Glossary A–ZLetter A
Attribution
Attribution is the assignment of a measurable effect, such as a shop visit or a purchase, to a specific advertising activity.
It tries to answer whether a campaign achieved anything and which share is due to which channel. This requires data about the ad plays and data about behaviour afterwards.
Screens in public spaces have no click that links exposure and action. Measurement therefore usually compares groups: people or sites that encountered the campaign and a control group without it. One example is a test region with adverts on in-store screens and a control region without them, whose sales are compared afterwards.
Operators should ask about the method, the control group and the period of any attribution study. An increase means little if season, weather or parallel promotions have not been accounted for. Where personal data is used, such as location data from mobile devices, data protection rules apply. Attribution shows correlations with a degree of uncertainty, not proof in an individual case.