Marketing Attribution Models are designed to determine which touchpoints are deserving of the most attention from the marketing budget of an organization based on trackable instances.
Taken from the Essential Read:
Marketing attribution is the way in which marketers assess the value or ROI of the channels that connect them to potential customers. In other words, it’s the means by which the customer came to know and buy your product or service.
From an employer brand perspective, we substitute the employee for the customer.
Just like the difficulties Digital Marketeers face today, those concerned with EBTs and EX have similar strife - because there is such a range of channels and messaging involved in attracting employees, keeping track of which are the most effective ROI is nuanced.
Similar principles behind these models apply to the Employer Brand attribution, below are examples of attribution models which are explained in-depth in the Essential Read:
- First-touch attribution
- Last-touch attribution
- Multi-source attribution
- Weighted multi-source attribution
If single-source attribution model (usually first/last-touch) is used, then all credit is attributed to a single touchpoint of the attraction phase of employee acquisition.
Exploring a U-shaped Attribution Model
Marian suggests that grasping the distribution of the multi-source U-shape model (not clearly mentioned in the Essential Read, so we’ll explain briefly here) is the most useful in understanding the gist of attribution modeling.
In the U-shape model, credit is attributed to the first-touch the employee has with the employer brand (brand awareness) and also attributed to the last interaction before a hire is made (employee conversion); thus providing a dual-case for the investment allocation of the employer branding budget as a result of demonstrated ROI.
As an example,
a post about a company newsletter is shared on LinkedIn (
first-touch), this leads a candidate to subscribe to the newsletter or read company reviews or reach out to former employees or investigate the website, et cetera.
The candidate eventually emails the employer an open application on the
company’s website (
last-touch) - The Employer Brand Manager could then make a case for the
first-touch and last-touch as deserving lion’s share of the budget.
More complex modes are always possible: such as weighting the attribution models or using algorithms to divide percentages of attribution - the goal is to uncover which model best represents the best possible use of Employer Brand spend on pathways demonstrating the best ROI on employee attraction.
Dive into or brush up your understanding of Marketing Attribution Models below to more deftly apply the concepts to an Employer Branding perspective. 👇