What Is Ad Attribution – Your Full Guide

Alex Becker CEO/Founder of HYROS

What Is Ad Attribution – Your Full Guide

Alex Becker CEO/Founder of HYROS

Hey, all you party people in the house. Alex Becker here, CEO of Hyros, and this post is about ad attribution and how to do it right.

One thing I see all the time is that people attribute the wrong ads simply because you got a sale. That’s not right. It’s dumb, and it’s hurtful.

Using the incorrect attribution will make you spend money on ads that aren’t performing as you think they are and turn off those ads that are doing better than you think.

Look, it sometimes takes people months to get to the point of booking a call or making a purchase. It just does.

And if you’re not tracking your ads correctly, you’ll end up assigning the credit to an ad that just happened to be the most recent touchpoint the customer used to get to your opt-in, landing page, or sales call.

Those are costly but correctable mistakes, and the thing I hate is correctable mistakes. So you need to know how you track your ads to increase your ad spending the right way and increase your ROI, which is what we do at Hyros.

We track your ad attribution so you can scale your ads to increase your ROI by 20%, 30%, and sometimes more. We guarantee it.

But to know how to track your ads correctly, you need to understand what ad attribution is and what you can do to scale your ads to make more ROI effectively.

The point of all this is to give you the tools to be able to understand what you don’t know and what you can do better.

This guide will walk you through all the things you need to understand, what to track, and what to capitalize on to make the most money you can.

What Is Marketing Attribution?

When you run an ad and get a sales call, or someone buys your widget, info product, or whatever, when you analyze how your sale came to be, that’s attribution.

Let’s put it another way. When you run an ad and get a sale, what ad that led to the sale is called ad attribution.

The goal of conducting ad attribution is to determine what is repeatable and scalable.

The problem is that most people analyze their outcomes and look at the wrong reasons the sale occurred.

I’ve seen it all too often. People get a sale, see the ad that led to a customer coming to an opt-in or landing page, and decide that ad was the reason.

The problem with this is that sometimes people don’t buy the first time they see your content and product. Often it takes people a lot of time and a lot of persuasions to decide to make a purchase.

Find the best tracking tools and software to look at all your ads and the ways you interact with people before they buy.

Hyros is a good example. We track and attribute all the ads people run and help them increase their ROI by 20-30% just by showing them the correct type of attribution that led to the sale. So you can always check us out, but only if you’re interested in improving your ROI.

There are two main ways to analyze your ads and attribute them, so let’s look at how most people do it.

First-Click Attribution

When you put an ad out, and people click the link that sends them to wherever it is you want them to end up, when you look where those people come from at the start of your funnel, it is known as first-click attribution.

Say you’re selling dog whistles. Why sell dog whistles? Why? It’s your choice, but you run ads that lead to conversions.

Now, let’s say that you run an ad, and people go to your Facebook page or landing page and then click an opt-in link. The ad that drove them to the last click that converted is first-click attribution.

The benefit of first-click attribution is that if you’re only running a single campaign or only have a couple of ads running if you get a sale directly from an ad, you are giving credit where it belongs.

The problem here is that often there are so many steps between that first contact, the ad that led to a sale, and the conversion that if you’re not tracking all your campaigns and ways that a customer comes across your products, you may not be able to see what caused them to act.

You’re bound to do something dumb by having flawed or incomplete data. Not because you’re dumb but because you’re acting stupid because of bad tracking. So don’t do dumb things. Instead, get the correct data to help scale the working ads and optimize your funnels.

Last-Click Attribution

The opposite of first-click attribution is last-click attribution. It’s like peanut butter and jelly if you hate peanut butter. They are good together, maybe not as good as peanut butter and chocolate, but they go well together.

So the opposite way to track and give credit to what ads are performing well and leading to conversion is last-click attribution.

This is the most popular way people track their conversions and attribute their ads performing for them.

This isn’t a popularity contest. It’s not a beauty pageant. It’s not like running for homecoming court like back in high school. This is about giving credit where credit is due.

The problem I see all the time is that people try to say that because a person clicked the ad and went to an opt-in or landing page, it must have been the last ad that they came across that did the heavy lifting.

The reality is that most people take their time to make a buying decision, and the previous ad is the most recent thing they came across in your funnel that made them act. In truth, it wasn’t the only time that a person came across your content.

So being lazy with your tracking will point to the last ad as to why people bought your stuff. When you’re selling high-ticket items, it takes people a while to feel comfortable making those types of purchases.

