Here's the uncomfortable truth: Your marketing attribution is lying to you.
Not a small white lie.
A massive, budget-burning, decision-skewing deception that's probably costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars right now.
Let me break this down in the simplest way possible...
The Multi-Touch Myth
You're running campaigns across 6 platforms
Your attribution tools show beautiful conversion paths
Every platform claims credit for the same sale
You're paying 3x more than you should
And nobody's talking about it
Sound familiar?
Here's what's actually happening:
Your customer sees an Instagram ad, clicks a Google ad three days later, watches your YouTube video, and finally converts through a Facebook remarketing campaign.
Each platform screams "I did that!"
They're all wrong. And they're all right.
The Real Math Behind Your ROI
Let's get uncomfortable with some numbers:
Your $1M annual ad spend
4 platforms claiming full credit
Each showing a clean 3x ROAS
Reality: You're likely seeing 1.5x at best
Why This Matters Now More Than Ever
Privacy changes aren't just coming - they're here. iOS updates, cookie deprecation, and regulation are making traditional attribution models about as reliable as a chocolate teapot.
The Solution? Think Incrementality
Stop obsessing over individual platform metrics. Start looking at:
Total business lift
Geographic testing
Hold-out groups
Media mix modeling
Use first-party tracking and attribution software
The Uncomfortable Action Plan
Audit Your Stack
Cut attribution redundancy (frequency on remarketing campaigns too high?)
Question every "automated" solution and “black-box” targeting
Trust your gut when numbers look too good to be true (they usually are)
Implement Better Testing
Run geo-holdouts
Test channel isolation
Measure total business impact (I measure MoM and YoY to start)
Reset Expectations
Your real ROAS is lower than reported
That's okay - everyone's is
Focus on true incremental value
Use first-party tracking and attribution software for identifying TRENDS
Free : Google Analytics 4 (learn how to use it)
Paid: Triple Whale, Elevar, Hyros, etc
The Bottom Line
The marketing industry has built a house of cards on faulty attribution.
The smartest companies are already adapting. The rest will keep burning money on misreported results.
The question isn't whether your attribution is wrong.
The question is: What are you going to do about it?
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