Mobile Attribution guide - Part 4 - Common Issues

What are common issues?

1.       For mobile attribution- no model or technique is universally accepted yet (unlike the traditional web attribution which is perfect)

2.       Not all models can measure everything single handedly like Platform (iOS/Android etc.), Engagement type(Click vs view), Conversion type(Install vs events) and Flow(app to app vs web to app)

3.       None of the model is 100% accurate

4.       Every Mobile attribution partner has multiple methods of attribution so selection of vendors becomes very difficult- they use either deterministic or   probabilistic identifiers- so by using any one, so it  not possible to get the clear picture. Even if both are used still its not 100% accurate

5.       There are multiple devices that people use to engage with brands, and without a universal method to track campaigns across all of these devices, the efficacy of mobile campaigns can be underreported or devalued.

6.       Users move from online to offline, so getting the credit for mobile in discovery phase becomes very difficult

7.       Cross device attribution model is still not universally developed and accepted

8.       Industry lacks a scalable device agnostic model that can tell how the upper funnel mobile touch points attributed to the lower funnel sales and revenues

9.       A typical user journey is becoming far complex and fragmented

10.   Cross device and cross channel campaigns possess a serious challenge for attribution

11.   The attribution is still based on last click

12.   Poor quality of identifiers leading to inaccurate attributions

13.   The technology is constantly evolving and there are new attribution providers constantly coming up

14.   Data science talent needed- to apply increasingly sophisticated models.

15.   The attribution problem actually falls into 3 buckets (a) Cross channel attribution (Search, social, email etc.)(b) Cross platform (Phone, desktop etc.) and Offline attribution (footfalls, phone calls etc.)

16.   App Marketing  technology and tracking needs skilled resources and time. For instance- deeplinking needs skilled labour

 17. Tracking and then attributing results across channels in a cookie-less platform has been a challenge.

18.   There are 2 environments- Mobile web and Mobile app- each works in silos- lacks common tracking and varying degrees of functionality