What is TikTok’s Attribution Analytics?

TikTok’s new Attribution Analytics could prove to be a delight for social media marketers as it’ll give them more insight into the performance of TikTok ads, which should lead to better decision making.

How does it work?

Attribution Analytics is a first-party management solution that can be accessed within TikTok Ads Manager and includes a series of features to help advertisers:

• Analyse and compare the number of events reported for attribution such as View Content, Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, Purchase and the impact on performance indicators like cost per acquisition.
• Visualise the change in click-through and view-through conversions as well as a CPA across different combinations of click and view attribution windows.
• Gain insights to determine future strategy.

Why TikTok launched Attribution Analytics

TikTok has launched Attribution Analytics to plug a gap in its measurement methods.

TikTok for Business

“According to a post-purchase survey, 79% of all conversions attributed to TikTok by users themselves were missing from last-click models.”

TikTok hope that it’ll help advertisers gain a deeper understanding of user behaviour on the app and provide a clearer view of a customer’s path to purchase.

With TikTok’s popularity refusing to diminish, and more and more tools available for marketers, it makes sense for the developers to give brands more confidence in their advertising strategies on the app. 

Thomas Carter, Senior TikTok Strategist, Power Digital Marketing, via TikTok

“Having visibility into extra click-through and view-through event data has made it easier to prove TikTok’s value and scale our clients’ campaigns. This tool has allowed them to look beyond a standard last-click window with more confidence.”

The 4 ways to use the Performance Comparison tool

TikTok says there are four ways to use the Performance Comparison tool – so we’ll go through them below.

Finding an attribution window that works for your business

TikTok’s Ads Manager’s default attribution windows of 7-day click and 1-day view don’t always capture the true value driven by TikTok marketing, says the platform.

TikTok for Business

“Performance Comparison reveals the impact on key performance metrics when measured across different attribution windows, such as the number of conversions that occurred across a 7-day click-through window compared to a 28-day click-through window.”

Understanding the value of TikTok views in driving conversions

Performance Comparison can be used to help advertisers see the effectiveness of TikTok views across 1-day and 7-day view-through attribution so you can visually compare how your ad has helped drive conversions.

TikTok also says the data it gleens from view-based conversions is fed into its optimisation system, which learns what and what doesn’t work – which can help reduce fluctuations in ad spend and increase performance stability.

TikTok for Business

“A TikTok-led study revealed that combining VTA and click-through attribution (CTA) models accelerates the campaign learning period by 113% across certain verticals.”

Moving beyond last-click attribution methods

TikTok says the impact of TIkTok ads isn’t fully captured via click-based conversion stats. In fact, it reckons that click attribution undervalues conversions by 73%!

Performance Comparison can be used to help show the number of conversions that happen after seeing or clicking an ad and how long it takes for those conversions to happen. 

Onboarding new measurement solutions

Thanks to the insights that you’ll hopefully earn via the Performance Comparison tool, advertisers can then implement decisions, as well as third-party data collection solutions, to improve TikTok campaigns.

TikTok for Business

For instance, you can use post-purchase surveys to hear directly from your customers how they discovered your brand or product. You can also use conversion lift studies to help you see the number of conversions that happened as a result of your campaign, or work with multi-touch attribution providers to quantify TikTok’s performance using statistical approaches.