Attribution Marketing Channel Attribution

[Grazitti_Int]

Hi Community members,

I’ve noticed a sharp drop in MoEngage performance since we changed the marketing channel attribution from Last Touch to First Touch. Since MoEngage largely functions as a last-touch channel and conversions often rely on direct traffic, this attribution change has shifted most of the data toward the programmatic channel.

Here are my key findings that we need to fix:

1. First Touch Channel Breakdown Issue

• Currently, when breaking down First Touch under the programmatic channel, the data is split across Direct, Programmatic, Paid, Facebook, and Others.
• Ideally, it should reflect only Programmatic, since users are directly landing on the app by clicking an advertisement.
• A direct visit should only count when users open the app on their own or visit the site by typing marksandspencer.in directly, not when they come via ads.
• I’ve attached a screenshot for more clarity.
  
  
  2. Last Touch Channel Breakdown Issue
  • When breaking down Last Touch for the programmatic channel, only Programmatic appears, while MoEngage should also reflect here.
  • This is because if a user comes from programmatic, they often end up converting via in-app notifications, which means MoEngage should show up as the last-touch channel.
  • Currently, this attribution isn’t visible, which indicates a gap in tracking.
    
    
    I have received the above from our media team. Can you help me understand if this needs real time testing for First Touch and Last Touch Channels?
    If you need anymore information on this, please let me know.
    Thanks!

[EurosIMS]

Hi @Grazitti_Int,

First thing to say is- Marketing Channel report is Last Touch. In that second screenshot what you are doing is breaking down Last Touch channel by Last Touch channel, so of course it's exact same. In the first screenshot, it's saying that when the Last Touch channel was Programmatic, what was the First Touch? Maybe a read through here will help:

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/components/marketing-channels/analyze-mc

Second, it's very difficult to know what issues you have just from the reports- we'd really need to see the Channel processing rules. You mention in-app, is it a mobile App specifically? If you have Lifecycle metrics set via Mobile SDK, then the first hit will almost always be a lifecycle hit (which generally won't have any channel information). As such, if your channels are all set with 'is first hit of visit' ticked, then straight away this will cause issues.

Third, assuming it is an App again, most apps will struggle to track channels correctly- you'd usually need to use a 3rd party tool to pass data to & from the app/analytics to ensure the correct information was added to the hit/visit for certain channels to be tracked. Is that where some of this data comes from?

I'd suggest you re-run those reports using different attribution models for Marketing Channel dimension, as that should give you a clearer idea initially of any issues

[Grazitti_Int]

Hi @EurosIMS 

Thanks for your input. 

The URL (https://abc.onelink.me/H7Oq/qpr5ilsx) used for the mobile app is generated by Appsflyer and works as a deep link. It redirects users to the intended destination and appends UTM parameters along the way for tracking purposes.

During testing I noticed that when I start a session and place an order through this Appsflyer deep link, the visit is being tracked as "Direct" in Adobe Analytics under the First Touch Channel. This likely means the UTM parameters aren’t being picked up correctly either they're getting lost during the redirect or not passed through properly to Adobe.

This misattribution is affecting our Adobe Reports. Ideally, visits from the Appsflyer deep link should be attributed to the correct channel.

Web attribution is working as correctly. 

Web URL: https://www.abc.in/l/offers/flat-10pct-off-1/?cgid=US_SubCategory_1234&utm_source=Programmatic&utm_m...

App URL: https://abc.onelink.me/LP7q/qpr6sx

Can you help me look into whether there’s a gap in how Adobe Analytics is capturing session data after the redirect for Mobile App data, so we can ensure accurate attribution and reporting moving forward.?

[EurosIMS]

Ah yes, I've used Appsflyer before for mobile apps.

Is your paid channel set to detect '1st hits of visit' as I mentioned? 

If so, I highly doubt the first hit has the utm information as it's usually a lifcycle hit. You might need to change that to remove 'is first hit', & possibly do that for all rules. You may need to re-think how your channels are setup based on this. 

It's a while since I've used Appsflyer, but I think that it it sends a hit direct to Adobe if it's integrated directly into the App? So you may also need to consider this when configuring your other channels that use Appsflyer.

[EurosIMS]

Also @Grazitti_Int as it's pretty obvious what App that is & where, along with apparent production data, I'd strongly suggest you remove or at least crop the screenshots in your original post 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0el31nqnpvo