer had with the business before converting. In our
earlier example, the social media link would receive 100% of the credit, as this
was the last touchpoint before the sale was made.  

This is the simplest attribution model and is often the default
model for analytics platforms. Because there are so many journeys that can lead
to a conversion, many feel the most accurate way to look at it is to simply
give all the credit to whatever the final interaction was.   

However, this disregards all of the other steps that
led to that final interaction. In our example, the customer would not have seen
and interacted with the social media post had they not initially been served
the ads and visited the site, so you may feel it’s illogical to give all
of the credit to the last touchpoint.

First interaction attribution models  

On the other hand, some might feel the very first interaction was
the most important. First interaction attribution gives 100% of the credit to
the first click. In our example, the first banner ad the customer clicked on
gets all the credit – it initiated the journey, and without it, none of the
other touchpoints would have been hit. 

With this model, whatever happens between the first interaction
and the conversion is insignificant; the first interaction sets the ball in
motion and therefore deserves all the credit.  

Last non-direct click attribution models  

Last non-direct click is another attribution model that places
100% of the credit on a single touchpoint, but in this case, any direct
interactions are disregarded. Direct traffic refers to a customer manually
entering your URL to visit your website, or clicking a bookmarked
link. The assumption is that if they’ve bookmarked your website or are typing
in your URL, they already know your company, and they likely already expect to
make a purchase.  

Linear attribution models  

A linear attribution model places equal value across every
touchpoint in the customer’s journey. While it does provide a more balanced
look, this assumes that every touchpoint was just as effective as the other –
which isn’t necessarily the case.  

A linear attribution model is a very straightforward model and
won’t really help you identify which marketing channel had the most significant
impact.

Time-decay attributions  

In a time-decay model, the value is spread across each
touchpoint, but not evenly. Instead, the touchpoints closer to conversion are
assigned a higher value. This is a great way to show the importance of customer
relationship building. The first interaction has the lowest value, but with
each touchpoint, the customer relationship grows stronger, before finally
leading to conversion after the last, most valuable interaction.

Position-based attribution models  

Position-based attribution gives different weighting to
different stages of the journey. One of the most common types of position-based
attribution is called U-shaped attribution. In this model, the first and
last touchpoints equally share the most value – 40% of the credit each, while
the interactions in between share the remaining 20%. So, in our example, the
first banner ad takes 40% of the credit, as does the social media channel,
while the retargeting ad and blog each take 10% of the credit.  

The first interaction is valuable as it introduced the customer
to the brand, the last interaction is equally as valuable as it closed the
deal, while the other touchpoints still carry some value, but not as
much. 

Attribution
and De-Duplication in the Affiliate Channel

While attribution remains essential in the affiliate channel,
affiliate programs also rely on de-duplication to allocate commission across
the partner base.  Most commonly, affiliate programs run on a “last
click wins” basis, meaning the last affiliate in the customer journey is
attributed the commission for the sale, but can also be used to accommodate
other digital channels, if an advertiser should choose to not pay for a sale if
the affiliate channel was not the last referring channel.  The IAB Affiliate
Marketing handbook indicates that all advertisers should provide complete
transparency on their de-duplication practices so publishers can understand how
their traffic is reviewed against other online channels.

Which multi-touch attribution model works best? 

Each model is useful in its own way, and businesses would
benefit from using each one to analyze their advertising strategy.  

First click is useful when analyzing which channels are best for
bringing in new customers and raising awareness. At the other end, last-click
attribution is best when analyzing conversions specifically, and which channels
best bring potential customers to the bottom of the sales
funnel.   

Last non-direct click attribution is similar to last
click and might be more useful, as you can argue that the last non-direct click
is what really sealed the deal.  

Position-based models still offer a broad view of each
touchpoint’s value while placing more importance on the start and finish of the
journey. This is useful for those who want to look closer at which channels are
most successful for acquiring audiences and which are most successful for converting
audiences, without completely discounting the steps in between.  

