Every B2B marketer has that sinking feeling when the CEO asks, “Which campaigns are actually working?”
The Attribution Horror Stories You Recognize:
Pain Point #1: The Vanishing Touch Point Problem Prospects research you for months before you know they exist:
- Anonymous website traffic that never converts to known visitors
- Prospects who mention seeing your content but have no digital footprint
- Deals that appear “out of nowhere” with no recorded marketing touches
- Attribution gaps where prospects clearly engaged but data shows nothing
- The executive who says “I’ve been following you for years” but isn’t in your system
Pain Point #2: The False Hero Campaign Your Google Ads get credit for deals that were already happening:
- Bottom-funnel campaigns claiming victory on prospects already in sales conversations
- Branded search ads taking credit for word-of-mouth referrals
- Retargeting campaigns claiming attribution on deals that started months earlier
- Demo request forms getting full conversion credit when the real influence was a conference conversation
Pain Point #3: The Invisible Influence Crisis Your most important campaigns show zero ROI:
- Thought leadership content that builds awareness but gets no attribution credit
- Industry reports that generate buzz but no direct conversions
- Conference sponsorships that influence multiple stakeholders but can’t be tracked
- Webinars that educate buying committees but don’t generate immediate leads
Pain Point #4: The Multi-Touch Mayhem B2B buyer journeys are too complex for your attribution model:
- 11+ touchpoints on average before B2B purchase decisions
- Multiple stakeholders consuming different content across months
- Offline influences (referrals, events, sales calls) missing from digital tracking
- Cross-device and cross-browser research patterns breaking your tracking
- Long sales cycles making last-click attribution meaningless
Pain Point #5: The Department Silo Data Disaster Critical attribution data lives in disconnected systems:
- Marketing automation shows engagement, CRM shows deals, but no connection between them
- Sales logs calls and meetings that marketing can’t track
- Event attendance tracked in separate systems from digital engagement
- Customer success insights about expansion opportunities invisible to marketing
Pain Point #6: The Confidence Crisis You’re making budget decisions with incomplete information:
- Budget allocation based on correlation, not causation
- Campaigns getting cut because they can’t prove direct ROI
- Over-investment in easy-to-track tactics vs. high-impact activities
- Constant second-guessing about campaign effectiveness
The Questions That Keep You Up at Night:
- Did that $50K conference sponsorship actually influence our biggest deal this quarter?
- Is our content marketing just an expensive hobby, or is it driving real pipeline?
- Why do our highest-scoring campaigns show mediocre conversion rates?
- Are we killing effective awareness campaigns because we can’t measure them properly?
- What happens when leadership asks us to prove marketing’s impact on this quarter’s revenue?
The Uncomfortable Admissions:
You’ve probably said “yes” to budget questions when you weren’t really sure. You’ve defended campaigns based on engagement metrics when you couldn’t connect them to revenue. You’ve felt that knot in your stomach when asked to prove ROI on brand awareness activities.
The Real Problem: B2B attribution isn’t a tracking problem – it’s a strategy problem disguised as a measurement issue.
Marissa Homere 