Attribution: AI Media Buying with Rabah Rahil (episode 140)
by April Buencamino-dyIn today’s episode, we continue our exploration into marketing attribution and delve into the work of AI Media Buying. We are joined by a self-confessed Meta Ads junkie, Rabah Rahill, the CMO at Triple Whale. The eCommerce Operating System manages analytics, attribution, and creativity for your Shopify store in one place, and currently sits across 7,000 stores.
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About Rabah
Before getting into marketing, Rabah first tried his hand at economics and then technology.
It was when he started building websites that he first entered the world of marketing. He became part of an agency and eventually founded his own, but later hooked up with AJ Orbach, one of the founders of Triple Whale. He officially became part of the team in 2021.
3 Tips for Successful Marketing in 2023
Rabah says there are three main things he has seen that contribute to marketing success:
- Establish a margin or financial structure. It’s foundational economics and those who have the margin win.
- Build community and connection with your customers. Have a place where your people can talk about your brand and connect with your customers.
- Diversify your ad and marketing channels. Facebook is great but diversifies and utilizes other channels as well.
Attribution Advice
The first step in marketing attribution is to recognize that it’s not perfect. The second step is to find out what you’re going to use it for and how you’re going to leverage it.
The point of attribution is understanding how your different marketing channels perform and knowing where to put more of your budget, but it won’t necessarily make your business better.
It’s a piece of the puzzle that you need to get into, learn, and understand how it can help generate the most value for your customers.
Adapting to the AI Media Buy
This is a new era where media buying is no longer just about targeting or managing budgets. It’s now more about offering economics, creative strategy, and your landing pages, among others.
With the emergence of generative AI, marketers need to shift their skill sets and become more productive and profitable.
Insider Tips
If we’ve inspired someone to take their first step with marketing attribution – what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?
For newbies, Rabah’s advice is to get into the “jobs to be done” framework by Clayton Christensen, which presents the idea that people don’t buy products; they hire them to do jobs. So you need to understand what job your product is being hired for, and then you can build your marketing around that.
He also recommends reading the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman to get into the psychological aspect of decision-making and tuning into Dara Denney’s YouTube channel for actionable items on media buying.
Once you’ve started of course you’ve got to ‘keep optimising’! So what’s your favourite way to improve marketing attribution performance?
Take a look at how people are interacting with your ads and also understand what your conversion rate is on your landing page. Make sure there’s cohesiveness between the two and that both are telling the same story.
Rabah says those are the levers he pulls on constantly.
If someone listening wants to learn more about marketing attribution is there one cheap/free resource you’d recommend?
Aside from getting into “jobs to be done”, here’s a list of Rabah’s recommendations:
- Acquired Podcast
- Founders Podcast
- Asymco Podcast
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in marketing attribution?
In the next 6 to 12 months, the big thing will be understanding how to leverage AI. Whether that’s in media buying, creatives, writing, or any other area, learn and understand how to augment your workflows with AI.
Businesses with smaller teams that learn how to use AI to increase output are going to be in a great place economically, so get into it, master it, and understand how you can get more value out of AI.
Interview Links
Rabah on Social media:
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