How to Solve the Google Ads Attribution Problem Caused by Performance Max

John: 00:00:11

So let's get into this, John, which is where do we stand now

John: 00:00:15

in terms of attribution generally and really in reference to what

John: 00:00:20

it has to do with Google Ads.

John: 00:00:21

we kind of went through the iOS 14 era of that being a a, Place where

John: 00:00:25

all of us were trying to find answers.

John: 00:00:27

Mm-hmm.

John: 00:00:28

A lot of us turned to third party tools and to help with that and aid with that.

John: 00:00:33

And now where I think we find ourselves is the third party tools that are out there.

John: 00:00:38

Have grown to be business operating centers for some of us

John: 00:00:42

that have started to use it as well as measuring attribution.

John: 00:00:45

And I feel like.

John: 00:00:47

Some of us have a good answer of here's what's happening when you do

John: 00:00:50

this, and some of us it's still murky and for clients it's still murky.

John: 00:00:55

Meanwhile, the platforms at least on the meta side are, on a click basis becoming

John: 00:01:00

more accurate with model data or with more real data, not as modeled as it once was.

John: 00:01:05

what's your opinion on this now?

John: 00:01:07

Of what the landscape is and where do people get caught up?

John: 00:01:11

Like what's the common things that you hear that you're like, I wanna

John: 00:01:14

shout this from the rooftops.

John: 00:01:15

Like, this is actually what I think.

John: 00:01:17

what's interesting with with Google is the introduction of performance.

John: 00:01:20

Max has thrown a gigantic wrench in all things attribution.

John: 00:01:24

Because Google moved towards a data driven model of, of its own

John: 00:01:28

attribution within Google Ads.

John: 00:01:30

And then Performance Max opened up, YouTube, G S P, search shopping,

John: 00:01:34

display discovery, and built in remarketing that now takes credit for

John: 00:01:37

all things new repeat and, stolen from Omni from other channels.

John: 00:01:41

So I think that the, situation that we are in now is to look less in platform.

John: 00:01:47

And to look into more detailed analytics inside of third party attribution and

John: 00:01:52

not necessarily take them as true face value, but track trends the conversion

John: 00:01:57

path length and the conversion path.

John: 00:02:00

Variables such as like a click on.

John: 00:02:02

Facebook, a view on Facebook, then a view on YouTube, then a click in

John: 00:02:05

Google, and then a sign up for an email.

John: 00:02:07

Then two weeks later, a conversion.

John: 00:02:08

All of those things have to be identified as commonalities for us

John: 00:02:12

to really be able to do our jobs well As digital marketers working together

John: 00:02:16

with other agencies, or if you're doing everything into one, truly identifying

John: 00:02:20

what that top conversion path is.

John: 00:02:22

And I think that the conversion path is something that people don't quite look

John: 00:02:25

at, and they look at individual channel roaz, whether it's with inside of, Google

John: 00:02:29

or Facebook, or with inside of a third party attribution tool like Nor Beam, and

John: 00:02:33

sometimes take it for too much face value.

John: 00:02:35

Tracking the trends and identifying the conversion paths will then

John: 00:02:39

give you more information as to why those metrics look the way they do.

John: 00:02:42

The differences between the click and view model, for example, is gonna

John: 00:02:47

say, Hey, a person clicked here, or a person viewed this and then clicked

John: 00:02:51

at a potentially different campaign.

John: 00:02:53

So understanding just the variances between those two and then tracking

John: 00:02:56

those trends is going to be important.

John: 00:02:58

the one thing that I always tell people is, Look at your overall MER

John: 00:03:02

media efficiency ratio that is going to tell you the overall efficiency

John: 00:03:06

of everything working together.

John: 00:03:07

Identify what's working the best, reallocate what is not having an actual

John: 00:03:11

impact on your bottom line, and reallocate it to what you can identify working

John: 00:03:15

the best, which is those top conversion paths and tracking those trends.

John: 00:03:18

When it make one change, how does it overall affect everything?

John: 00:03:22

We have to be better marketers by working together.

John: 00:03:24

And we typically won't work with clients if it's like, well, Facebook's doing

John: 00:03:27

good, but Google isn't, or vice versa.

John: 00:03:30

It's not necessarily the point.

John: 00:03:31

We don't wanna pin them against each other.

John: 00:03:33

The client still wants to show up everywhere, but gets upset when they

John: 00:03:36

show up sometimes, multiple times each.

John: 00:03:38

So we have to really lean into higher amount of brand awareness and attribution

John: 00:03:42

on multiple channels and less into who's doing better, because there's

John: 00:03:46

more overlap than anybody knows about.

John: 00:03:48

Yeah, I think that's so true.

John: 00:03:49

And I think to me, what gives me clarity on that answer is I often

John: 00:03:54

feel as an advertiser we run an agency too, and I often feel like.

John: 00:03:59

Some days I feel like I have the answers really clearly, and some

John: 00:04:02

days it feels muddy still, right?

John: 00:04:04

Mm-hmm.

John: 00:04:04

And it feels like, not muddy, but it feels more just overwhelming the amount

John: 00:04:09

of, ways that this can be described.

John: 00:04:12

Mm-hmm.

John: 00:04:12

And I think that there's a certain position in the marketplace that

John: 00:04:15

puts people on their heels, myself included, which is look, all of

John: 00:04:19

you are doing the wrong thing.

John: 00:04:20

You're looking at the wrong thing.

John: 00:04:22

You're measuring the wrong thing.

John: 00:04:23

And now it's.

John: 00:04:25

gonna continue to be confusing.

John: 00:04:26

And that's just what it is, basically.

John: 00:04:28

Mm-hmm.

John: 00:04:28

Or there's this other metric that I'm looking at that you don't know about yet.

John: 00:04:32

it's not black and white, like you said.

John: 00:04:34

It's not one's doing better, one, , like pitting them against each other.

John: 00:04:37

It is.

John: 00:04:37

And, it's multifaceted and it's incredibly complex.

John: 00:04:40

And especially for brands that are spending even more, the more you

John: 00:04:44

spend, the more complex it can be.

John: 00:04:46

And I often think sometimes, The smaller clients that we have

John: 00:04:51

overcomplicate or the smaller agencies, we overcomplicate it sometimes when

John: 00:04:55

we don't need to, there's an inverse relationship in some aspects of it.