In the world of digital advertising we’ve become addicted to simplistic models and KPIs. As Anna Forbes (pictured below), UK managing director, Marchex writes, the biggest offender in this world of over-simplification is, by and large, last click.

Consequently, there’s an inertia to move to something less black and white. We in advertising tend to fear the subjective; if it can’t be boiled down to a quick blurb or cell on a spreadsheet, then we can’t use it. It’s this kind of fear, and this kind of thinking, that’s keeping the industry from progressing.

The IAB stated it best advocating “anything but last-touch,” as a mantra for digital marketing as a whole. We’ve got to overcome over-simplifications, such as counting last-touch, likes, shares, followers and views, and instead start looking at the overall impact of marketing efforts, and not just attributing a sale to online actions.

Anna Forbes, UK Managing Director, Marchex

The way to do this is through tying offline behaviour to online actions, which, until recently, has been one of the main challenges to holistic attribution. The customer journey isn’t as simple as just clicking an ad for the first time, liking what you see and purchasing straight away. It could start with an OOH advert, which then prompts research on a mobile, which results in a retargeted ad on Facebook, which could all end in a sale or booking over the phone. As such, the only way to track customers effectively and through the whole route to purchase is to consider all the actions they might take, be it online or offline.

While there is a still a lot to learn about offline behaviour and the customer journey, many brands are now taking steps towards linking the two. Companies such as Google are driving this, with the search giant claiming to have measured and tracked over one billion store visits, which allows them to tell consumers busy periods to visit everything from tourist attractions to restaurants. This information can be linked to Google Adwords to give a total estimated conversion figure, giving a more rounded insight into consumer behaviour. Alongside this, e-receipts and loyalty cards are also examples of connecting offline with online behaviour, but the industry still has a long way to go in terms of bringing all insight into consumer behaviour together.

Rather than just attributing a sale to a retargeted Facebook message, for example, looking at both online and offline actions helps advertisers get a better picture of the whole process a customer goes through when making a purchase. Ultimately, if online activity is the only action measured, if a customer picks up the phone or goes into a store to make a purchase, the customer behaviour is no longer tracked – so online marketing tactics actually miss out on a lot of credit for driving that offline activity.

We believe that there are big opportunities for brands and advertisers offline. Marchex data suggests that click-to-call alone helps drive USD$1tn (£684bn) in consumer spending, with that set to rise to nearly USD$2tn (£1.34tn) by 2019. Yet, many advertisers are failing to attribute their offline sales to online actions, so are failing to collect data on how this is driving conversions – leaving them unable to maximise the opportunity.

There is no doubt that we live in an online world, and that digital advertising influences a large proportion of consumer spend, but by focusing on last-click measurement techniques and, therefore, only attributing conversions to online advertising, brands are really missing a trick.

While it may feel complicated, being able to treat both online and offline equally to better understand offline behaviours ensures brands can learn even more about the customer journey. Fortunately, technology is simplifying this process, enabling brands to build a better picture of what channel or channels to attribute their sales to and, therefore, know where to spend their money to gain maximum returns.