Digital Attribution: Feature Guide

Prerequisites

In order to use this feature, you must have access to Digital Attribution as part of your Terminus subscription. 

Article quick links:

• Digital Attribution: Feature Overview
• How Does Digital Attribution Work?
• How Can Digital Attribution Be Used?
• Installing the Terminus Digital Attribution Script
• Digital Attribution Reporting in Measurement Studio
• FAQs

 

Digital Attribution: Feature Overview

Terminus’s Digital Attribution leverages website tagging, UTM parameters, and your Terminus CRM integration to provide visibility into the digital sources that are driving outcomes like engagement and conversions on your website. With Digital Attribution, Terminus customers can better understand the conversion path - from how people are finding their content, to the channels that are driving people back to their website - and gain insight into what digital channels are contributing to the most engagement and conversion activity.

Once the Terminus tracking script is installed on your website, Digital Attribution can be used to:

• De-anonymize Website Activity: Digital Attribution captures when a tracked conversion event (form submission) tied to a Terminus-integrated CRM campaign takes place on a your website, (or landing page), and ties historical web activity back to a real person
• Track UTM Activity: Reports on UTM Source / Medium / Campaign parameters and referral source information captured from website conversions to help users understand what channel drove the engagement, where the visitor viewed the content, and what specific content and campaigns they interacted with
• See Ungated Web Touches in the Visitor Journey: Offers the ability to tag non-conversion events (page view, button clicks, page scrolls, content downloads, video views) as an “ungated” web touch in the visitor journey
• Tie Pipeline & Revenue Back to Digital Channels and Campaigns: Combines the Terminus Digital Attribution tracking snippet and our account matching algorithm with a company’s CRM data to attribute pipeline and revenue back to digital marketing activities

How Does Digital Attribution Work?

With Terminus Digital attribution, users can attribute historical web activity back to both net new leads, and existing leads or contacts. Below are two example scenarios of how this works.

Scenario 1: Attribute historical activity to new leads

In the scenario shown above, Digital Attribution is being used to capture how a net new lead found your content, what channel drove them back to your website, and how they ultimately converted. The journey depicted in this graphic would include:

• Session 1: An anonymous visitor sees a Terminus ad, clicks on the ad, and is navigated back to the website. Once the visitor reaches the website, they are cookied. From there, they visit an ungated website or content page, and then they leave the website. Since a conversion activity does not occur in this session, this activity remains anonymous and/or untracked.
• Session 2: The same anonymous visitor sees a Google ad, clicks on the ad, and is navigated back to the website. From there, they visit an ungated website or content page, and then they leave the website. Since a conversion activity does not occur in this session, this activity remains anonymous and/or untracked.
• Session 3: The same anonymous visitor navigates to your website directly. They visit an ungated website or content page. They then visit a gated website or content page, and convert by submitting a website form! From here, they become a known lead in your CRM. Now that the visitor has converted, Terminus is able to attribute historical activity back to the channels and content that drove them there, using the cookie data and UTM parameters associated with the user. Since Terminus is also connected to your CRM, we are able to attribute pipeline and revenue back to these digital activities.
• In the Terminus platform, this would show as: One (1) ungated web touch attributed to Terminus advertising, one (1) ungated web touch attributed to Google Ads, and one (1) ungated web touch and one (1) conversion attributed to direct traffic.

Without Digital Attribution, you would know that the conversion occurred, but wouldn’t know how they got to your website. You also would have no visibility into ungated content interactions associated with the visitor. And, since the visitor confirmed, the previously anonymous cookie is now tied to the lead or contact in your connected CRM, and we can tie any subsequent digital activity back to that contact.

Scenario 2: Attribute activity to known leads / contacts

In the scenario shown above, Terminus is able to attribute subsequent activity back to a known lead or contact after a conversion occurs. The journey depicted in this graphic would include:

• Session 1: An anonymous visitor sees a Terminus ad, clicks on the ad, and is navigated back to the website. Once the visitor reaches the website, they are cookied. They then visit a gated website or content page, and convert by submitting a website form! From here, they become a known lead in your CRM, and Terminus advertising is given credit for driving the conversion.
• Session 2: As a known lead / contact, the visitor sees a Google ad, clicks on the ad, and is navigated back to the website. From there, they visit an ungated website or content page, and then they leave the website. Since they are a known person, the ungated web touch is associated with them, and attributed to Google Ads.
• Session 3: As a known lead / contact, the visitor navigates to your website directly, but does not visit a page tracked as an ungated web touch, and does not convert. They then leave the website. Since none of their activity is tracked by Digital Attribution, it is not associated with the user, or attributed to the direct traffic channel.
• In the Terminus platform, this would show as: One (1) conversion attributed to Terminus advertising, and one (1) ungated web touch attributed to Google Ads.

How Can Digital Attribution Be Used?

Terminus’s Digital Attribution reporting can be used to answer questions like:

• How are people finding my content?
• What digital channels are driving people back to my website / content?
• Which specific channels are the most effective at driving users to content assets, and yielding conversions?
• Are specific channels more effective at driving different types of conversion? (Ex: Demo request vs. Download a whitepaper)
• What combination of digital channels / campaigns is most effective at driving specific conversion types?
• Which digital channels and campaigns influence the most pipeline and revenue?
• What digital channels should I be investing more / less in?
• Which ungated website pages are driving awareness within an account?

For more details on how Digital Attribution reporting can be used to answer these questions, see the Digital Attribution Reporting in Measurement Studio section of this article.

Installing the Terminus Digital Attribution Script

The Terminus Digital Attribution script is a javascript tag, and can be placed across a user’s website and external landing pages manually, or using any standard tag manager tool.

Ungated web touches can also be tracked by placing a separate tag on designated web pages to capture events like page views, button clicks, page scrolls, and video views.

