How to unmask those elusive middle clicks

Category: Marketing attribution

Do you know what’s happening between the first click and last click, with each prospect and from every campaign? Now it’s simpler to find out and gain valuable insights.

Seeing through the fog

Most marketers prefer to use the first click or last click attribution models to measure the performance of their ads and websites. Why? Well, for a start, these are easier to use and you don’t need to be a technical or analytics whizz to get a feel for what’s working.

But we all know the customer journey is more complex and nuanced during the ‘consideration’ phase where hearts and minds are won or lost.

The trouble is, this critical middle stage of engagement is infamously fuzzy. We know something important happens. But what?

Assisted click graphic.

Getting to the truth

Traditional tools don’t shed enough light on the middle part of the customer journey. With Google’s attribution models, you can assign credit weight in different ways. But each visitor could take a specific path towards the first ad impression that’s unrelated to the journey of another visitor. So, measuring intent based on impressions, ads clicked and URLs visited, is often left to a lot of guesswork. Conversions don’t just happen in the digital world either. Many marketers get sucked into the trap of just measuring online activity — but each prospect may take a unique online/offline path to conversion that includes a different way of contacting the company.

If you’re only measuring online contact and you rely heavily on a sales/business development team or contact centre to take inbound calls – then you’re likely to be missing a whole chunk of lead attribution data that could be within easy reach. Fortunately, Mediahawk has found a way to fix the problem.

Unmasking assisted clicks

With Mediahawk, you can now track prospect journeys, from start to end — and everything in between. This means any call-to-action (both online and offline) can show a summary of first, assisted and last click interactions.

So imagine if you could see which of your assets are having the most influence on prospects? It might look something like this…

Assisted click graphic.

If you had this kind of top-level visibility, you could:

  • Invest more in activities that are giving you plenty of leads
  • Rethink assets that are failing to get influence audiences
  • End activities that are missing the mark completely

But you could go way further than our simple graphic. Drill down and you could track individual prospects…

Assisted click graphic.

It’s possible to see where engagement happens, as prospects switch from particular events or online ads, then onto ebooks or videos and web pages — before they finally pick up the phone or order online.

This not only enriches your data, but shows which marketing activities are paying off during the mid-point consideration phase of the buying process.

Assisted click graphic.

With this kind of data, you can really ramp up your marketing activities – and give the critical assisted/middle click territory the right level of attention.

Are there campaigns, keywords, or assets that assist more than they convert? Now you’ll be able to identify them – and give them the credit and budgets they deserve.

About the author - Natalia Selby

Marketing Executive at Mediahawk, with 20 years experience in analytics and content management.

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