Closed-loop attribution and measurement

Closed-loop attribution and closed-loop measurement are terms used interchangeably to describe a methodology that draws on data insights to determine how effectively a campaign impacted desired online or offline outcomes (sales and conversions). The "closed loop" implies a continuous feedback process where data is collected, analyzed, and used to optimize marketing strategies for a more informed and effective approach. Closed-loop measurement is a great way to test new channels and understand how certain marketing activities impact outcomes across channel types with minimal risk.

Success in marketing demands a holistic understanding of how marketing efforts and campaigns impact a company’s return on investment (ROI). But many marketers struggle to measure ROI, with around 40% citing it as a top challenge. 

Closed-loop marketing is intended to establish a direct connection between marketing activities and business outcomes, particularly sales, by tracking and analyzing the entire customer journey. Its end goal is to offer a comprehensive understanding of how various touchpoints contribute to revenue so marketers can optimize strategies, enhance accountability, and shift the focus from intermediate metrics to bottom-line impact.

Additionally, business leaders, investors, and executives need to know how marketing is directly influencing sales for the health of the company. Another goal of closed-loop analysis is to foster marketers’ accountability to these stakeholders by demonstrating business outcomes and shifting the focus from leads to bottom-line impact.

Clicks and other outcomes are valuable metrics, but they don’t equate to sales. So, while other metrics may be up, sales are the best way to measure success. Closed-loop marketing goes beyond surface metrics like clicks to prioritize sales as the ultimate measure of success. This ensures results are reliable and offers a more accurate reflection of the impact of your marketing efforts on the sales pipeline.

Closed-loop marketing allows for better decision-making by providing a cohesive framework to assess performance and compare results across platforms.

With closed-loop marketing, you can track test groups and determine the most effective marketing channels. This drives data-driven decisions that help businesses optimize ad spend and maximize the efficiency of advertising investments.

Closed-loop measurement marketing is a strategy that leverages sales and marketing data to help marketing teams see how their efforts lead to purchases, optimize their budgets, and improve ROI. This approach illuminates the sales funnel and bridges the gap between sales and marketing. In a nutshell, closed-loop marketing offers improved conversion rates, better marketing ROI, and an enhanced understanding of the customer journey for improved overall customer experience. It also provides actionable insights that empower data-driven decision-making and campaign optimization.

Closed-loop attribution connects marketing efforts to revenue or conversions. It analyzes the customer journey, assigns value to each touchpoint, and measures ROI, linking transaction data to campaigns to optimize spending and identify the best channels and campaigns.

Closed-loop measurement prioritizes understanding the customer journey through measurable insights. It integrates data from marketing and sales to determine the impact of various touchpoints on business outcomes.

Closed-loop marketing tracks and analyzes the customer journey to show how digital marketing affects sales. It helps marketers understand the impact of marketing on in-store and online sales, create a comprehensive view of the customer journey, and optimize strategies.

Incremental measurement helps determine the effectiveness of each distinct campaign component. Closed-loop attribution aims to quantify the incremental impact and allows for granular analysis of campaign success and optimization for maximum efficiency.

Closed-loop marketing allows you to fine-tune your marketing strategies based on real-time insights to ensure your efforts align seamlessly with customer behaviors and boost conversion rates.

With closed-loop marketing, you can connect every marketing dollar you spend to your business outcomes, get a clear picture of your campaign's impact on the bottom line, and maximize your return on investment.

When you have a complete understanding of how your marketing touchpoints guide and influence customer purchase decisions, you can enhance the customer journey and their overall experience.

Closed-loop marketing's actionable insights can help you turn data into action. You’ll be able to uncover key metrics and trends that empower informed decision-making and allow you to optimize campaigns for maximum effectiveness.

Experian’s attribution offering empowers you to gain actionable insights into the entire customer journey, leading to strategic decision-making. By enabling seamless tracking of both online and offline identifiers, this solution provides a holistic view of consumer behavior across channels.

Here’s a breakdown of some general tips for getting started with closed-loop attribution.

Tracking data of all touchpoints in the customer journey is necessary for starting with closed-loop measurement; it provides a comprehensive view of how customers interact with a brand from the initial exposure to the final conversion. Meticulously monitoring interactions also ensures the data remains clean, up-to-date, and relevant. 

By using accurate and full data insights, marketers can confidently rely on the comprehensive view that can be provided by closed-loop analysis to make informed decisions, optimize strategies, and enhance the overall effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. When you understand the complete customer journey, identify influential touchpoints across channels, and derive meaningful insights, you can optimize marketing strategies for maximum impact and ROI.

Experian's attribution solution allows you to combine various data sets to better understand actual online and offline engagements. With a pre-vetted network of data partners, we enable marketing measurement by matching data between partners to help you achieve a complete view of the purchase journey. You can tap into our vast consumer database or work with one of our data partners to enrich your first party data and be sure you're using the most complete data to make marketing decisions.

As you get started with closed-loop measurement, unifying online and offline data can help you bridge the gap between digital and physical customer interactions to gain a holistic view of the customer journey. A holistic view is crucial to understand the true impact of your marketing campaigns and pinpoint top-performing strategies and influential messaging across channels. 

Identity resolution is central to this process. It connects various identifiers from online and offline touchpoints to form a unified customer profile. This facilitates a more complete understanding of consumer behavior across channels to empower informed decision-making and precise optimization of marketing strategies.

We can help you get started with Experian's Consumer Sync solution, which unifies fragmented offline identifiers and resolves digital IDs back to one household or individual. This synchronization and resolution process supports accurate and consistent consumer data, contributing to effective data hygiene practices for marketers.

The data partner you work with on your marketing can greatly affect the accuracy and depth of the insights you gain from closed-loop measurement. Experian is a well-established and trusted data partner that distinguishes itself with a foundation deeply rooted in online and offline consumer data. 

This unique positioning allows us to effectively bridge the gap between digital and physical customer data and help you identify campaign successes and areas for opportunity with holistic data insights. Our custom analytics team collaborates with you to pinpoint areas for improvement and seize untapped opportunities.

A demand-side platform (DSP) client needed to accurately attribute conversions to impressions across connected TV (CTV). The DSP sought to increase digital ID match rates and enhance impression tracking for CTV ads. With the help of Experian's Graph solution, the DSP was able to sync their cookies to Experian's digital IDs, which yielded a substantial 9% match rate increase and synced 84% of IDs. 

By working with Experian, the DSP improved accuracy for attribution and measurement and gained deeper insights into which channels generated the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) for their clients. Read the case study to learn more about Experian's Graph solution navigated cross-device challenges to power accurate attribution.