“When you start looking deeper into the data, where are those branded searches coming from? There are other touchpoints out there that have caused those to happen and that’s what we started to learn and understand with attribution.”
Nathan Gorenflo
About Nathan Gorenflo
Nathan Gorenflo is the Director of Digital Strategy and Marketing Operations at Franklin University. A computer scientist by training, Nathan became the digital expert at an agency during the birth of the digital era in 1999. After three years on the agency side, Nathan moved to the brand side, spending time with Mountain Top Conferences, Wells Fargo, and Cardinal Health. An experienced digital marketer, Nathan was initially attracted to attribution’s ability to provide a viewable conversion where credit was only provided to digital ads that were seen.
Key takeaways:
[1:34] I introduce today’s guest, Nathan Gorenflo, and ask him to walk us through his measurement career trajectory from being a programmer in an agency before the birth of digital marketing to today.
[3:32] Nathan recounts how he started at Franklin University and what the priorities were nine years ago, and how they have embraced digital as a whole.
[7:58] Before the advent of attribution, Nathan’s department was focused primarily on Google Analytics and though they still use it, it’s a fairly limited tool.
[11:23] Jeff and Nathan talk about the importance of filling your sales funnel, which touchpoints are responsible, and thoroughly understanding your customer journey in order to generate flow.
[13:37] Nathan shares his biggest attribution Aha!
[17:16] So you trust your vendor reporting? Nathan encourages you to have multiple independent resources if you want to have any kind of confidence in the picture you’re looking at.
[19:40] New tech can be a challenge to operationalize, Nathan speaks to how Franklin managed this new tech adoption.
[23:08] Five years in, Nathan talks about where he hopes attribution is heading in the coming years.
[25:20] Nathan shares one thing that he knows that no one else knows: understanding how branding and direct response fit together. I thank him for coming on the podcast and sharing so much of his experience.
Be sure to tune in for the next episode and thanks for listening!
Connect with our guest:
Quotes (edited):
“We have a complex ecosystem of touchpoints both online and offline.”
— Nathan Gorenflo
“We didn’t start by trying to swallow the entire camel! When you’re first starting out, just reduce it to a couple of questions you want answered.”
— Nathan Gorenflo
