5 Online-to-Offline Attribution Platforms for Local Marketers

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The single biggest challenge facing the hyperlocal industry isn’t what you might expect. According to a recent survey of executives at technology companies, agencies, and analytics firms conducted by Street Fight Insights, online-to-offline attribution has become the single greatest challenge and the top R&D priority in the local industry.

But online-to-offline attribution isn’t a challenge without a solution. A number of vendors are serving the local market with platforms designed to help local marketers at big brands and multi-location retailers assign the correct value to each point of touch in their multi-touch campaigns.

Here are five vendors to which retail brands can turn.

1. Swirl
Swirl’s online-to-offline attribution solution is powered by indoor mobile location. Leveraging that technology, Swirl is able to identify shoppers’ behaviors in the real world. When consumers who’ve been exposed to digital ads on third-party websites enter physical stores with their smartphones in hand, Swirl technology maps those impressions and compares them to the visit rates of unexposed consumers. Swirl says its solution is more accurate than those relying on GPS and that its platform gives brands better access to the data that’s generated.

2. ownerIQ
ownerIQ is a second-party data marketplace with its own online-to-offline attribution model. Retailers and brands that work with ownerIQ can see the impact that their digital campaigns are having on in-store sales and use their existing data assets to make attribution more actionable. More specifically, ownerIQ connects media impressions to in-store sales by matching CRM and POS data to the company’s own cookie base.

3. Commerce Signals
Specializing in in-store and online measurement, Commerce Signals gives marketers and agencies a way to quickly measure sales lift so they can shift spending to the most effective channels in real time. Utilizing a self-service dashboard, marketers who use Commerce Signals can compare transaction data for groups of consumers who saw their ads to the data generated by control groups of consumers who did not. In addition to being used by brands in the retail industry, Commerce Signals is also used by QSR, entertainment, and hospitality businesses.

4. Placed
The location insights firm Placed connects ad exposure to real-world store visits and store revenue, allowing brands to see store conversion rates and cost per store visit. Placed’s omnichannel attribution model tracks mobile in-app advertising, along with desktop display and video, paid search, over-the-top TV, linear and addressable TV, and digital and analog out-of-home. Audience measurement is also available to help brands understand the characteristics of the audiences that have been exposed to their advertising.

5. Octalytics
Octalytics connects real-world sales to online marketing initiatives through advanced web tracking. Octalytics tracks the individuals landing on retailers’ websites and connects their online actions to in-store purchases. Octalytics’ platform works in real time, allowing brands to quickly change strategies or send additional coupons via email when their digital campaigns need a boost. Although much of Octalytics’ tracking code is collected from retailers’ own websites, the platform can also be integrated with existing CRM and ERP systems.

Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.

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Stephanie Miles is a journalist who covers personal finance, technology, and real estate. As Street Fight’s senior editor, she is particularly interested in how local merchants and national brands are utilizing hyperlocal technology to reach consumers. She has written for FHM, the Daily News, Working World, Gawker, Cityfile, and Recessionwire.