Think about the goals of your marketing campaign. If you’re
fully focused on sales, perhaps a last click or last non-direct click model
provides the best insight. If you’re more focused on increasing brand awareness
and gaining new leads, a first click model will help most. Perhaps you’re
interested in seeing how well you retain interest and awareness across the
entire sales cycle, in which case a linear model is ideal. If you’re running a
short campaign, like a special promotion, then a time decay model will be most
useful.  

How to use multi-touch attribution  

So, now we know the different ways we can analyze the sales
journey, but how do we use this information? The attribution model will show
you how much revenue should be attributed to each touchpoint.  

Let’s imagine you were focused on a single sale of $100 from a
customer that interacted with four touchpoints. If you used a single-touch
attribution model, the entire $100 would be credited to either the first or
last interaction. If you used a U-shaped position-based model, then $40 would
be attributed to the first click, $40 to the last click, and the two
touchpoints in between would each be attributed $10.  

You can then use this information to guide your marketing and
advertising spend going forward. Perhaps you find through attribution models
that hundreds of people engage with your blog without making a conversion, but
that social media ads do lead to conversions. You might then choose to increase
spend on social media, or you might use this info to reshape and improve
your blog content. 

ShareASale’s merchant tools are
making multi-touch
attribution more accessible and accurate than ever. Using the SingleView solution,
brands on the ShareASale network have a user-friendly, impartial, and
comprehensive platform to gain important marketing insights, helping you
measure the precise value of different affiliate partners and marketing
channels.  

SingleView, available to ShareASale
merchants via integrating with Awin’s Advertiser MasterTag, allows you to
track performance across some of the most popular ecommerce platforms. You can
then use this data to compare different attribution models, with in-depth
analysis tools, data-driven recommendations, and features that take the
guesswork out of attribution.   

Attribution modeling will help you form stronger partnerships with affiliate partners and better align your budget and strategy based on the channels that drive maximum value. With a robust approach to attribution modeling, you’ll gain a true understanding of your marketing strategy and how best to serve your target audience and conversion goals. If you’d like to know more about SingleView, you can get in touch with the team. 

The post What are attribution models? appeared first on ShareASale Blog.

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Whether you’re a blogger looking to monetize your platform or a publisher looking to expand reach – micro-influencers have great affiliate marketing value.

Influencers as a whole are becoming increasingly important.
However, for several reasons, many brands prefer to work with niche
micro-influencers to endorse their products or services.

Keep reading to learn what a micro-influencer is, how to become
one and why affiliate marketing presents a mutually-beneficial opportunity for
both micro-influencers and brands alike.  

What
is a micro-influencer? 

A micro-influencer is as it sounds: an influencer, but one that typically offers more niche content and a smaller, more focused audience. Influencers are online content creators with a large social media following – whether on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube or elsewhere. Companies use influencers to help promote their products because they have such an engaged audience that trust and value the opinions and insight of their chosen influencer. While an influencer may have a reach in the millions, micro-influencers are those with a smaller following and more niche content.

There’s no definitive criteria, but typically a micro-influencer
has between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. This might seem small in comparison to
major influencers, but having an audience of thousands would still make you
hugely desirable for brands. As a micro-influencer, you’d be an attractive
asset to advertisers as you’ll have an audience that’s extremely engaged and
more interactive, potentially offering a stronger platform for retailers to
market through than larger influencers.  

Major influencers are such a powerful tool in advertising these
days they rarely come as a low-cost option for brands. Getting a huge TikTok
star with millions of followers to promote a brand or product might be
unrealistic, but going for their micro counterpart, on the other hand, can be
extremely valuable. While you may not have as big a reach, smaller influencers
have an extremely engaged, growing audience. The brand would still be targeting
a strong audience that values the opinion of the micro-influencer, making them
far more likely to purchase the products being endorsed. Forming working relationships
with micro-influencers early can be great for a brand, especially if you
foresee your platform growing in popularity in the near future.  

Meanwhile, by working with brands to market their products,
micro-influencers can earn money and grow their platform, helping to establish
themselves as a trusted source while their audience develops.  

