There’s a persistent frustration haunting the boardrooms and marketing departments of modern retail: reporting. We're drowning in data from Google, Meta, and our affiliate networks, yet we're starving for wisdom. Teams are measuring success in isolation, leading to overlapping spend, distorted ROI, and missed opportunities.
From what I've seen, it works well with big brands to fast-growing startups; the issue is rarely the channels themselves. It’s the broken approach we take to measuring them.
The danger of a siloed view
When your PPC team is chasing a ROAS target, your social team is focused on engagement, and your affiliate partners are driving last-click sales, channel cannibalisation is inevitable. Each team hits its KPIs, but the business itself leaks money.
Why? Because no one is looking at the full picture. We rely on last-click or siloed attribution models that tell us where the customer finished their journey, but not how they started it or the crucial steps they took in between. It’s like giving all the credit to the cashier and ignoring the window display, the store layout, and the helpful staff member who guided the sale.
When we were approached by HMV to relaunch their affiliate programme, the goal wasn't just to make that single channel profitable. The core task was to make it profitable for the business by understanding its true contribution to the entire marketing ecosystem.
The fix begins with one question: what does ‘good’ actually look like?
Before you can fix your measurement, you have to define what you're measuring against. The most crucial first step is to establish a single source of truth for success - not for the channels, but for the business.
Let's take a step back and look at this together. Is your primary business objective right now a specific Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)? Acquiring a higher volume of new customers? Or perhaps a blended Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) across all activities?
Once you have that North Star metric, every team can see how they contribute. The conversation shifts from "My channel did X" to "My channel contributed Y to our shared goal."
A practical framework for unified attribution
Here's the thing I've learned from being in the trenches with this: most businesses think they need expensive tools and wholesale structural changes to fix this problem. They don't. Tools can certainly help, and they may even be necessary at scale, but I've seen companies invest heavily only to find themselves with the same old problems. Why? Because even with the best tools, teams will revert to siloed ways of thinking if the foundational goal isn't unified.
It’s about changing the culture, not just the platform. To help you put this into practice, I’ve developed a simple framework. It’s not about expensive tools; it’s about a new way of thinking.
The North Star Attribution Framework
This framework isn't about new software; it's about a new social contract between your marketing teams and agency partners. It’s about agreeing on a single destination (The North Star) and working collaboratively to get there through actions, goals, and cultural shifts.
First off, you have to define & evangelise your North Star. This is the foundation. It's not just about picking a metric; it's about getting universal buy-in so it becomes part of the company culture. Here’s how it looks.
- The Action - host a collaborative workshop with all stakeholders - internal team leads (PPC, social, content) and all external agency partners.
- The Goal - agree on a single, business-critical "North Star Metric" that defines success for everyone for the next quarter or year. Examples could be:
-A specific blended Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
-A target for New-to-File Customer Growth
- A specific blended ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
- The Cultural Shift - this isn't a top-down directive. It's a group commitment. From this moment on, every person's primary goal is to move this single number. You are now one team with one target.
Next, you have to map contributions, not just conversions.
This step reframes the purpose of each channel. Instead of "what did my channel convert?", the question becomes "how did my channel contribute to the North Star?"
- The Action - in a follow-up session, whiteboard the customer journey together. Have each team lead and agency partner map out where their activities (ads, content, partnerships) realistically fit.
- The Goal - identify the "Introducers," the "Influencers," and the "Closers." This creates a shared understanding and appreciation for channels that play a vital role early in the journey, even if they don't get the final click.
- The Cultural Shift - this dismantles channel silos and replaces them with mutual respect. The PPC manager starts to see the value in the affiliate blogger's awareness content, and the social team appreciates the role of retargeting ads in closing the loop.
Then you create rituals of shared accountability
Consistency is key to making any cultural change stick. This step is about embedding the North Star into your team's regular operating rhythm.
- The Action - replace siloed channel reporting with a single, unified weekly meeting or stand-up.
- The Goal - each team lead and agency partner reports on their activities from the previous week and answers only two questions:
- "What did we do to move the North Star?"
-"What did we learn that will help us move the North Star next week?"
- The Cultural Shift - this creates a culture of transparent, collaborative problem-solving. It stops being about defending channel performance and starts being about collectively finding ways to hit the shared goal. Success and failure become a team responsibility. And that’s what drives forward success.
