If you haven’t heard of view-through attribution, you are not alone. The intricacies of the different types of attribution are little-known for good reason: business owners and managers are stressed to the point that they don’t have the time or energy to analyze the different approaches to marketing attribution. This is your look at how view-through attribution paves a path toward sales success.
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Tracking Performance the Right Way
Have you dedicated time to tracking ad performance on streaming video services? The average business owner or manager is too busy to track clicks yet technology has facilitated this challenge. Moreover, most video content is viewed without clicks in the form of broadcast, cable or streaming video on regular TVs instead of computers.
View-through attribution facilitates the tracking of ad effectiveness on streaming video. View-through attribution bridges the gap between ad impressions and purchases, making it easier for business owners like you to track the performance of ads displayed on streaming video services.
Also referred to with the acronym of VTA, view-through attribution creates a window of attribution spanning hours or days where conversions are influenced by the viewings of advertisements. VTA is distinct from click-through attribution in that it does not link conversions to ads. VTA is a highly practical means of tracking video ad efficacy presented through streaming video.
VTA tracks conversions that occur after ads are seen even if those ads are not actually clicked by viewers. The VTA approach is highly effective for accurately attributing conversions to impressions of ads presented through streaming video. Such attribution empowers businesses and marketers to gauge conversions that do not occur in the immediate aftermath of the ad’s viewing.
VTA Recognizes the Latency Effect
VTA tracks viewer behavior for a period of time after ads are displayed, linking the ensuing sale to the viewing of the ad. This approach recognizes the fact that latency is a real phenomenon in marketing and sales. Latency refers to the difference in time between exposure to an ad and the ensuing conversion in the form of a sale.
Most customers take some time to follow through with a purchase after viewing an ad. VTA tracks viewer behavior in the period of time between the presentation of the ad and the sale. It is the presentation of the ad that motivates viewers to become customers yet it almost always takes some time for the ad’s influence to be the deciding factor.
The most successful use of VTA is characterized by an expansive attribution window or lookback window to appropriately link the ad to the eventual sale. A brief window of only half an hour or less doesn’t tell the truth of the story. The best lookback windows establish a lengthy period of time during which prospects think about the information presented in the ad prior to making the decision to convert as a paying customer.
The challenge of VTA lies in setting the attribution window for a specific period of time. Most attribution windows are set for hours or a couple of days at most. In general, most business managers and marketers agree that conversions that occur after a 24-hour period are not attributable to the viewing of the ad. However, the market dynamics and buyers’ idiosyncrasies ultimately determine the optimal attribution window length.
As an example, consider a business that provides financial services. Such an enterprise is unlikely to use a brief attribution window of an hour or two simply because it takes time for those exposed to marketing material to convert. Alternatively, a business that sells an everyday consumer product such as a beverage will likely have a shorter attribution window as such items are more of an impulse purchase.
The nuances of the target audience also determine attribution window length. Businesses that sell to younger audiences tend to have shorter attribution windows as they are more impulsive and free-spending than their elders.
Businesses targeting senior citizens are encouraged to lengthen their attribution windows as those individuals are much less likely to make an impulse purchase, taking their time while carefully considering all options.
VTA Considerations of Note
VTA tracks ad performance through precise lookback windows, accurately measuring consumer behavior. This approach accurately monitors the performance of individual marketing channels, assessing the performance of marketing campaigns instead of individual ads. Though the VTA approach is optimal for markets with lengthy selling cycles, it is not without flaws.
Critical thinkers correctly highlight the fact that the use of an incorrect attribution window fails to appropriately attribute sales to specific channels and individual ads. Though VTA does not directly track paths from impressions to the point of conversion, it is informative to the point that it is useful to businesses spanning most industries and niches, regardless of the individual demographics they target.