How
to become a micro-influencer 

There’s no one true method for finding success in
micro-influencer marketing, and it’s likely to take some time to test the
waters – but there’s certainly a lot you can do to help tailor your content for
strong results.  

Find
your niche 

Micro-influencers carry a lot of authority within their specific
niche. To gain a consistent following, you need to ensure you’re creating
regular, relevant content that will keep your audience coming back for more.
Whether you’re a lifestyle blogger, fitness model, travel photographer or
otherwise, you’ll need to be confident in and passionate about the niche you
choose to ensure you become a trusted source of information.  

You want to go for a niche that isn’t oversaturated with
influencers already creating within that space, without going so niche you
won’t be able to build a strong audience. Micro-influencers perform well in
less mainstream subject areas and you’ll be able to garner a far more captive
audience if you choose a subject that doesn’t already have a wide range of
influencers already promoting products. If you’re exploring affiliate marketing
as a micro-influencer, you may not want to limit your opportunities too much,
but brands will be far more likely to do business with you if they can see that
you’re a trusted, knowledgeable voice in a field that’s fully relevant to their
product or service.  

Be
consistent 

No matter what format your content takes, it’s important to be
consistent. You may post once a day, once every couple of days, or even weekly
– but in any case, you should always aim to stick to a well-thought-out
structure and schedule. If you have followers that enjoy your content and you
stay consistent with your output, they’ll get to know your schedule and keep
coming back. On the other hand, in not having a solid content structure, you’re
encouraging audiences to lose interest – and trust – in your
influence.  

It’s so important you understand your target audience and what
they’re looking for and create a platform they know they can turn to for
information, entertainment, advice, etc. 

Build
a community 

Engaging with your audience is another big must. In many ways
you are a brand, but a major part of what makes influencers and
micro-influencers so important in marketing is that they can humanize an
otherwise corporate, manufactured approach. This is even more important for
micro-influencers; a smaller audience means you can create a more intimate
connection with followers, in turn further gaining their trust. So, it’s
important to maintain a strong relationship with the community you’ve
cultivated, through actions like leaving comments, liking posts and following
back.  

Do
your research 

Be sure to do your research and stay on top of social media
trends and best practices. Factors like setting up your account, how you lay
out your content and building brand identity are extremely important for making
sure your content reaches as wide an audience as possible. Monitor other
influencers and see what works and what doesn’t. Have a look at which hashtags
perform best, what kind of posts get the most engagement, how to use calls to
action (CTAs), how best to share links, and so on.  

Something as simple as a CTA  – typically a directive line
of text encouraging users to take a specific action (ex: ‘Buy Now,’ ‘Start
Saving Today,’ etc.) can make a huge impact, and knowing how best to frame this
content for your specific target audience is crucial.

For something like Instagram, where links cannot be directly
shared within posts, you might need to sign up to platforms like linktr.ee to promote your links, while reminding your
audience to click the link in your bio whenever posting affiliate
content.  

Strategize whether you’ll post short-form, expiring content like
Snapchat or Instagram Stories, or perhaps you’ll favor short-form video content
for TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc. You might find that your audience
connects more with well-written blog content – like product reviews for
example. What works for you and your audience will depend on the niche and
demographic you’re exploring – so make sure you do your research and always
keep checking what works best.  

Keep
it fresh 

It certainly helps to offer variety. You might have some content
exclusive for TikTok followers, some static content reserved for Instagram feed
posts and a Pinterest board to share inspirational content to your
audience. Consistency and structure are important, but that doesn’t mean you
should put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, diversify your output to widen
reach and ensure content is always fresh and exciting. 

While your ultimate goal may be to earn money from
micro-influencer marketing, you’ll only do so if you balance your output
between sponsored and organic content. You’re not just a billboard with a face
– so remember to keep things grounded with plenty of authentic, relatable
content rather than just posting ad after ad. You’ll lose the trust of your
audience if the majority of your content is sponsored posts.  