For more information on installing the Digital Attribution script, please review our implementation guide here.

Digital Attribution Reporting in Measurement Studio

As part of their Terminus subscription, Digital Attribution customers will have access to several new reports, as well as enhanced reporting within other areas of Measurement Studio. These reporting options include:

The Web Activities List Report

The Web Activities List report provides a detailed list of all sources that are driving website engagement and conversions within a designated reporting time period.

For additional information on this report, check out this article.

 

The Web Activities Trending Report

The Web Activities Trending report allows users to analyze the impact of different digital traffic sources on key performance metrics over time, and compare outcomes against historical performance.

For additional information on this report, check out this article.

 

Enhanced Campaign Analytics Report

Digital Attribution customers will have access to enhanced features in the Campaign Analytics report. These include:

• Activity by UTM Source and UTM Medium on the Campaign Type tab. There will be a drop down option next to the campaign types with associated digital activity.
• Activity by UTM Source, UTM Medium, and UTM Campaign on the Campaign tab. There will be a drop down option next to the campaign types with associated digital activity.
• Ungated Web Touches as a campaign type
• UTM Campaign Responses as a data table column in the Campaign-Specific view

For additional information on this report, check out this article.

 

Enhanced Opportunity Journey Report

Digital Attribution customers will also have access to enhanced features in the Opportunity Journey report. These include:

• Ungated Web Touch added as an available plot point on the Journey graph
• UTM Source and UTM Campaign added as columns in the data table on the “Campaign Responses” tab

For additional information on this report, check out this article.

 

Enhanced “Activities” view in Account Insights (Salesforce)

Digital Attribution customers who also have access to the Terminus Insights package for Salesforce (with Account Insights) will be able to view ungated web touches as an activity on the “activities” tab.”

 

FAQs

How does Digital Attribution differ from the Revenue Attribution reports in Measurement Studio?

Terminus’s Revenue Attribution reporting suite uses CRM campaign responses to help customers understand marketing’s influence on pipeline and revenue, and gives deeper insight into what marketing channels, campaigns, and content are driving those outcomes, based on your CRM and marketing automation data.

Digital Attribution adds the ability to track what digital channels are driving traffic to your website, and ties UTM or referral source data into the data you have with Revenue Attribution. Digital Attribution also helps marketers understand ungated content consumption as part of the digital engagement journey.

How does Digital Attribution differ from Terminus’s Visitor ID website tracking?

Terminus’s Visitor ID tracks anonymous web activity at the account level as it’s happening, whether or not conversion events occur. Visitor ID data is used by both marketing and sales teams to prioritize outreach and campaigns to specific accounts based on their web activity, and is used to answer questions like:

• • • What accounts are engaging with our brand?
    • What pages are they visiting?
    • What accounts should I reach out to / prioritize?

The Digital Attribution tracking script deanonymizes web activity and ungated web touches at the lead / contact level after a conversion has occurred. It is used by marketers to analyze click-paths, and optimize digital channels and points of conversion. Digital Attribution is used to answer questions like:

• • • How are people finding my digital content?
    • What channels are driving people to my content / website, and helping them convert?
    • What did they do before they converted?

How does Digital Attribution differ from Google Analytics?

Digital Attribution is focused on conversion activity, and understanding the digital journey of your website visitors. Conversion activity is tracked based on CRM campaign responses (form fills), and activity can be tied back to pipeline and revenue based on Terminus’s account matching technology, and our connection with our customers’ CRM instances. Terminus is also able to tie anonymous website activity back to a known person (once a conversion occurs), using ungated web touch tracking.

Tools like Google Analytics monitor all traffic by digital source, but aren’t able to connect website traffic back to CRM outcomes, like lead and contact creation, opportunity generation, and pipeline and revenue. With Google Analytics, you can tie conversions back to UTM parameters, but you won’t be able to tie an anonymous visitor back to a real person. Due to these differences, it’s not expected that Terminus Digital Attribution data and Google Analytics data will match.

How does Digital Attribution data match to Salesforce campaigns?

Form submissions are matched to campaign members and their associated campaigns in SFDC based on the email submitted and the time of the form submission compared to the email of the Lead/Contact record and the creation date of the Campaign Member.

 

Why doesn’t my Digital Attribution data match my form conversion in Salesforce?

Conversion metrics can mismatch for a host of reasons including incorrect Digital Attribution script installation, and incorrectly implementing custom tracking events. For additional troubleshooting, please submit a ticket through the Terminus Support Portal. 

Can the Digital Attribution script track email?

Yes. Visits originating from emails can be tracked utilizing UTM parameters specified on the email CTA.

Can I use Digital Attribution data for website optimization?

Digital Attribution data enhances existing attribution data available in the platform. As a result, users can leverage our bulk data export and the knowledge of which content works best to optimize their website.

What browsers does Digital Attribution support?

This product supports data collection on all major browsers (e.g. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer).

Does Digital Attribution track across different browsers?

Each browser maintains its own cookies, so if a user switches browsers, we do not recognize that user with our initial cookie on the other browser. The likelihood of this affecting your data is very low.

Is there a limit on Digital Attribution data storage?

No.

Can I import historical web activity from other platforms into Terminus?

No.

Can I export my Digital Attribution data?

Yes; you can export directly from the Digital Attribution reports in Terminus Measurement Studio.

Can I limit access to Digital Attribution using Terminus user permissions?

Yes; access to Digital Attribution reports can be adjusted by org Admins in the “Permissions” section of your Data & Measurement studio Settings.

Does enabling Digital Attribution in my instance affect any pre-existing data or reporting?

Once Digital Attribution is installed the data is available across several Measurement Studio reports, but does not augment data that predates the installation date.

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Still have a question? Submit a ticket through the Terminus Support Portal.