Strategy
Stop the Blur: Changing Your Attribution Mindset
Ryan McMillan
Every tech founder wants to know if their marketing is working. To do that successfully, you need to start with the right lens.
Founders often zero in on bottom-of-funnel metrics and last-click attribution conversions, thinking those are the parts of the story that matter most.
But these numbers are really only a fraction of the picture. They miss how marketing activity creates the conditions to actually drive growth, something that no single attribution model can tell them.
For too many B2B SaaS companies, the obsession with demand capture comes at the expense of demand generation. And when you ignore how your brand is built in the minds of your prospective customers, you’re flying blind.
Tech businesses have marketing attribution challenges baked into their DNA, especially in New Zealand, where going global isn’t a “someday” plan. SaaS and tech companies are often complex, with bouncy sales cycles and more sophisticated buyers.
HubSpot research shows conversions rarely come from one neat click. They’re the result of a messy web of interactions: a podcast here, a LinkedIn post there, an industry event, a blog article, an email forwarded by a colleague. Traditional last-click attribution wipes out most of that journey.
Being able to connect the dots is absolutely critical. But layer in examples like Adobe’s 2025 finding that 33% of organisations lack budget for essential martech, and it’s not surprising the nodes between channels and markets remain unlinked.
You’re probably familiar with the classic frameworks:
These both have value, but many tech marketers (or at least the exec team) stop here in terms of understanding whether ROI is positive or negative based on lead source reports.
There are two other increasingly effective ways to show the full impact of marketing and make better decisions: self-reported attribution and pipeline influence.
One of the most valuable tools we recommend to clients is self-reported attribution, often combined with impression-based platforms like Fibbler. It’s deceptively simple: you ask every prospect, “How did you hear about us?”
Every client who asks this gathers invaluable insights, especially at scale. The answers often reveal a chain of events you’d never see in your analytics, like hearing about you on a podcast, viewing a Linkedin post or seeing you mentioned in an industry Slack group.
Individually, none of these touchpoints would get credit in a last-click attribution model. But together, they form the real story.
This dual-lens approach — self-reported plus click-based attribution — helps tech companies capture both measurable digital activity and the harder-to-track word-of-mouth influence.
We aim to incorporate multiple forms of attribution because that provides the greatest chance of building an accurate picture. A more accurate picture leads to better decisions, which compound growth over time.
For example, by combining self-reported attribution, pipeline influence and last-click conversions, we can report on direct ROI from performance channels alongside other deals that have been created, or understand which other channels played a role in the final click.
Every tech sub-sector can adapt this approach to their own realities:
If you’re ready to replace the blurry snapshot with a high-res view of your growth engine, it starts with changing the lens you use.
Attribution isn’t a single report, it’s a framework for connecting the dots across clicks, conversations and customer stories.
The tech companies that win are the ones who stop chasing perfect models and build a clearer picture, layer by layer, until the whole growth story comes into focus.
Contact us to talk about how we can help you build attribution that works.