And being lazy will lead you into the pits. You’ll end up scaling ads that aren’t working as well as you were and stopping ads from performing better than you think.

And this is the problem that most people have. They give credit to the last click and scale those ads. Or they rely on Facebook or Google Analytics which give credit to the last click when someone may have been in your funnel for months.

For example, if you’re running YouTube ads and people click those and go to your landing page but then leave, you’ll see nothing.

Now, if you capture their information and follow up on those people through retargeting and cookies, and those people see your content elsewhere and end up on your Facebook page where they opt-in or something, Facebook will give attribution to the last click, which coincidentally is Facebook.

But the reality is that you’ve been nurturing those people for a while in several different ways. It just was your Facebook ad that was the finish line.

It comes down to how you track your data and give credit and ad attribution to the right things in your funnel.

How To Track Your Attribution Correctly

Tracking your ads correctly and giving credit where it’s due is crucial to let you scale your ads effectively. In addition, tracking your ads correctly allows you to provide attribution on what is performing well for you.

It’s like Tom Brady had an unlike Tom Brady season this year for you NFL fans. If you’re not an NFL fan or know who Tom Brady is, let’s just say he’s really, really good at playing football but isn’t doing well right now.

In this example, questions about why he’s playing below his previous level are all over the place. Is it because of being 45 years old, a coaching change for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or maybe personal issues percolating?

If you chose the last one, that’s last-click attribution at work. On the other hand, if you decided that he’s not playing well due to being old, if 45 is old, then that’s using first-click attribution.

So what if the truth behind his play is related to all those factors? Or maybe something that we haven’t been told yet? That’s where tracking can determine the cause of his less-than-elite play and correctly attribute it.

Think about your ads. If you’re running one or two, it’s pretty simple to determine how a person came to your sales page.

But suppose you’re running multiple campaigns, like Google ads, YouTube ads, and Facebook campaigns. In that case, you need to find out what exactly is performing better than everything else so that you can scale those ads and increase your conversions.

So you want to look at your various ads and channels and analyze what’s performing best for you.

The only way I know to do this is with Hyros.

With Hyros, you can track URLs, pixels, and cookies and use print tracking to show you where you’re getting all your leads and conversions. In fact, with Hyros, we guarantee that you’ll be able to attribute your ads and increase your ROI by 20-30%, or you pay nothing.

Using print tracking through Hyros, you can find;

Traffic sources
Landing pages
Funnels
Email campaigns
Checkouts
Sales calls.

It’s so easy to scale your ads if you only know how and get the correct type of data to help you make the right decision.

With the right kind of ad attribution, you can effectively and accurately find your conversions to the ads that generated those sales. The benefit here is that you’ll save time trying to figure out what ads are doing well and avoid costly mistakes that are 100% preventable.

If you’re running single ads or multiple platforms, knowing how to attribute your ads correctly is the only way to increase your ROI without spending too much.

Unless wasting your money is something you like to do, and if that’s the case, head over to the casinos in Vegas, drop your dollars on the table and walk away.

Chances are you’re not going to win, but you might. I don’t trust that type of business, but that’s not who I’m trying to talk to here.

Instead, if you’re serious about increasing your ROI and getting your ads the proper attribution, check us out at Hyros. We’ve proven over the years, time and again, that we’ll increase your ROI by up to 30%, or you pay nothing.

And if you want to learn more about ad attribution and how to scale your ads effectively, check out my YouTube channel. I upload new content daily that is loaded with tips to help you grow your business and increase your ROI. So check those out.

One last thing. If you’re serious about learning about how to increase your ROI, track your ads, and get better attribution, head over to our Facebook mastermind. It’s not for everyone, we won’t help you learn how to go from a novice to a pro, but if you’re already running ads, this mastermind group is incredible.

It’s the best mastermind anywhere online. It has over $50 million in ad spend experience, and the discussions, tips, and tricks are well worth it.

So that’s it, people. If you want to learn more, subscribe to my YouTube channel, check out our Facebook mastermind, or give us a call at Hyros and track your ads and get better attribution started immediately.

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.

Ad Training and Tactics

While I do not sell courses, I do offer a private coaching program where I train people on the ad strategies I have used to build multiple 8 figure and 7 figures businesses. You can get more details on that HERE.

HYROS Facebook Group

It’s really simple. This group is the best media buyer Facebook group online because we make sure that every member is spending significant ad spend before joining. It’s for veteran ad buyers only and because of that the networking/information being shared is on another level. You can apply to join HERE