Skip to main content

In my previous article, I had shared with Google planning on ditching last click it was the knockout blow but Google have ensured last click continues to live on. If we are honest with ourselves last click is the joker in the measurement stack. It’s surprising that last click still dominates how brands are measuring marketing performance. What is more alarming is that last click makes dashboards that are presented to the board to justify investment, last click is likely to show the total opposite that marketing is not having the desired business impact.

For the marketers and brands who continue to use last click I think the quote from Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker sums it up perfectly.

“You get what you f**king deserve!” — Joker

The impact of last click is likely to be end up destroying any growth for the brand.

Why use last click

The goal of measurement is about driving insights and action which is the opposite of what last click offers where it provides data for data sake which it does very well. Last click is easy data to access and it’s free means it requires no additional investment for brands.

Digital has driven the growth of last click

The focus on last click has been driven by the evolution of digital advertising looking to drive clicks. Looking at marketing plans good % of budgets are going into non clickable advertising channels be it TV, DOOH, Video, Podcasts even Google and Meta who were guilty of focusing on clicks are moving away from driving external clicks away from their own platforms to driving ‘engagement’ within their own platform.

The use cases for last click

In all the doom and gloom about last click there are some use cases I have seen where it can be of value:

Start-Ups: For start-ups there is no customer base, all sales are likely to be incremental making it easier to understand the impact and insights coming from last click.

Product: Having a product that is positioned uniquely in the market making it considerably easier to get value out of last click.

Price: With price being such a big variable that can make it uniquely positioned for the brand who are likely to win more than they lose with users clicking and buying. Last click will provide the required insights.

The are some good use cases for last click which has its limitations also there is a lifespan for the each of the use cases as the brand matures where last click is no longer sufficient.

When last click provides no value

For brands who have a return customer base that purchase frequently it’s all about incremental sales which is where last click will not provide those required insights. The platforms of Meta, Google etc make it harder with their algorithms as they have no way of understanding who is a customer. Meaning the platforms are likely to show an ad to a customer who are likely to buy anyway which distorts the insights more so when you look at it from the lens of last click.

Last click is the JOKER

Last click is the joker as it skews the marketers view on performance which seems strong with last click reporting more sales than the previous week or month. Reality is last click is doing more harm to the brand and the business bottom line. In the long and the short, last click can be useful for the short but not for the long as it’s not helping drive new customers which is the lifeblood for any business.

The longer, last click is in play for marketers it will eventually hamper any growth and in turn last click performance will decline and it will be too late to reverse the downturn.

Moving away from last click

For the brands who are overly focused on using last click are likely to have a weak measurement strategy. The core fundamentals of a robust measurement strategy would be a mix of: