The State of Marketing Attribution in 2024

Marketing attribution is changing. In the past few years it has shifted toward advanced data analytics and machine learning, used to predict pipeline and build a deeper understanding of the marketing funnel. With that shift come new questions: how are marketers actually using attribution to understand and optimize their programs, and what is getting in their way?

To answer them, Ascend2 and RevSure fielded the Marketing Attribution Approach Survey. This report represents the opinions of 130 marketing professionals at companies with 50 or more employees, seen from the mid-size and enterprise perspective.

Participants and methodology

Ascend2 benchmarks the performance of marketing strategies, tactics, and the technology behind them using a standardized online questionnaire and a proprietary 3-minute survey format. This survey was fielded to a panel of marketing professionals and research subscribers.

• By company size: 55% had 50 to 500 employees, and 45% had more than 500.
• By role: 58% were VP, director, or manager, 19% owner, partner, or C-level, and 23% non-management professionals.

The importance of marketing attribution

An overwhelming 98% of marketing professionals agree that attribution is vital to the overall success of their marketing strategy. Every customer touchpoint offers insight into your best lead sources, campaigns, and channels. Accurate attribution clarifies each step of the buyer journey and gives a deeper understanding of the sales and marketing funnel, so marketers can scale up their best-converting campaigns.

The challenges with marketing attribution

Limited resources and complexity are the two biggest barriers to implementing attribution, and they are closely linked. Both point back to the same fix: a software solution that delivers full-funnel attribution, maximizing resources while reducing the complexity of managing many campaigns at once.

The business challenges that most prevent marketers from implementing attribution:

• Complexity of multiple campaigns and customer actions at once (46%)
• Limited resources such as specialized software or expertise (46%)
• Need to prioritize other goals over attribution (43%)
• Insufficient access to data about marketing initiatives or people (39%)
• Resistance to change within existing systems and processes (35%)
• Lack of a full understanding of why attribution matters (29%)

Marketers struggle to get meaningful insight from traditional attribution

Only 29% of marketers consider themselves very successful, or best-in-class, at using attribution to achieve their strategic objectives. The other 71% need to improve their program to make better decisions and, in turn, improve overall marketing performance.

We are trying to figure out the right nurturing tactics for leads based on what we have seen work earlier. For example, before conversion, are they scheduling a meeting, raising their hand, or signing up for a trial? — VP Demand Generation, SaaS

The most difficult channels to measure

Word-of-mouth marketing is highly effective but also the hardest to measure. Email marketing remains the workhorse of most programs, yet still carries measurement challenges. The lesson is not to let attribution difficulty steer you away from channels that work.

The marketing channels rated most difficult to measure:

• Word of mouth (52%)
• Public relations (32%)
• Email marketing (32%)
• Online communities (28%)
• Paid search (26%)
• Direct mail and gifting (19%)
• SEO (13%)
• Podcasts (12%)

Dark Social, the growing trend of sharing links and content through private messaging, is a good sign because people share your content, but a hard one because that activity is not immediately visible or attributable. More sophisticated attribution platforms let marketers shed light on Dark Social and proactively use tactics like word of mouth.

The need to improve attribution accuracy

Only 31% of marketing professionals are extremely confident in the accuracy of their attribution. Without accuracy, teams risk misallocating budget, investing in ineffective channels while neglecting the ones that truly drive results. That imprecision hinders decision-making, slows campaign optimization, and ultimately wastes effort and returns.

Attribution goals

The overarching goal of attribution is to close more deals. Looking deeper, the top goal beyond more sales is improving marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency saves money, and effectiveness directs resources to the best channels, increasing ROI.

The most important attribution goals beyond more sales:

• Improved marketing efficiency and effectiveness (47%)
• Improved budget performance and ROI (37%)
• Improved customer satisfaction and retention
• Improved market share and competitive positioning
• Improved marketing team performance

Using attribution to optimize marketing

59% of marketers use attribution to improve targeting and messaging, followed by 53% who use it to enhance the customer experience. Effective attribution helps you optimize the next best action for a customer, keep them engaged, and increase the odds of converting. Forward-looking attribution goes further, predicting future trends and allocating resources more effectively.

How marketers use attribution to optimize strategy:

• Improving targeting and messaging (59%)
• Enhancing the customer experience (53%)
• Adjusting marketing budget allocation (51%)
• Identifying high-value customers (44%)
• Validating marketing's contribution to sales (44%)

What to look for in an attribution platform

Easy setup and integrations, along with in-depth reporting, are the features marketers most want in an attribution platform. Full-funnel attribution ranks close behind and is essential if you want to optimize every touchpoint in the buyer journey, understand the impact of each one across the funnel, and make informed decisions at every stage.

The most critical features of an attribution platform:

• Easy setup and integrations (52%)
• In-depth reporting (43%)
• A range of attribution models (37%)
• Cross-channel attribution (37%)
• Full-funnel attribution (31%)
• Fraud prevention tools (28%)

I need to easily understand the cross-funnel conversion and impact of not just campaigns but ad groups and ads too. This is a big ask from my CMO. — Head of Demand Gen, Data Security SaaS

Metrics for measuring performance

Over half of marketers use return on investment to measure campaign success. Cost per lead or acquisition and business outcomes met are also important measures.

The metrics marketers use to measure campaign success:

• ROI and return on ad spend (55%)
• Cost per lead or acquisition (45%)
• Business outcomes met (43%)
• Engagement rate
• Conversion rate
• Progress in the buyer journey

Data review frequency

How often marketers review attribution data is a signal of how much they rely on it. Over a third review their data at least once a month, and 43% review it at least once a quarter. A monthly or quarterly cadence supports a thorough analysis of trends and helps teams make strategic adjustments that maximize overall performance.

Maximize marketing results with RevSure Deep Funnel Attribution

RevSure unites marketing attribution and full-funnel management for a clear view of the buyer journey. Map conversion paths through every touchpoint and understand the best next action to keep buyers engaged. RevSure's AI-powered Deep Funnel Attribution lets you gain true full-funnel attribution, find the highest-converting channels and campaigns, deep-dive into each channel, understand common buyer paths, see lead journeys by buying stage, and adjust your marketing mix across the full funnel.