Why You Need Closed-Loop Attribution and How to Get it

Laura Caveney
5th October 2021

Closed-loop attribution is a useful resource for marketers looking to take their marketing to the next level. We discuss what it is, how to use it and most importantly, how to implement it into your marketing stack.

Only 60% of marketers are confident they prove marketing ROI. And we can’t say we’re surprised. 

When marketers are dealing with long customer journeys, tricky-to-track conversions and more, there’s a lot of data and very little time to analyse it. 

The trick to combatting this is by using closed-loop attribution. 

In this blog, we’ll discuss: 

Let’s get started!

🎓 Pro Tip

Want to learn more about attribution? Well, we’re the experts so we put all our knowledge into one free e-learning platform.

Enrol in Attribution Academy today

What is closed-loop attribution?

Closed-loop attribution is a method for marketers to credit marketing channels and campaigns for their influence on closed sales and revenue. 

Marketing attribution is an increasingly important way for marketers to report on their success and optimise their outputs. 

We learned that 37% of marketers found generating high-quality leads one of their biggest challenges. Meanwhile, 40% stated that more accurate data would improve their marketing outputs. 

Marketing attribution, or closed-loop attribution, is the missing link. 

⚡️ Pro Tip

Not sure what closed-loop marketing attribution is? Download our comprehensive guide which will help you understand how attribution can link your closed sales back to your marketing initiatives. You’ll be left with more data that you can use to make smart decisions on budget, campaigns and more.

Why is closed-loop attribution important?

Closed-loop attribution is important for businesses for a number of reasons. We’ve summed it up to these main factors: 

Track your marketing performance

There’s certain amounts of tracking we can do as marketers that helps us understand the leads we’re generating. But linking anonymous website visitors to leads in our CRM can be pretty tricky.

With a marketing attribution tool in place, you can quickly and easily see how many leads, and how much revenue they’re driving. 

In a few clicks of the mouse, you’ll be able to gather data on your marketing campaigns. Instead of putting something live, and hoping for the best, you’ll be able to monitor them closely. 

You can rest assured that every action on your site will be properly tracked and, later, attributed.

Evidence your marketing impact 

With closed-loop attribution in place, you can easily evidence that your marketing is driving results. 

Given your marketing attribution solution automatically credits the influencing marketing channels, it means you can sit back and relax and let the tool do the hard work for you. 

source report Ruler Analytics

👉 Book a demo of Ruler to see this report, and more, in action.

What you’ll be left with is clarity on metrics like ROI, ROAS and more. 

Related: How to easily improve your return on ad spend

Optimise your marketing strategy 

With better data comes data-driven marketing. In a few glances, you’ll be able to see what’s working and what isn’t. 

With stats like lead conversion rate and sale close rate, you’ll be able to quickly identify the channels, campaigns and ads that are driving more bang for their buck. 

Related: Learn how you can optimise your marketing with Ruler Analytics

Closed-loop marketing attribution with Ruler Analytics

Closed-loop marketing attribution can be implemented by integrating an attribution solution. 

One like Ruler Analytics, for example. 

Related: Best marketing attribution tools to try

Ruler works like this. 

An anonymous visitor lands on your website for the first time. Ruler tracks them, scraping data like their source and what pages they interact with. 

Ruler does this for all of their subsequent interactions, collating their data using first-party cookies. 

On one session, the user converts into a lead. It’s at this point that Ruler fires all of the data it holds on that person over to your CRM. 

Ruler continues to track this lead, adding data as they revisit your site. 

At the point of the sale, however, Ruler will scrape the revenue data added to your CRM and fire it to all of your favourite marketing apps. There, it will be automatically attributed to the influencing marketing channels. 

Data you’ll be able to see with Ruler’s closed-loop marketing attribution

Ok, so now we know the general process behind how Ruler works to connect your sales to your marketing channels. 

But what data will this leave you with? 

Return on investment

ROI is the golden nugget for marketers. But many struggle to prove it because they’re dealing with tricky-to-track conversions or long sales cycles. 

With Ruler Analytics, that’s a worry of the past. 

Related: How to measure digital marketing ROI

Ruler tracks each and every conversion and touchpoint, meaning you can get full visibility of how your website visitors engage with you. 

But, even better, it means you can get an accurate return on investment. 

With revenue data looping your sales to your marketing, you can definitively prove how much money each marketing channel, campaign, ad and even keyword, is making. 

google analytics attribution - ruler analytics - www.ruleranalytics.com

Return on ad spend 

Similarly, return on ad spend is difficult for paid marketers to calculate given how paid ads can influence certain parts of a customer’s journey. 

If a user doesn’t click and convert right away, it can be hard to prove they had any impact. 

But, with a product like Ruler Analytics in play, you can easily see your return on ad spend. 

Lead generation 

While you might be able to track some of the leads you’re generating, chances are you might be missing some. 

What about inbound calls? Live chat? Tracking both of these is just as important as tracking your form submissions and these users have shown intent. 

Related: How to improve your lead generation process

With Ruler Analytics, you can easily track every single inbound lead. 

Lead quality 

You probably already have some form of lead tracking set up. However, are you tracking lead volume or just the number of leads you’re creating? 

Ruler Analytics tracks leads as part of a full customer journey. With closed-loop attribution you can define lead quality as you can easily see how many leads you’re generating and compare that to how much revenue you’re creating too. 

Having an insight into your lead quality means you can make data-driven decisions on your marketing. 

⚡️ Pro Tip

Hopefully, you’re sold on how Ruler can help you track, evidence and optimise your marketing. But if you’re still not sure, check out this quick guide to why you need Ruler.

Wrapping up

Ruler Analytics, or any tool that can offer closed-loop attribution, is key to any marketer. It helps you close the loop, literally, between your sales and your marketing. 

That means greater visibility and knowledge of what’s working and what isn’t. This will put you in the driving seat when it comes to making smarter decisions on what you need to add or pull budget on. 

What are you left with? Better results for less money. Read how Rally used Ruler to optimise their paid ads. Or, book a demo with our team to see how you can get started with closed-loop attribution and start working smarter, not harder.