What Is First Click Attribution & How To Use It

Alex Becker CEO/Founder of HYROS

What Is First Click Attribution & How To Use It

Alex Becker CEO/Founder of HYROS

Hey guys, let’s talk about first-click attribution and how to use it.

First, you’re probably thinking, why is this even important? Well, for most of you, I bet you’re not doing attribution right and losing money in your ad campaigns as a result.

If you’re selling high-value products, first-click attribution is a crucial tool for you.

What Is Click Attribution

Ok, I’m not going too in-depth on what click attribution is, as most of you get it already, but for those that don’t, click attribution is a way to track what ads and campaigns are driving conversions and leading to sales.

The key is to know how to track attribution. Google doesn’t do it, Facebook won’t, and YouTube won’t. They don’t get it. If you’re using analytics to see what ads are giving you the best ROI, you waste money.

Instead, you need to track properly, which is what we at Hyros do, but it’s not about that unless you’re interested.

This is about learning how to use attribution, in this case, first-click attribution, to run your ads and campaigns more effectively.

What is First Click Attribution

First-click attribution is a way to give credit for a sale that gets assigned to the first touchpoint when a customer clicks your ad or opt-in.

When a person clicks on, and you convert, it won’t matter with first-click attribution. When a person clicks the link to convert, that ad or opt-in is the one that gets the credit.

For example, Barry is looking for ad-tracking software to help him convert his customers from browsers to customers. Barry sees an ad on Google about software tracking for Hyros.

He clicks the link and cruises around but doesn’t set up a call or convert.

A few weeks later, another PPC ad pops up, and Barry checks it out, opting to opt-in. But, again, Hyros provides the best ad tracking, bar none.

So Barry gets into one of our call funnels and, after a few emails, sets up a call with us.

If we were doing typical attribution, we’d give credit to the second PPC ad. But with first-click attribution, we’ve been able to track Barry to the original ad, which helps us with our future ad campaigns and scaling those.

Why? Because if we can track which ad is what started the process of converting Barry, we can spend more on those ad buys and ditch the other ads that aren’t doing anything for us.

If you credit the second ad, which is what Google will do, you’d probably scale those ads, and your ROI would be off. So it’d be dumb to do but an easy mistake to make.

Instead, you need to track the right attributions so that you can scale your ads effectively so that you get a better ROI and not waste your dollars on ads that aren’t going anywhere.

Another problem people have with their attribution is that they run an ad on Google that drives people to Facebook. Why would they do this? I don’t know, but for the example to work, you need to believe somebody would do this, ok?

If a customer clicks on the Google ad, goes to Facebook, and then buys once they get there, Facebook would get the attribution.

So if you were tracking the sale, you’d think to yourself, hmm, maybe I should spend more time creating Facebook ads. And that would be a total waste of time for you.

Especially if you started to try and scale your ads, thinking it’d boost your ROI.

Instead, if you were tracking your attribution correctly, you’d know that the first-click attribution, your Google ad, is where you’d want to scale to get more people to your Facebook page that seems to be selling alright.

Why Is First-Click Attribution Important?

If you’re running any type of ad, you need to know where your sales are coming from accurately.

Too many people rely on Facebook, YouTube, and Google to give them analytics, which is dumb. I’ve seen it way too many times.

Facebook and Google are only interested in themselves, not helping you know exactly where people are coming from originally.

So you need to set up a tracking program that does the hard work and finds where a customer came from so that you can set up your campaigns and scale them more efficiently.

You need to attribute your clicks and conversions better, it’s that simple.

I bet by now you’re wondering, so why is first-click important?

First-click attribution lets you measure your marketing and ad campaigns and track where people in your funnels came from at the start.

First-click attribution won’t help you understand later touchpoints in other parts of your funnel and campaigns, but those are points to discuss later.

While we’re on the subject of first-click attribution, let’s take a step back and talk about the customer journey and decision-making process first.

The Buyer’s Decision-Making Journey

The first stage in a customer’s buying journey and before they reach a buying decision is all about creating awareness of your brand to the customer.

Unless you’re Apple or Tesla or something, about to launch your brand new Apple iSpace Rocket into the universe–there isn’t one, yet at least–unless you’re exceptionally well known as a brand, you need your customers to know who you are before they consider buying.

