Marketing attribution is broken.
I don’t mean it’s imperfect or needs improvement. I mean the fundamental way most companies track marketing performance is systematically misleading them into bad decisions.
The problem: Attribution models were designed for simple, direct-response marketing. But B2B marketing doesn’t work that way anymore.
The result: Marketing budgets allocated based on false data, successful channels getting defunded, and strategies optimized for the wrong outcomes.
The Attribution Illusion
Here’s what happens in most B2B customer journeys:
A prospect discovers your company through a LinkedIn post, visits your website and reads three blog articles, downloads a guide and joins your email list, attends a webinar, gets retargeted on Facebook, searches “[your company] pricing” on Google, clicks your ad, and fills out a contact form.
What your attribution reports show: “Google Ads drove this conversion.”
What actually happened: Six different touchpoints over several weeks built the relationship that made that final Google search inevitable.
The Research That Reveals the Problem
Salesforce’s “State of Marketing” report analyzed 4,000+ marketing organizations and found:
- 87% of marketers say customer journeys are more complex than three years ago
- 76% of customers use multiple channels during their buying process
- Only 23% of companies can accurately attribute revenue across all touchpoints
- 68% of marketing budgets are allocated based on last-click attribution data
Google’s own research shows that B2B buyers consume an average of 13 pieces of content before making purchasing decisions, yet most attribution systems only credit 1-2 touchpoints.
Why Last-Click Attribution Fails
It ignores the awareness stage. The content that introduces prospects to your brand gets no credit for eventual conversions.
It undervalues nurturing. Email sequences that move prospects through consideration phases show zero attribution impact.
It over-credits bottom-funnel channels. Paid search gets disproportionate credit because people search for your brand name before converting.
It creates budget allocation bias. You increase spend on channels that capture demand while cutting spend on channels that create demand.
The Real Cost of Attribution Blindness
Moz’s marketing team almost eliminated their content marketing program because it showed poor last-click attribution. Multi-touch analysis later revealed content was the first touchpoint for 78% of their highest-value customers.
Marketo’s research found that companies using last-click attribution consistently under-invest in brand building and over-invest in bottom-funnel paid advertising, leading to higher customer acquisition costs over time.
HubSpot’s analysis of their own marketing found that 40% of customers attributed to paid search had previously engaged with their blog content, email campaigns, or social media.
What Actually Drives B2B Conversions
Intuit’s customer journey research found that successful B2B sales involve an average of:
- 27 touchpoints across multiple channels
- 4.2 different content types consumed
- 67 days from first touch to closed deal
- 5.4 people involved in the decision process
Each touchpoint contributes to conversion, but traditional attribution only credits the last one.
The Multi-Touch Attribution Reality
Companies implementing comprehensive attribution tracking see dramatically different budget allocation decisions:
Content marketing often shows 200-300% higher impact when properly attributed across the full customer journey.
Email nurturing frequently drives 40-60% of eventual conversions when all touchpoints are considered.
Social media typically influences 30-50% more conversions than last-click reports suggest.
Brand building activities show 3-5x higher impact when measured over 6-12 month periods instead of monthly snapshots.
Building Better Attribution
Start with first-touch tracking alongside last-click data. This immediately reveals which channels are creating new relationships vs. capturing existing demand.
Implement assisted conversion analysis. Google Analytics and most CRM systems can show which touchpoints assisted conversions, not just which ones closed them.
Use time-decay attribution models. Give more credit to recent touchpoints while still acknowledging earlier influences.
Track cross-device journeys. Use email addresses and phone numbers to connect mobile, tablet, and desktop behavior for the same prospect.
Survey your customers. Ask how they discovered you and what influenced their decision. Compare this to your attribution data.
The Questions That Change Budget Decisions
Instead of asking “Which channel drove the most conversions?” ask:
- Which activities make our other marketing more effective?
- What would happen to our conversion rates if we eliminated this channel entirely?
- Which touchpoints do our best customers have in common?
- Are we optimizing for this quarter’s attribution or next year’s customer acquisition?
The Advanced Attribution Approach
Zendesk uses a custom attribution model that gives different weight to different types of touchpoints based on their role in the customer journey.
Salesforce implements predictive attribution that forecasts which current prospects are most likely to convert based on their touchpoint patterns.
Adobe uses machine learning to identify the optimal sequence of touchpoints for different customer segments and optimizes budget allocation accordingly.
The Budget Allocation Impact
Companies with sophisticated attribution typically allocate budgets very differently:
40-50% demand creation (content, brand building, thought leadership, events)
30-40% demand capture (paid search, retargeting, conversion optimization)
10-20% demand expansion (customer marketing, referral programs)
This is almost exactly opposite of typical last-click driven allocation.
Your Attribution Quick Fix
This week: Set up first-touch attribution tracking alongside your current last-click reports.
Next week: Analyze the difference between first-touch and last-click data for your major channels.
This month: Survey 10 recent customers about their complete journey from awareness to purchase.
Next quarter: Implement assisted conversion tracking and adjust budget allocation based on more complete data.
The Uncomfortable Truth
The marketing activities that show up last in your attribution reports might be the most important activities in your entire strategy.
Your attribution system is probably systematically biasing you toward short-term tactics and away from long-term competitive advantages.
What would your budget allocation look like if you measured what actually creates customers instead of what captures final clicks?
Marissa Homere 