The Future-Proof Attribution Schema
by Austin Hay • Head of Marketing Technology at Ramp
VP of Business Operations at Runway, VP of Growth at mParticle, early employee at Branch Metrics, Reforge Creator
🎙️ Episode Context
Austin Hay demystifies the complex world of Marketing Technology (MarTech), explaining how to scale systems from startup to enterprise. He discusses the critical distinction between marketing ops and martech, offers a future-proof data schema for attribution in a post-cookie world, and shares mental models for decision-making and build/buy strategies.
Problem It Solves
Solves the data gap that occurs when companies want to move to MTA later but realize they haven't been storing the necessary historical touchpoints.
Framework Overview
A data collection strategy that sets up infrastructure for Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) from day one without requiring expensive third-party tools immediately. It focuses on capturing specific data points at the user-object level.
🌳 Framework Hierarchy
When to Use
When setting up a new data warehouse, CDP, or tracking plan for a B2C or B2B website.
Common Mistakes
Relying solely on session-based UTMs or third-party cookies without storing persistent user-level attributes.
Real World Example
A user visits via Google Ad (First Touch recorded). Later visits via Facebook (Last Touch updated). The data warehouse now sees the full bookends of the journey.
Imagine when a user comes to your website... you store those parameters locally... as UTM first campaign, UTM last campaign. And what you do is every single time that a person comes, you replace the last campaign... with the one that's there.
— Austin Hay