Report: Marketers Must Overcome Three Key Roadblocks in Implementing Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)

MMA Global’s report reveals not only the roadblocks but approaches to overcome them moving forward.

MMA Global, the association devoted to architecting the future of marketing for CMOs, in partnership with Neustar, released MTA Is Dead, Long Live MTA, an adjunct report to their State of MTA (Multi-Touch Attribution) study released earlier this year. The report pulls back the curtain and provides an honest and unbiased assessment of the current state of MTA, revealing three key roadblocks inhibiting marketers from adopting true multi-touch attribution: Data, Organization, and Methodology.

The report, which compiles the findings from a survey of 250 marketers, shows not only the barriers faced when it comes MTA, but also provides an overview of recent developments that will give marketers several potential paths forward to achieve a comprehensive MTA solution.

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On a more granular level, the roadblocks are defined accordingly:

• Data: Nearly 9 in 10 marketers identified the following as the key data roadblocks: Data Quality, Data Access, and Data Linkage.
• Organization: Because many companies use marketing mix modelling (MMM), A/B testing, plus MTA, each often housed in different parts of the enterprise, silos abound. This, in conjunction with differing agenda across the leadership team, are often the cause of organizational roadblocks.
• Methodology: With the above-referenced disparate-methodologies in play, there is a lack of interoperability which lead directly to roadblocks.

“For over a decade, marketers the world over have been trying to reach the holy grail of MTA, an essential solution for rationalizing investments in more relevant ads, content, experiences and channels that better attract the attention of consumers and ultimately can drive revenue growth,” said Lou Paskalis, President and Chief Operating Officer of MMA Global. “This report highlights both the challenges marketers face along the journey while also providing them with tangible resources to overcome them.”

Among the brands interviewed for the report include Bank of America, Molson Coors, AT&T, General Motors, Bloomberg Media, and Hallmark.

“With data deprecation and constant change on the privacy horizon, MTA will not survive in its traditional form,” says Eddie Drake, SVP Marketing Data Strategy, Attribution, & Partnerships at Bank of America. “It takes real commitment to lead the charge, and it’s not for the faint of heart.”

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“For companies that have multiple brands in their portfolio and are considering an ever-growing list of channel options to market and distribute them, it’s vitally important to roll out MTA slowly,” says Brad Feinberg, North American VP of Media and Consumer Engagement at Molson Coors. “Prioritize which brands can benefit the most from MTA first, analyze the results then apply the learnings to other brands as needed.”

“Getting your data house in order now is the critical first step to establishing a mature and effective marketing analytics practice,” said Michael Schoen, SVP and GM, Neustar Marketing Solutions. “We work with our clients every day to overcome their data silos and build a cohesive data-driven culture with Unified Analytics, where MMM and MTA work together to realize significant increases in incremental revenue, improve return on ad spend, and make gains in internal team productivity.”

There is much more detail in the report which can be downloaded here and is free to all marketers. The goal is to help senior marketers more effectively manage the ecosystem of internal stakeholders, vendor partners, agencies, and their internal team required to fully implement an MTA solution through refinement of their vision, expectations and, ultimately, a clear brief to all constituents.

MMA Global will continue to advance impactful thought leadership in the attribution arena throughout 2022 and is eager to work with marketers, publishers, solution providers and agencies on that journey.

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