The first stage of a customer’s buying journey with your products, it’s about creating awareness. After that, it’s a fact-finding mission, like seeking out the brave new worlds in Star Trek.

After a customer becomes aware of your stuff, the next step for them is the consideration phase. At this point, they are looking not just at your stuff but also at similar products put out by your competitors.

Finally, the last stage is decision-making, where a customer is ready to convert.

If you’re tracking like most people, don’t be like most people, ok? Well, if you’re tracking like most, you will get the wrong data. So instead, you’ll probably attribute the sale to the final ad, webinar, or funnel you are doing.

Which is wrong. Dead wrong.

You need the ability to track attribution to the beginning, the first click on your buyer’s journey. This way, you can see what started the sales process for you and scale those efforts to become even better, raising your ROI.

Let’s examine it a little bit more.

Suppose a person caught a YouTube ad and clicked to subscribe to your channel but didn’t buy anything. Your tracking won’t see them. Instead, they become more familiar with and more likely to buy as they take in more of your content and learn about your stuff.

Next, let’s say they stumbled across your ad on a different social media platform like Facebook and clicked the link to set up a call.

How would you attribute that?

Facebook would get the attribution, and if that’s all you saw, you’d probably ramp up that ad spend, which would be like throwing fish back into the ocean, hoping to get more fish. It’s pointless, there’s plenty already there, and it won’t get you anything in return.

Instead, if you track your campaigns and get the correct attribution, you will see that your sales call started from a YouTube video and subscription way back whenever.

With the proper attribution, you can ramp up your efforts and ad spending to get better results and ROI. All because you were able to track it correctly.

It’s not that hard, but if you’re not doing your tracking with first-click attribution, you’re dumb. You’re throwing your hard-earned money away. You may as well be buying up a bunch of candy bars and throwing them in the trash. It’s pointless.

Understanding your first-click attribution lets you devise every aspect of your funnel and touchpoints to lead to higher conversions. And the only way I know of to get better tracking is with Hyros. It’s designed to bring you the most accurate tracking data to help you create better campaigns and scale what’s already working for you.

How Would You Use First-Click Attributions

If you’re running a couple of campaigns that don’t have a lot of different touchpoints and ads, then using first-click attributions is an excellent strategy to use and track.

If you’re running a number of ads, which depending on your product, may be kind of dumb to do, but we’re talking simple stuff here, so running 1-2 ads for your high-ticket item, then first-click is a great way to track and measure your ad campaigns.

When you run an ad or two, it’s easier to find out where your customer came to buy your stuff.

However, tracking where your customers are generated can be challenging if you run multiple ads. If you used Google or Facebook tools, your ad attribution would be way off. Like a base runner in baseball trying to steal a base halfway between 1st and 2nd, only to be picked off by a simple throw.

Instead, if you’re running multiple campaigns, or even if you’re running one or two, tracking your ads and finding first-click attributions is crucial for building your whole strategy.

Once you can attribute where a customer came from, you can quickly build your funnel and optimize that, but only if you know where people are coming from in the first place.

Look, bad data leads to bad decisions. You can’t possibly increase your ROI and ad spending without having good information in front of you. But if you’re, like most people, using bad tools to analyze where sales are coming from, you’re wasting your time chasing results that just aren’t there.

Ok, that’s about it for today. If you are interested in learning more about how to track your ads, subscribe to my YouTube channel. It’s chock full of great things, tips, and tricks to help you.

Also, consider our Facebook mastermind group. We have the best Facebook group out there with over $50 million in ad spend, so it’s a great resource to check out. But it’s not for everyone. It’s for experienced pros that know the ins and outs of ad buy and how to get the best results.

And if you’re interested in getting the best tracking software on the planet, and I mean that it’s been proven repeatedly to be the best tracking software around, check out Hyros. It will increase your ad spend ROI by 20% to 30%, guaranteed. Or you don’t pay.

HYROS TRACKING

If you are interested in obtaining the same stats I showed in this video and even having us help you set this up, GO HERE to get more information on HYROS.

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HYROS Facebook Group

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