attribution models: the secret ways guests discover your hotel

The Secret Ways Guests Discover Your Hotel

ATTRIBUTION

MODELS

As digital marketing grows more sophisticated, Attribution Models have

come up over and over again.

Attribution Models allow you to see:

hotel guests are booking online.

When

Where

How

When you understand your online conversions, you can make better

decisions when allocating budgets or simple going through a report.

However.. .

Attribution is tricky. In a world where every user

interacts with brands on dozens of channels, it

becomes very difficult to assign the correct value to

each channel.

We'll try to clarity some of the concepts behind successful attribution models, and go through a few reasons some are better

than others.

WHAT IS AN

ATTRIBUTION

MODEL?

A t t h e m o s t b a s i c l e v e l :

An attribution model is a set of

rules that determines how

credit for a conversion is

assigned to a touchpoint on a

conversion path.

T O U C H P O I N T =

A point of contact or

interaction in the user

journey.

For example, Paid

Search becomes a

touchpoint when a user

clicks one of your ads.

T H E M O S T P O P U L A R

A T T R I B U T I O N M O D E L I S . . .

T h i s m o d e l a t t r i b u t e s

t o t h e l a s t i n t e r a c t i o n b e f o r e t h e c o n v e r s i o n .

  LA S T C L I CK MODEL

1 0 0 % O F C O N V E R S I O N S

P R O S C O N S

I t ' s t h e s i m p l e s t

m o d e l , a n d g i v e s

s o m e w h a t a c c u r a t e

r e s u l t s .

I t d o e s n ' t c o n s i d e r t h e

e f f e c t o f a s s i s t e d

c o n v e r s i o n s

I t o v e r s i m p l i f i e s b y

g i v i n g a l l i m p o r t a n c e

o n l y t o t h e l a s t

i n t e r a c t i o n

A S S I S T E D C O N V E R S I O N =

A user has perhaps seen your

listing on Trivago, visited your site

a few times, compared prices on

different channels, and a few days

later clicked one of your

remarketing ads to finally book.

Which stage of that interaction is

most important?

In a Last Click model, only the

remarketing ad counts.

HERE 'S ANOTHER TYPE

OF ATTRIBUTION

MODEL . . .

T h i s m o d e l a t t r i b u t e s

t o t h e   f i r s t i n t e r a c t i o n t h e u s e r h a s w i t h y o u .

  F I R S T

I N T ERACT ION   MODEL

1 0 0 % O F C O N V E R S I O N S

First Interaction models only

consider the channel that brought

the user into the funnel.

Any other interactions that might

have assisted in the booking get no

credit.

L i n e a r

T i m e D e c a y

P o s i t i o n B a s e d

L a s t N o n - D i r e c t C l i c k

L a s t A d W o r d s c l i c k

P e r s o n a l i z e d

MODEL S BE TWEEN THESE

EX TREMES

Do some research on each model to find

which most accurately reflects the reality of

the journey your hotel's guests take to

book.

UNDERSTANDING THE USER

JOURNEY ISN'T THE PURPOSE

OF AN ATTRIBUTION MODEL.

Attribution models only attribute

conversion value based on a set of rules.

Instead, try to select a model that reflects

the reality of the user journey.

MULTI-CHANNEL

ATTRIBUTION :

THE USER JOURNEY

RABBIT HOLE

THE USER JOURNEY IS MORE

THAN WHAT THEY DO ON YOUR

WEBSITE.

Think of the user journey as a quest.

For example, a quest to find the perfect hotel!

Here's a sample user journey:

Each step involves a different channel:

The complexity and survival rate can

feel l ike Game of Thrones.

And, l ike Game of Thrones, anyone can

'drop off' from the funnel at any

minute.. .

It can feel l ike a desperate quest to

survive the time and cognitive distance

required to get from “I want a vacation”

to “I’m ready to book.”

So it’s important to try to understand

the nuances involved, and how to

interpret them.

DISCOVERING

YOUR HOTEL 'S

USER JOURNEY

YOU MAY HAVE SOME

QUESTIONS .

How do you find out which

channels are involved in your

user journey?

How long is your user journey?

THE ANSWER IS IN

YOUR GOOGLE

ANALYTICS ACCOUNT .

Click on "Multi-Channel

Funnels" in your

Analytics' left hand

menu.

In the Overview section, you'll be able to see how

many conversions involved more than 1 channel*

and how they overlap:

*The data here is based on which attribution model you have set for

your account, so data may be skewed

The Path Length report shows you how many

interactions users had with different channels

before converting:

Finally, the Top Conversion Paths report shows the most common channel combinations that

resulted in a booking.

T O P C O N V E R S I O N P A T H S A R E A G O O D W A Y T O

G A U G E I F Y O U R S T R A T E G Y F O R

C H A N N E L M A N A G E M E N T W O R K S F O R Y O U R H O T E L .

IN CONCLUSION . . .

USER JOURNEYS

ARE COMPLICATED .

H o w e v e r , t a k i n g t h e t i m e t o u n d e r s t a n d a t t r i b u t i o n m o d e l s o p e n s a w i n d o w t o y o u r g u e s t s ' w o r l d v i e w s .

T h e m o r e y o u u n d e r s t a n d t h e m , t h e b e t t e r y o u c a n

s e r v e t h e m .

A T N E T A F F I N I T Y , W E ' R E E X P E R T S I N H O T E L

T E C H N O L O G Y A N D C O N V E R S I O N R A T E G R O W T H F O R

H O T E L S . I F Y O U ' V E G O T Q U E S T I O N S , E M A I L U S A T

S A L E S @ N E T A F F I N I T Y . C O M

THANK YOU !