In today’s evolving digital landscape, marketers have come to rely on data-driven strategies to measure the efficacy of their marketing campaigns. Multi-touch attribution (MTA) methods have emerged as a popular approach, shedding light on customer journeys across various touchpoints. However, recent changes in privacy legislation, notably the “death of the cookie,” have cast a shadow of uncertainty over the future of multi-touch attribution marketing. This article delves into the vulnerabilities privacy legislation poses to MTA and the consequential implications for marketers.
Decoding Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution refers to the practice of assigning value to each interaction point in a customer’s journey, thereby gaining insights into the channels and touchpoints that contribute to conversions. Traditional multi-touch attribution models, including the first-click (or first-touch) attribution model, last-click (or last-touch) attribution model, and linear attribution model, have played a pivotal role in shaping marketing strategies by ascribing credit to specific touchpoints. MTA has been very good at measuring the impact of digital channels, but it often fails to take into account the impact of offline marketing channels as well as factors outside of marketing efforts such as seasonal sales, pricing strategies and macroeconomic trends.
The Death of the Cookie
The cookie, a minuscule text file residing in a user’s browser, has long been the backbone of online advertising, facilitating personalised experiences and targeted campaigns. However, mounting concerns surrounding privacy and data protection have prompted legislative changes worldwide, challenging the usage of cookies for tracking and targeting purposes.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States exemplify privacy legislation that imposes restrictions on cookie usage. These regulations place user consent at the forefront, mandating transparent disclosure of data collection and usage by businesses.
The Impact on Multi-Touch Attribution
The gradual extinction of cookies brings forth significant challenges to the multi-touch attribution model. Let’s explore how privacy legislation affects crucial aspects of MTA:
- Fragmented Data: Stricter regulations empower users to exercise greater control over their data, resulting in an upswing of opt-outs and ad-blocker usage. This fragmented data landscape poses hurdles in accurately tracking users across multiple touchpoints, making it arduous to create a comprehensive picture of customer journeys.
- Incomplete Attribution: MTA models rely heavily on user-level data and cross-device tracking, which predominantly relies on cookies. With cross-device tracking becoming less reliable, marketers face difficulties in accurately attributing touchpoints, leading to incomplete and biased attribution models.
- Consent Conundrums: Privacy regulations necessitate explicit and clear consent for data collection and usage. Acquiring user consent for tracking multiple touchpoints across diverse channels can prove challenging, as users may be apprehensive about granting such consent due to privacy concerns.
- Data Quality and Accuracy: The absence of third-party cookies impairs the quality and accuracy of data used for attribution. As businesses shift towards first-party data collection, the sample size and diversity of data diminish, potentially resulting in biased and less reliable attribution outcomes.
Adapting to Privacy Legislation
While privacy legislation presents formidable challenges for MTA, marketers can proactively undertake measures to adapt and mitigate the impact:
- Strengthen First-Party Data: Investing in cultivating robust first-party data sources enables marketers to rely less on third-party cookies. Encouraging users to willingly share their data through valuable content, personalised experiences, and incentives can fortify first-party data acquisition.
- Supplement MTA with Alternative Metrics: Augmenting MTA data with alternative measurement such as market mix modeling can help compensate for the limitations imposed by the death of the cookie and help advertisers decrease their reliance on tracking based measurement.
- Privacy-Focused Solutions: Exploring privacy-centric technologies like federated learning, differential privacy, and contextual targeting offers alternatives to cookie-based tracking, enabling marketers to understand customer behaviour while respecting user privacy. Alternatively, Market mix modeling solutions are also very privacy first as they require no customer data to assess marketing effectiveness.
- Collaborate and Establish Industry Standards: Industry collaboration and the development of standardised privacy practices are essential in ensuring compliance and building user experience
