September roundup: what’s new in marketing attribution

Every conversion has a story to tell. But some parts of that story are hard to track.

This month, one question kept coming up. How do you measure what really drives enquiries when parts of the customer journey are hidden?

Here are the stories that stood out to us, and what they mean for marketers in care, automotive, private healthcare, and agencies.

More data doesn’t always mean more insight

At the September MarTech Conference, a panel looked at what marketers can do as tracking gets harder. Two-thirds of attendees said they have more data than three years ago. But many still don’t feel better informed.

The reason is simple. A lot of what persuades people to buy happens out of sight, such as chats with friends and recommendations shared privately.

The panel’s advice was to make better use of your own data. They also suggested checking results from more than one source, rather than trusting a single ad platform.

We agree. For many businesses, phone calls are some of the most valuable data they own. A call often means a prospect is ready to act. With Call Tracking, you can see exactly which campaign led to that call.

This matters most in sectors where big decisions happen over the phone. A family choosing a care home, a patient booking a private consultation, or a buyer asking about a car will often want to speak to someone first.

Privacy and AI search are changing how people find you

A new industry report from Research and Markets highlights two big shifts in how marketers measure performance.

The first is privacy. As cookies disappear, marketers have less detail about individual customers. The second is AI search. More people now research products and services using AI tools like ChatGPT, which makes it harder to see how customers first find a brand.

For private clinics and care providers, this is especially important. People often research for weeks before they get in touch. If that research starts in an AI tool, the first touchpoint may never show up in your reports. That makes the moment they do reach out, often by phone, even more valuable to track.

Why so many enquiries show up as “direct”

An analysis shared by MarketScale this month made a familiar point. Customers now use lots of channels and devices before they buy. When they switch between them, the trail goes cold. As a result, many sales land in the “direct” category, with no clue about what drove them.

We see this often. A large “direct” figure usually means part of the journey is missing. Often, it’s a phone call. Funerals with Grace told us they were missing up to 50% of their data before they started tracking calls from paid search.

Car buyers are a good example of how complex journeys can be. As one of our clients, AvailableCar, explained, people move from paid search to organic search and back again, make a phone call, then return to organic.

Mediahawk’s User Journey mapping brings those steps together. You can see each touchpoint, from the first visit to the final call.

Offline ads are still easy to overlook

Billboards, local radio, and print ads can drive plenty of enquiries. But they’re often left out of the bigger picture. IAB research earlier this year found that 46% of marketers using marketing mix modelling (MMM) think traditional media like outdoor advertising is underrepresented in their models.

There’s a simple way to change that. Give each billboard, poster, or print ad its own tracked phone number. Then every call it drives shows up in your reports next to your digital channels.

This works well for businesses with several locations. Car dealership groups can see which forecourt ads bring in buyers. Care home operators can compare how each home’s local advertising performs.

Proving value is getting more important for agencies

With less data to go on, clients want clear proof that their marketing works. For agencies, that creates an opportunity.

Tracking calls alongside clicks and form fills gives agencies a fuller picture to share. It helps them show which campaigns drive real enquiries, not just traffic. That makes it easier to justify budgets and build stronger client relationships.

Our take

September showed that marketers are rethinking how they measure success. Privacy rules and AI search are making journeys harder to follow. But the goal hasn’t changed. You still need to know what brings in the right customers.

No tool can see every conversation. The key is to capture as much of the customer journey as you can, including offline moments like phone calls.

See the full story behind every conversion

Mediahawk’s marketing attribution and call tracking platform connects every action to an outcome. That includes web visits, form fills, live chats, and phone calls. You can see which channels work best, understand what callers want with AI speech analytics, and map each customer journey from start to finish.

More than 4,000 marketers trust Mediahawk to show them what works. Book a demo to find out what your data could be telling you.