Social media is constantly evolving, so to succeed as a
micro-influencer you’ll need to evolve alongside it. Even once you have a
structure and brand that you think can take you to the next level, you should
never stop researching, testing and refining your approach.  

Once your audience begins to grow, you can start engaging with
brands and advertisers. You might choose to start by promoting brands
organically – without being asked or paid to do so, to show you’re a reliable
partner. You could make the first move, tag the brand in a social
post, and they very well may get in touch to work together more closely.
Having said that, the most efficient and fruitful way for micro-influencers to
make valuable connections with brands is through affiliate marketing programs
like ShareASale.  

Monetizing
your micro-influencer platform through affiliate marketing 

Once you reach a certain level of influence, you’ll likely have
a variety of offers from brands who want you to endorse their products, but to
get to that level you’ll need to work hard to build your reputation and
following. Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways for micro-influencers to
monetize content because platforms like ShareASale create a structured space
for influencers and merchants to connect
directly. Rather than waiting for brands reach out via social media, you can
use a dedicated program to connect with the most relevant brands and products
for your audience.  

Affiliate marketing involves promoting a brand or product in
exchange for a commission on conversions secured as a result of your
endorsement. The commission and desired conversion goal can vary, but
oftentimes an affiliate will be paid a percentage for every sale made directly
from the affiliate’s efforts. The conversion might also be click throughs, sign
ups, subscriptions, or otherwise. Affiliates will typically be given a unique
link to the brand’s product page that they can use in any content to promote
the product – on Instagram, their personal blog, their affiliate website, etc.
Whenever a user clicks on that link and the desired conversion is made, this is
tracked so the conversion is attributed to the affiliate and the affiliate gets
paid. 

Through affiliate marketing, micro-influencers can work with
brands that fit their niche to promote products they know their audience will
love. For instance – imagine you’re a coffee-themed micro-influencer with a few
thousand followers. You could partner with an up-and-coming coffee roaster
looking for exposure to review their beans on your social pages. Once you’ve
made the connection and have been approved onto the program, you’ll be able to
generate unique affiliate links to place in your review post. If, for
example, the coffee brand will pay you commission based on sales, any time
one of your followers sees your review post, clicks the trackable link to the
landing page, and makes a purchase – you’ll get paid.  

Why
would brands prefer micro-influencers?  

Micro-influencers are valuable to advertisers for several
reasons. For one, they’re not as expensive as large-scale influencers while
still garnering impressive results. Micro-influencers might have a more
intimate, personal connection with their audience, too. Major influencers are
less likely to maintain that close a relationship with millions of followers,
but micro-influencers have a little more space to engage in a more meaningful
way – which can certainly be helpful for the brands whose products they’re
promoting.  

Unless you’re specifically looking to keep a smaller audience,
as a micro-influencer you’ll likely have your sight set on growth. By
connecting early, brands can capitalize on this trajectory. As you gain more
followers, the brand gains more exposure as they’ll already have formed a robust
relationship with you and helped you strengthen your platform. It’s a mutual
relationship, where both parties can grow, and profit, together.  

Audiences tend to connect more with micro-influencers than
brands, because micro-influencers are able to offer an authentic human touch.
Engaging with actual people – whether they know them or not – feels more
personable, and an influencer’s endorsement of a product feels more genuine
than a brand promoting their own product. For the same reason consumers value customer
reviews, influencers, especially micro-influencers, might feel a little more
authentic while still carrying the credibility of being an expert on the
topic.  

This is also why it’s so important for growing micro-influencers
to be careful about the content they create and the brands they promote. An
influencer who will promote just about any brand and any product will likely
seem less legitimate than, for example, a micro-influencer that focuses
specifically on reviewing camping gear. Major influencers may be a little too
broad or mainstream for some brands, whereas a micro-influencer may speak to
the niche of this brand far better. 

ShareASale’s affiliate tools help advertisers and micro-influencers form relationships with a partner who is the right fit. Search our Merchant Preview to find the brands that will speak to you and your audience, or work with our dedicated influencer partnership managers to start earning money while promoting products you’re truly passionate about.

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