Attribution is dead - or is it? In today’s complex revenue world, it's tempting to throw out attribution along with outdated KPIs and broken funnels. But before you grab your pitchfork, take a beat. In a recent RevOps Co-op webinar, Nadia Davis (VP of Marketing at CaliberMind) and Drew Smith (Founder and CEO of Attributa) tackled the evolving role of attribution, where it falls short - and why it’s still mission-critical if you want to prove marketing's impact on revenue.
The “Attribution Is Dead” headlines are everywhere. It feels like every marketing conversation on LinkedIn lately starts with declaring something obsolete. But, as Davis, Smith and Thompson point out, marketing attribution isn’t dying - it’s adapting.
Traditional attribution models weren’t built for today's messy, non-linear buyer journeys. And if you’re still trying to make your old models fit new realities, yeah, it’ll feel broken. Instead of abandoning attribution altogether, it’s time to rethink your approach - and your expectations.
The Problems with Traditional Attribution
- Early attribution models were built for a world of digital clicks and linear funnels. Today’s buyer journey? Not so neat and tidy.
- Traditional attribution ignores critical offline touch points like field events, dinners, gifting, executive intros and sales-led outreach.
- Brand investments, community marketing, and long-tail nurture efforts often get dramatically undervalued because their impact is harder to capture with clicks.
If you want a better way to organize and surface insights from all those messy interactions, explore CaliberMind’s Marketing Funnel Management module.
"Attribution ignores the real-world buyer journey because it was built for a world where everything could be measured through clicks." – Nadia Davis, VP of Marketing at CaliberMind
Why Saying “Attribution Is Dead” Misses the Point
- When someone says attribution is dead, chances are they’re selling you something else—like media mix modeling (MMM) or incrementality testing.
- Different methodologies serve different purposes. MTA, MMM and incrementality are like different tools in your GTM toolkit—you wouldn’t swap out a wrench for a hammer and expect the same results.
- Instead of looking for a silver bullet, RevOps and marketing teams need to mix methodologies depending on the questions they’re trying to answer.
"You need both a hammer and a saw to build a house. It’s not about choosing one or the other - it’s about picking the right tool for the right job." – Drew Smith, Founder and CEO at Attributa
For more on DIY attribution, take a look at The Ultimate Guide to DIY B2B Marketing Attribution from CaliberMind.
Breaking Down the Core Measurement Approaches
- Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA): Good for optimizing in real-time across digital channels. Weak when it comes to offline or long sales cycle efforts.
- Media Mix Modeling (MMM): Better suited for strategic annual planning and channel budgeting. Bad at real-time decision making because of lagging indicators.
- Incrementality Testing: Best for assessing the real-world lift of campaigns - but slow, expensive, and complex if you don’t have massive spend across each channel.
In reality, smart companies layer these models depending on whether they’re optimizing tactics, allocating budgets, or validating strategy.
Good Data Is Still the Bedrock of Good Attribution
- Even the best attribution models are useless without a strong data foundation.
- Most teams are still grappling with fragmented systems, incomplete CRM data, dirty lead sources and mismatched timestamps.
- The real shift? Attribution today is less about assigning credit—and more about unifying fragmented data to build a credible, defensible narrative.
“Attribution today is more about unifying your data than it is about assigning credit.” – Nadia Davis, VP of Marketing at CaliberMind
For more insights on marketing data, check out the CaliberMind Podcast Episode Taming the Data Dumpster Fire: How to Make Marketing Metrics Make Sense.
Marketing Needs a Story - Not Just a Metric
When leadership asks, "What's working?", they don’t want to hear about first-touch vs last-touch weighting. They want a narrative that connects marketing actions to revenue outcomes.
- Attribution should help marketers build a credible story around momentum and progress—not just spit out a number.
- A good attribution framework supports marketing’s seat at the leadership table, helping secure future budgets and internal trust.
- The new mindset: attribution isn't the headline—it’s the supporting evidence for the broader story you’re telling about how marketing drives business value.
For more on storytelling, check out the CaliberMind podcast episode Reporting to Execs: The Numbers That Count.
Final Thought: Attribution Isn’t Dead. It’s Growing Up.
If you expect attribution to spit out a simple, magic answer - you’ll be disappointed. But if you use attribution strategically - as one input into a richer, more thoughtful revenue story - you’ll thrive.
The future belongs to marketers and RevOps teams who can weave together buyer journey data, offline insights, campaign performance, and brand impact into a coherent narrative leadership can believe in.
Attribution isn’t dead. Lazy attribution is.
If you’re serious about turning marketing into a business growth engine, it’s time to level up your attribution game. Start by cleaning your data, choosing the right measurement methodologies for your stage and goals, and learning how to tell better stories with your metrics.
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