Retrace your customers’ steps

For the love of data #2

 

07/10/2020 by Sarah Sennett

A.I. driven Attribution Models reveal a complete view of your complex Customer Conversions.

We all know that a good love story is as much about the journey as the happy ending. And the same is true for your customer journeys – the road from first encounter to final click can be complex and revealing, so why use Attribution Models that only pay attention to the final step?

What do Attribution Models do?

Think about the last time you made an online purchase, booking, or investment. Now, try to map out how you got there… Where did you first hear about the brand? What were your encounters with them since then? Have you purchased with them before? What’s kept them on your radar?

These are exactly the sorts of questions you need to ask about your own customers when you think about Attribution Modelling.

Go beyond the last click

Attribution Modelling is just a fancy name for the rule, or set of rules, that we use to dole out credit for a sale to the channels in our comms mix.

The most common is the Last Click Attribution Model, where all credit is given to the final channel that led a person to purchase – the last click. There are a few other common models; all have their uses. But any out-of-the-box Attribution Model used in isolation can only ever tell you so much.

Attribution Modelling becomes valuable when you start to really understand what you’re looking at – to see the information from lots of angles, to zoom in on the fine details, or zoom out to see trends. There’s no ‘right way’ to do it – it all depends on your business.

Customers, not Channels

A good place to start, though, is to change how you think about Attribution Modelling: not in terms of channels, but in terms of customer journeys.

At distil.ai/, this is our starting point: people. Our Attribution Models are based on individualised customer data, that then forms individualised customer journeys. Imagine this like lots of little threads which we can then use in Attribution Models to bundle them together in lots of different ways.

By doing that, and doing it in a way that’s channel agnostic, you can start to really understand what in your comms mix is working and how: what’s bringing customers in, what’s keeping them loyal, what’s prompting them to purchase, and how it all works together.

Put your Attribution Models to work

Once you start using Attribution Models like this, the possibilities are endless. Every new discovery will prompt new questions, and help you experiment and refine.

Maybe you’ll discover that Facebook doesn’t bring in new customers, but keeps them coming back.

Maybe you’ll realise that email is effective but only for a certain audience at a particular time.

Maybe you’ll find that one half of your customer base is clicking on your search ads, but the other half couldn’t care less. And maybe you’ll start to understand why…

The more you know, the more you’ll want to know, which is why you need a constant flow of rich data, and the ability to slice and view your Attribution Models in different ways. So that when you find yourself wondering ‘OK, but is that true for my trade customers?’ or pondering ‘What about if they’re subscribed to my mailing list first?’ you’ve got an intuitive set of tools that lets you find out.

Attribution Models upgraded. Channels harnessed.

Fuelled by the right data, treated in the right way, Attribution Modelling can become an extraordinary weapon in your marketing arsenal, helping you understand and adjust your comms to streamline spending and deliver results.


Drop us a line to see how distil.ai/ can help you understand your Customers better.

Sarah Sennett
By Sarah Sennett
Sarah Sennett is a data-led marketer with over 15 years experience in combining creativity with analytics to create results. She regularly writes about topics that combine the art and science of marketing.

You may also interested in:

13/08/2026
A 28-site restaurant group knew four locations were missing weekend targets. Distil Diagnostics uncovered why — revealing blocked booking inventory and an estimated $1.2M annual revenue opportunity.
17/06/2026
The latest release brings exciting new feature to Distil Diagnostics - Annotations. Restaurant teams can now capture the context behind performance changes, connect actions to Monitors, and understand what happened next.
05/06/2026
We love a red carpet moment, and even better when there’s a podium at the end with our name on it. Say hello to the latest Dotdigital Tech Partner of the Year 2026 EMEA… distil.ai/! That’s right - for the second time in our Dotdigital partnership, distil.ai/ is taking home the EMEA Tech Partner of the Year trophy. Excited? Us? Absolutely!
01/05/2026
In the latest release Distil Diagnostics now brings À la carte and Group bookings together in one complete forecast view. See what's driving demand, set smarter expectations, and make faster commercial decisions — all in one place. By separating À la carte (ALC) and Group (GRP) bookings, restaurant forecasting becomes far more than a single predicted cover or revenue figure. It becomes a diagnostic tool with a direct link to the commercial goals. Instead of asking “are we on track?”, it’s now possible to also understand why.

Ready to turn your data into revenue?

See what Distil can do for your restaurant group.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.