Smarter Spend Is Not Where The Marketing Attribution Story Ends

Guest post by Alden Morse, Head of Partnerships at Fairing

Rockerbox users already know attribution’s big unlock is to help you spend your next dollar, not celebrate your last — but beyond that, there are certain data relationships that can spread attribution insights further across the department. Think of it as the next book in the marketing attribution story—a story co-narrated by Rockerbox & Fairing.

No More Dark Traffic Mystery Meat

Blended CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is kind of marketing mystery meat: you don’t know what went into it, but it certainly looks the part when properly presented. Holistic marketers, however, aren’t satisfied with a mystery: they know what they don’t know, and they’re keen to get answers.

With your rock-solid marketing attribution foundation from Rockerbox, the big question mark remaining is dark traffic (anywhere from 15-40% of all conversions for most DTC brands). Fairing post-purchase surveys are the safety net here, letting your “dark” consumers share where they heard about you. Typically brands see a 20% increase in attributed sales with this setup, and that extra data can turn an entire media campaign around—especially if a channel’s strength is top of funnel discovery.

Appending Personalization for Rev Ops Revelations

Ok, so we’ve got a strong attribution model going at this point. Now, we use Fairing to ask questions that add key context to your marketing metrics, and even further toward the bottom line.

Asking “Who is this purchase for?” addresses the buyer vs. user problem, which is nearly impossible to uncover without asking your customers to self-segment… no matter how many discount codes you throw at them.

What’s that mean for revenue insights? For one thing, it means your metrics can now be segmented. Instagram’s $25 CAC and $80 AOV now splinter into distinct and far more informative groups:

• Buyers (gift-givers, heads of household, etc): $18 CAC / $115 AOV
• Users: $29 CAC / $60 AOV

Just looking at that breakout, it would appear you’ve got some low-cost runway to explore gifting options on your IG, develop new post creative around gifting, and even build a retention email/SMS track for this segment who has probably never used your product, but certainly has more gifting needs in their future. Now that Instagram spend is generating a higher LTV, because you know your customers on a 1:1 level.

Asking “Are you switching from another brand?” and following up to learn why they switched can tell you a ton about your successful value props. What’s the upshot? Among other insights, it could reveal that you’ve got lower ROAS on Spotify vs. Reddit, but far greater potential for LTV because the Spotify segment is mostly new category buyers, while the Reddit segment is heavy with disloyal discount shoppers.

Marketing Attribution + Segmentation = Unbeatable Creative

Having combined customer-level attribution with segmentation, you now know there’s a bigger universe of levers to pull beyond just sending more media dollars to the best-performing channel. But of course, you still want to do that too… and that’s where this combination can shine for creative and messaging. Take this example of the same product, first on YouTube:

And now, on TikTok:

These sponsored spots are miles apart in their messaging, but they’re both right for their respective channels and audiences. And that’s exactly how the guidance in this article can come together:

1. Light up dark attribution: Organic traffic from TikTok was starting to ramp up, even without the brand having its own TikTok channel
2. Segment customers: The target customer in these YouTube spots is millennial prosumers looking for camera bags. The customers coming from organic TikTok were Gen Zers who loved the colorways and many had never seen a camera bag before.
3. Build out campaigns that push the higher-end SKUs and upsells on YouTube while detailing all the features, but run TikTok spots with more affordable products and use cases focused on fun & value.

Marketing attribution can absolutely be a strategic linchpin if you know how to add color and context to the data. This is what makes Rockerbox and Fairing a dynamic duo in your stack.