Guide to Building Multi- Touch Attribution Dashboards on HubSpot

Multi-touch Attribution Models.

As you know, multi-touch attribution models assign credit to multiple touchpoints throughout the customer journey, recognizing that customers interact with a brand in various ways before converting. Some of these models are-

• Linear attribution that give equal credit to all touchpoints,
• Time decay attribution that give more credit to recent interactions, 
• U-shaped attribution that assigns most credit to the first and last touchpoints) and 
• W-shaped attribution that assigns credit to the first touch, lead creation, and conversion.

Choosing the Right Attribution Model for Your Organization

Choosing the right attribution model for your company depends on several factors, including your business goals, sales cycle length, and marketing strategy. Let’s break it down into actionable steps for you-

Selecting the right attribution model for specific metrics and dimensions can help you gain precise insights into your demand generation efforts. Here's a breakdown of which attribution model works best for various metrics and dimensions:

1. Brand Awareness - First-Touch Attribution

Brand awareness requires giving full credit to the first interaction, helping you identify which channels are most effective at generating initial interest. Therefore a First-Touch Attribution works best for brand awareness.

2. Lead Generation - Position-Based (U-Shaped) Attribution

Lead generation happens across the funnel, and it needs a balanced view of which channels are contributing to lead generation. A Position-Based (U-Shaped) Attribution model gives significant credit to the first touch (awareness) and the last touch (conversion), along with some credit to the middle interactions, thereby justifying this model for lead generation.

3. Engagement and Nurturing - Linear Attribution

Linear attribution assigns equal credit to all touchpoints, making it ideal for understanding the overall engagement and nurturing process across multiple interactions.

4. Conversion Rate Optimization - Last-Touch Attribution

Conversion rate optimization focuses on the final interaction before conversion. So, while multi-touch models are generally better, last-touch attribution can specifically highlight the final interaction on the website, useful for optimizing the closing stage of the funnel.

5. Sales and Revenue Attribution - W-Shaped Attribution

W-shaped attribution can justifiably track the journey from lead to revenue. Therefore, assigning credit to the first touch, the lead conversion touchpoint, and the final conversion, makes it ideal for attributing sales and revenue to their respective teams.

6. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - Full Path Attribution

This model includes all interactions before and after conversion, which is necessary in crediting each time with improving the customer’s lifetime value. Thus, a Full Path Attribution Model rightfully provides a comprehensive view of the customer lifecycle and helps measure the long-term value of customers.

7. Customer Retention - Full Path Attribution

Full path attribution considers post-conversion interactions, making it ideal for understanding customer retention and loyalty, and attributes it to the right team.

8. Marketing ROI - Time Decay Attribution

Time decay attribution gives more credit to interactions closer to the conversion, which can help in understanding the ROI of marketing activities over time, particularly for long sales cycles.

10. Campaign Effectiveness - Linear Attribution

For campaign effectiveness, a balanced view of all touchpoints, for evaluating the overall effectiveness of marketing campaigns across multiple channels is required.  Linear attribution provides this balanced view of channel contribution.

By selecting the appropriate multi-touch attribution model for each specific metric, you can gain more accurate and actionable insights into the performance of your marketing efforts.

Building These Attributions on HubSpot 

Once you can understand and apply the right attribution model to your efforts, how to implement it? 

The answer: HubSpot Reports and Dashboards!

As loyal HubSpot users, you can go about these analyses on the CRM, with a few easy steps. Here's a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Set Up Multi-Touch Attribution Reporting

HubSpot offers several attribution models to choose from:

• First-Touch Attribution
• Last-Touch Attribution
• Position-Based (U-Shaped) Attribution
• W-Shaped Attribution
• Full Path Attribution
• Linear Attribution
• Time Decay Attribution

Choose the models that align with your business goals (i.e. scroll up a few lines).

Create Custom Attribution Reports

1. Navigate to Reports: Go to your HubSpot account and navigate to the "Reports" section.
2. Create a New Report: Select "Create Custom Report" and choose "Attribution Report".
3. Select Attribution Model: Choose the attribution model you want to use.
4. Define Conversion Event: Specify the conversion event you want to analyze, such as form submissions, deal creations, or closed-won deals.
5. Select Interaction Sources: Choose the marketing channels and touchpoints you want to include, such as email campaigns, social media, paid ads, organic search, etc.
6. Customize Time Frame: Define the time frame for the data you want to analyze.

Step 2: Multi-Channel Attribution Reporting

Combine data from multiple channels, to make it a comprehensive report.

1. Use the Custom Report Builder: Navigate to the "Custom Report Builder" in the Reports section.
2. Select Data Sources: Choose data sources from multiple channels, such as website analytics, email campaigns, social media, and PPC.
3. Create Custom Metrics: Define custom metrics that track interactions across these channels.

Visualize Multi-Channel Performance

1. Traffic Sources Report: Create a report that breaks down website traffic by source (organic, direct, referral, social, paid).
2. Campaign Performance Report: Track the performance of different campaigns across multiple channels (click-through rates, conversion rates, etc.).
3. Engagement Metrics: Include metrics like bounce rate, session duration, and pages per session to gauge engagement.

Step 3: Building the Dashboard

Organize your reports into one single dashboard that can help you with translating multiple reports in a single source of truth for your board.

1. Create a New Dashboard: Go to the "Dashboards" section and create a new dashboard.
2. Add Reports: Add the custom attribution and multi-channel reports you created to this dashboard.
3. Arrange Layout: Organize the reports in a logical flow, such as top-of-funnel to bottom-of-funnel analysis.

Customize the Dashboard

1. Create a New Dashboard: Go to the "Dashboards" section and create a new dashboard.
2. Add Reports: Add the custom attribution and multi-channel reports you created to this dashboard.
3. Arrange Layout: Organize the reports in a logical flow, such as top-of-funnel to bottom-of-funnel analysis.

Sample Dashboard (customize it based on your needs)

Example Dashboard Layout for Multi-Channel and Multi-Touch Attribution

1. 1. Executive Summary
   • Total leads generated
   • Total conversions
   • Overall ROI
2. 2. Executive Summary
   • Breakdown of traffic by source (organic, direct, referral, social, paid)
   • Trend lines showing changes over time
3. Attribution by Channel
   • First-touch attribution by channel
   • Last-touch attribution by channel
   • Multi-touch attribution by channel
4. Conversion Paths
   • Visualization of common conversion paths
   • Funnel analysis showing drop-off points
5. Campaign Performance
   • Multi-channel campaign performance metrics (CTR, conversion rate, etc.)
   • Revenue attributed to different campaigns and channels
6. Customer Insights
   • Segmentation of customers by source and conversion path
   • Behavioral analysis (pages viewed, interactions before conversion)

Now that you have a fair (read as: comprehensive) idea about building attribution reports on HubSpot, start building these reports, so that none of your revenue teams / team members are left uncredited for their efforts. 

And for any assistance in figuring out the right attribution model and building the right attribution report on HubSpot, you can always click here!