Welcome to the fifth and final installment of our series on effective B2B ad campaigns! Yes, we know it's everyone's favorite topic, and yes, B2B attribution is notorious for being a bit, well, crappy and difficult. But fear not, we're here to shed some light on the ad performance analysis and help you navigate this challenging landscape.
The Attribution Conundrum
Before we dive in, let's understand why B2B attribution is often labeled as "crappy and dumb." Here are some inherent challenges:
- Low Volume of Data: B2B deals typically involve a lower volume of data, making it difficult to conduct robust statistical analyses of ad performance.
- Complex Journeys: With multiple decision-makers in B2B purchases, the buyer's journey becomes intricate, with various touchpoints. This makes multi-touch attribution an imperfect solution.
- Privacy Constraints: Privacy constraints, such as those imposed by iOS updates and the declining effectiveness of cookies, add layers of complexity to tracking traffic sources accurately. Analytics tools have a harder and harder time applying source labels to site visitors.
Strategies for Successful Ad Attribution
Now, let's explore practical strategies to overcome these challenges and gain insights into the effectiveness of your B2B ad campaigns.
1. In-Ad Platform Lead Form Submissions
The pinnacle of attribution success is when your audience fills out a lead form while in the ad platform (e.g., a “Lead Form Ad” on LinkedIn). This allows you to easily attribute ad performance success back to your campaign and even at the ad level. While high friction, it remains a powerful method, especially if your offer is dialed in. However, there will only be a relatively small subset of leads that are willing to take this action. Ultimately, you’re going to drive traffic to your website at some point…
2. Analytics Tools (e.g., Google Analytics)
Traditionally, tools like Google Analytics have been the go-to for marketers. They help label traffic sources and provide insights, but challenges like unassigned traffic are increasingly prevalent. Utilize UTM parameters for more accurate ad performance tracking (see a template here).
Note: Make sure you label your medium as “CPC” so it’s recognized by GA.
You’ll need to accept the fact that a certain % of your MQLs won’t have the appropriate source associated with them, which is why you’ll turn to another layer of attribution…
3. Sales Team Reporting
While not the most reliable, self-reported data from your sales team can provide valuable insights. When you have the resources, you should 1000% be passing traffic source and UTM level data from your forms into your CRM to automate lead source assignment, but you should also empower your sales team to layer on the additional insight they gather in calls.
4. Reverse IP Tools (e.g., Koala, Clearbit Reveal, etc.)
These ad performance monitoring tools allow you to identify and track visitors to your website from specific accounts within your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This helps understand if your ads are reaching the right audience and influencing their behavior.
With Primer, you know which accounts are within your audience, allowing you to gauge whether your ad campaigns are driving pre-purchase activity.
5. Weekly Ad Performance Tracking
Ultimately you should try and roll all 4 of these techniques up into one weekly report. Use an analytics tool to track traffic sources associated with form submissions. Monitor key metrics such as website visits within your ICP, demo requests, and opportunities generated. Use Primer to evaluate whether the site visitors, form submits, and opportunities were within your ad campaign targeting or not.
Check our older blog post on audience cohort tracking, explaining how Primer simplifies the attribution of leads generated from your list-based audiences.
Added together, these approaches allow for a pretty granular understanding of return on ad spend and customer LTV/CAC.
In Summary: Navigating the Attribution Maze
B2B attribution is intricate, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution, especially for early-stage companies. Marketing Mix Modeling and multi-touch attribution might be elusive due to data limitations, but leveraging a combination of off-the-shelf reporting tools and CRM-level reporting provides a robust foundation.
Attribution in B2B doesn't have to be an insurmountable challenge. With the right tools and methodologies, you can unveil meaningful insights into the ad performance. So, embrace the attribution journey and decode the success metrics behind your B2B marketing efforts! 🚀
Use Primer to Keep Ad Spending Low While Maximizing ROI
Thanks to Primer, you can track ad conversions and seamlessly attribute custom audiences to specific ad channels. It provides precision for ad performance measurements and allows you to enrich audience data to target pre-qualified leads. Eventually, your CPA drops significantly, fostering unparalleled ROI growth.
Start overseeing your ad audience performance and win extra revenue today – contact us to request a free live Primer demo now!
