Marketing attribution – why it’s invaluable for fundraisers

With charities under financial pressure, understanding which marketing channels and campaigns are performing most effectively in generating donations is a must. Only with this information can charities ensure fundraising strategies are optimised, budgets allocated efficiently, and – as a result – the greatest impact can be achieved.

But when the average person engages with multiple touchpoints in their journey to donating – from email and social media to mail, billboards, press ads and TV, how is it possible to work out the contribution of each one in driving response?

Your new donor might have received a direct mail pack and paused for thought after connecting with the story shared within. But they may have been prompted to revisit it and donate using the link provided after seeing the campaign message reinforced on their social media feed, and again on TV. Each of those channels played a part in driving that donation – the question is, how big a part?

Many forms of marketing are trackable, thanks to custom URLs, QR codes, open and clickthrough rates for example – but when you’re using multiple channels in a campaign, evaluating how much each touchpoint contributes to stimulating a response requires a deeper level of analysis.

This is where the science of marketing attribution comes in. It enables an organisation to identify exactly this, meaning the following benefits can be gained:

 📊   Accurate Measurement Campaign effectiveness can be more accurately measured, allowing for better decision-making.

£ Optimized Budgets Budgets can be better managed, keeping costs down and ensuring resources are used efficiently.

🎯 Enhanced Strategies Strategies can be refined to focus on the best-performing channels, leading to improved results.

🔄 Stronger Donor Journeys Insights help strengthen the donor journey by better understanding responses at different touchpoints and how they relate.

📈 Improved Outcomes Overall results can be improved across the board, from fundraising ROI, to acquiring more new donors, engaging volunteers, and encouraging event participation.

✅ Greater Accountability Accountability can be demonstrated, supporting compliance efforts and helping to win board buy-in for activity.

Marketing attribution varies from single touch attribution (which gives 100% credit to the touchpoint a donor either first or last interacts with before giving); to multi-touch attribution (which attributes credit in a variety of ways: from equal distribution across all touchpoints, to giving more credit to interactions that happen closer to conversion); and more advanced data-driven attribution.

It’s this last option that provides the deepest level of insight, as here you start to also use insight for responses beyond simply tracking codes, but by also using data from external factors such as economic conditions and competitor activity, to determine each channel’s true impact.

Arc Data offers a total marketing attribution solution that is bespoke for charities and uses unique and market leading technology to do just this. Organisations are provided with a clear understanding of their supporter journey and the role each channel plays in delivering income. Deep diving to this level of understanding can enable your charity to maximise efforts for better results and the greatest impact.  

If you’d like to find out how it could help your organisation, please contact Suzanne Lewis.