From theory to smarter decisions
Adopting this joined-up model does more than just clean up your reports. The real magic happens when you support the framework with simple, consistent actions. From my experience, these are the incredibly important things:
- Weekly standups - hold sessions where each team discusses how their channel has impacted the North Star for the week.
- Regular budget reviews - get all your agencies around the same table, at the same time, to review performance against the North Star.
- Collaborative planning - use the central source of truth to plan budgets collaboratively, investing in the entire customer journey, not just the last click.
This approach builds alignment between internal teams and agency partners and, most importantly, leads to more accurate measurement and better budget planning. You stop moving money around based on siloed data and start investing it based on true, incremental value. Which is what we’re all aiming for.
Marketing attribution is broken. Let’s fix it.
Retail Rewired
There’s a persistent frustration haunting boardrooms and marketing departments in retail. Reporting. We’re drowning in data from Google, Meta, and affiliate networks, but starving for wisdom. Teams measure success in isolation, leading to overlapping spend, distorted ROI, and missed opportunities.
From cashback to PPC to paid social, the issue isn’t usually the channels themselves. It’s the broken approach to measuring them.
The danger of a siloed view
When your PPC team is chasing a ROAS target, your social team is focused on engagement, and your affiliate partners are driving last-click sales, channel cannibalisation is inevitable. Each team hits its KPIs, but the business leaks money.
No one is looking at the full picture. Last-click or siloed attribution models tell us where the customer finished their journey, but not how they started it or the steps in between. It’s like giving all the credit to the cashier, ignoring the window display, store layout, and the helpful staff member who guided the sale.
When HMV approached us to relaunch their affiliate programme, the goal wasn’t just to make that single channel profitable. The goal was to make the business profitable by understanding its true contribution to the marketing ecosystem.
The fix begins with one question: What does good actually look like?
Before fixing measurement, you need to define what you're measuring against. Establish a single source of truth for success – not for the channels, but for the business.
Is your primary objective a specific CAC? More new customers? A blended ROAS across all activities? Once you have that North Star metric, every team sees how they contribute. The conversation shifts from ‘my channel did X’ to ‘my channel contributed Y to our shared goal’.
A practical framework for unified attribution
Most businesses believe they require expensive tools and significant structural changes to address this issue. They don’t. Tools can help, but even with the best platforms, teams revert to siloed thinking if the foundational goal isn’t unified. It’s about changing culture, not just software. It’s what I call The North Star Attribution Framework.
This isn’t about new tech. It’s about a new social contract between marketing teams and agency partners. Agree on a single destination (the North Star) and work together to get there.
Step one: define and evangelise your North Star
Host a collaborative workshop with all stakeholders – internal team leads and external agency partners. Agree on a single, business-critical North Star metric for the next quarter or year. Maybe it’s blended CAC, new customer growth, or blended ROAS.
This isn’t a top-down directive. It’s a group commitment. Every person’s primary goal is now to move this single number. One team. One target.
Step two: map contributions, not just conversions
Reframe the purpose of each channel. Instead of ‘what did my channel convert?’, ask ‘how did my channel contribute to the North Star?’
In a follow-up session, whiteboard the customer journey together. Map out where each activity realistically fits. Identify the introducers, influencers, and closers. This fosters a shared understanding and respect for channels that play vital early roles, even if they don’t secure the final click.
Step three: create rituals of shared accountability
Consistency embeds change. Replace siloed channel reporting with a single weekly stand-up. Each team reports on two questions:
- What did we do to move the North Star?
- What did we learn that will help us move the North Star next week?
This creates a culture of transparent, collaborative problem-solving. It stops being about defending channel performance and starts being about collectively hitting the shared goal. Success and failure become team responsibilities.
From theory to smarter decisions
Adopting a joined-up model does more than clean up reports. The real magic happens with simple, consistent actions:
- Weekly stand-ups to discuss channel impact on the North Star
- Regular budget reviews with all agencies reviewing performance together
- Collaborative planning, investing in the entire customer journey, not just the last click
This approach builds alignment between internal teams and agencies, leading to more accurate measurement and better budget planning. You stop moving money around based on siloed data and start investing it based on true, incremental value.
Because what if your best-performing channel isn’t what you think?
