Marketing tracking refers to collecting and analyzing relevant data about your marketing campaigns, frequently referred to as metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can use these metrics to track the performance of your campaigns, identify which channels are driving the most conversions, and make informed decisions about your marketing budget and digital marketing strategy.

The importance of tracking a marketing campaign

Tracking your marketing campaigns is essential for understanding what works and doesn't. Robust tracking analytics let you make informed decisions about your marketing budget and strategy.

Some of the benefits of tracking your marketing campaigns include:

  • Increased ROI: You can see which drives the most traffic and conversions by tracking your attribution. This information can assist you in managing the costs of your marketing plan through data-driven optimization.

  • Improved decision-making: With insights from your campaigns, you can make better decisions about your marketing strategy. For instance, you could see that LinkedIn users prefer to see a different type of content than your Facebook users or that specific hashtags work better with potential customers on Instagram than on Twitter.

  • Better customer insights: Tracking your campaigns can help you gain valuable insights into your customers. With the right search engine analytics, you could see a lot of interest in one of your product lines but virtually no interest in another. That would guide your product development.

The challenges of tracking modern marketing campaigns

There are a few challenges associated with tracking modern marketing campaigns. Foremost, there's a lot of data to crunch. Each platform, from your CRM to social media platforms, can collect separate data, making it harder to produce comprehensive data-driven initiatives.

Today's challenges with tracking marketing campaigns include the following:

  • Tracking through multiple channels: Modern campaigns often use a variety of channels, such as SEO, social media, influencer campaigns, email, landing pages, SMS, and paid advertising. Multi-channel/omnichannel marketing can make it difficult to track each channel's performance and identify which channels are driving the most conversions.

  • Connecting leads to commitments: It can be challenging to connect leads to sales, especially in a digital world where customers have more choices than ever. Customers could connect with you through email but only purchase through their phone numbers or live chat. Broken attribution can make it challenging to track your marketing campaign's effectiveness and measure your return on investment.

  • Getting stakeholder buy-in: Successful marketing campaigns need the support of stakeholders from across the organization. Garnering this support can take time, as you need to show revenue generation through your data analytics. KPIs such as click-through, conversion rate, and qualified leads help, but you need in-depth data to produce these analytics.

The most popular marketing tracking tools

There are many marketing tracking tools available. The most popular tracking tools today include Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, HubSpot Marketing, and Salesforce. But many of these are designed for web analytics (Google Analytics), social analytics (HubSpot Marketing), and customer relationship management (Salesforce).

Emotive is an out-of-the-box, multi-channel marketing analytics tool that can help you with your marketing tracking and attribution across your email and SMS campaigns. With Emotive Attribution, you can determine which of your campaigns are operating most effectively, which you should sink your advertising budget into, and which still require optimization.

Tips for marketing tracking and attribution

Marketing tracking and attribution refer to assigning credit to each marketing channel for its role in a conversion. There are many different attribution models available. 

Some of the most popular models include:

  • First-click attribution assigns all credit for a conversion to the first marketing channel that a customer interacted with. An example: a customer sees an ad on Facebook, then visits your website and makes a purchase, the ad would receive all credit for the conversion.

  • Last-click attribution assigns all credit for a conversion to the last marketing channel that a customer interacted with. An example: a customer sees an ad on Facebook, visits your website, and then purchases through an email you sent them, the email would receive all credit for the conversion.

  • Linear attribution assigns equal credit to each marketing channel that a customer interacts with. An example: a customer sees an ad on Facebook, visits your website, and then purchases through an email you sent them, each channel would receive 1/3 credit for the conversion.

  • U-shaped attribution assigns more credit to the very first and last marketing channels that a customer interacts with. An example: if a customer sees an ad on Facebook, visits your website, makes a few phone calls, and then makes a purchase through an email you sent them, the Facebook ad and the email would receive 2/3 credit for the conversion, and the website would receive 1/3 credit.

  • V-shaped attribution assigns more credit to the first and last marketing channels a customer interacts with, but it also gives some credit to the middle touchpoints. An example: a customer sees an ad on Facebook, visits your website, and then purchases through an email you sent them. The Facebook ad, the website, and the email would all receive 1/3 credit for the conversion.

The best attribution model for your marketing campaigns will depend on your business goals—and the platforms you use.

Start tracking your marketing with Emotive Attribution

If you aren't tracking your marketing, you're wasting marketing dollars. Marketing tracking makes it possible to improve and optimize your marketing campaigns and engagement strategies. As you create your marketing tracking strategy, follow these best practices:

  • Use a marketing attribution tool: It can help you assign credit to each marketing channel for its role in a conversion.

  • Set clear goals: Before you choose an attribution model, set clear goals for what you want to achieve. The right goals and metrics will help you select the suitable model for your needs.

  • Test different models: There is no one-size-fits-all solution for marketing attribution. Test other models to see which one works best for your business.

Emotive Attribution is an all-in-one system for marketing tracking and attribution. With Emotive, you can start tracking the success rates of your marketing campaigns (and improving and fine-tuning them) right out of the box. Start your testing with Emotive Attribution today.