How to Attribute Your Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy

Understanding the role individual platforms play in driving conversions within a multi-channel marketing strategy is a challenge. While it’s easy to track the final click that leads to a conversion, what’s often less understood are the upstream touchpoints that are generating new journeys and keeping consumers engaged in the consideration phase. 

Here’s how to accurately identify the touchpoints that shape customer journeys to inform optimal budget allocation and ensure that creative assets and messaging are aligned to the paths consumers take in your marketing funnel.

Data Attribution Challenges 

While advertisers know they should be attributing conversions, many are not. Decision making based on the analysis of raw non-attributed Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS) or Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) metrics across platforms can lead to sub-optimal budget allocation by allocating too much or too little to an individual channel or funnel stage. 

Furthermore, without knowing the true role that an individual channel plays, ad creative that’s effective for the lower funnel might be assigned to a channel that’s more effective at generating interest and new journeys.  

How to Attribute Multi-Channel Touchpoints

Attribution dashboards

To give credit for marketing touchpoints, you need a tool that can gather and measure outcomes from each channel. AdRoll’s Cross-Channel Attribution (CCA):

• Eliminates the manual work of logging into multiple platforms by centralizing metrics from across your marketing stack, via secure API based hourly imports of campaign data from: Active Campaign, Amazon Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Klaviyo, LinkedIn, MailChimp, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, and X/Twitter. As well as the daily imports of conversions and revenue metrics from Google Analytics 4, Hubspot, Salesforce, Shopify, or WooCommerce.

• Places metrics imported from your integrated platform side-by-side with de-duplicated (meaning that only one channel gets credit for the first touch, second touch, etc.) reporting that tracks clicks on UTM parameters appended to your campaign URLs. 

With the above sources of data, advertisers can toggle through a range of attribution models to see different cuts that reveal the role individual platforms are playing at each step in a multi-channel conversion journey.

Additionally, advertisers can also identify the combinations of channels that are working together to deliver conversions, by revealing how many touchpoints each was responsible for, in what order and how many days apart each touch occurred. 

Third-party measurement integrations

Good advertising platforms also employ third-party measurement, ensuring they don’t grade their own homework.

For example, AdRoll uses these third-party partners to make multi-channel attribution easier:

• AppsFlyer: Used to track and attribute mobile app installs and in-app events.

• Innovid: Provides a more comprehensive view of site-based responses to CTV ads.

• Experian: Allows AdRoll to identify and reach users across multiple devices in a household, which is critical for accurate attribution.

• Cint: Helps measure CTV impact and sentiment through surveys and advanced data modeling.

Multi-channel marketing needs a holistic approach, so the more platform measurement you can consolidate into one place, the better.

Key Features of AdRoll Cross-Channel Attribution 

• Visualize your marketing funnel. Our CCA Pathways Reports reveal the combinations of platforms that are working together to deliver the greatest volume of conversions, as well as highest average order value conversions. 

• Gain a more holistic view. The Attributed and Assisted Reports unlock the ability to compare and contrast deduplicated pixel based reporting versus non-attributed metrics reported by integrated platforms. Identify the channels and campaigns that are generating new journeys, those keeping consumers engaged, and those that are efficiently converting. Assess which platforms are claiming too much or too little conversion credit, and adjust budgets accordingly.

• Consolidate your tech stack. Forget logging in to multiple platforms to pull performance metrics. Instead, AdRoll integrates with your ads, SMS, ecommerce store, CRM, and third-party analytics platforms so you can analyze and attribute all in one place. Tailor your dashboard with custom metrics that account for fees, taxes, and unique KPIs, without resorting to manual calculations, spreadsheet formulas, or switching screens.

Make Better Marketing Decisions

Armed with insights from CCA, marketers can align budgets and campaign messaging throughout the funnel stages. With AdRoll’s unified dashboard, they can identify and prioritize investments in channels, campaigns, and journeys that generate the most conversions and highest revenue. To get the most out of every marketing dollar, get started with AdRoll!

Last updated on April 21st, 2026.