🧠 What if the data you're trusting is the reason you're stuck?

Welcome back to the 101st edition of Nord Media

Every brand wants cleaner attribution, but chasing perfect clarity can leave you stuck in analysis paralysis.

• You tweak models.

• Debate first-click vs. last-click.

• Build dashboards that look impressive but don’t actually help you make better decisions.

At some point, attribution stops being a tool and starts becoming a trap.

An advanced tracking setup won’t solve the problem.

You need to identify the right signals and build a consistent weekly rhythm that keeps your team focused and aligned.

If you want to learn how to reverse-engineer clarity without getting trapped in attribution purgatory, check out the guide below. 

Let’s dive in.

The 4 Attribution Signals That Guide Spend Decisions

Attribution will never be perfect, but you don’t need it to be.

What you need is clear, trustworthy direction to guide your decisions. 

These are the 4 signals we rely on to guide spend decisions across platforms:

1. Blended CAC & MER

• The clearest high-level signal of scalable performance.

• You're in a good place if spending increases and CAC holds or improves.

• Watch trends week-over-week to catch early signs of fatigue or efficiency.

2. Branded Search Lift

• A proxy for top-of-funnel effectiveness

• If branded queries rise after prospecting pushes, that campaign made an impression.

• Check Google Search Console or Trends data weekly and align it with spend.
  

3. Post-Purchase Survey Attribution

• Qualitative insight that fills in platform blind spots.

• Ask: “How did you first hear about us?” and “What made you finally purchase?”

• Patterns in responses help validate or challenge what the dashboards say.

4. New Customer Revenue by Channel

• Focus on revenue, not just platform-reported conversions.

• Use Shopify or your CRM to track how much new buyer revenue comes from each channel.

• Compare against spend to spot gaps between perception and real performance.

Each signal has its flaws on its own. 

But together, they give you a triangulated view of what’s actually driving growth, so you can allocate budget with more confidence and less guesswork.

A Weekly Reporting Rhythm That Surfaces What’s Working (Even When Attribution Fails)

Attribution models can break.

Signals can contradict each other.

But a tight weekly reporting cadence gives you the clarity to act anyway.

Here’s how to structure it:

1. Start with a High-Level Summary

• Blended CAC, MER, and total new customer revenue.

• Week-over-week trends, not just snapshots.

• Answers the question: Are we scaling profitably?

2. Layer in Platform-Level Insights

• Top-performing campaigns by CPA, ROAS, and CTR.

• Spend deltas: where the budget shifted and how it performed.

• Identify any platform outliers (good or bad) and isolate variables.

3. Map Qualitative Signals to Quantitative Trends

• Pull post-purchase survey data and branded search lift.

• Compare what customers say with what the data shows.

• Look for alignment or warning signs.

4. Identify Next Moves

• What gets scaled, paused, or tested next.

• Focus on signal-backed decisions, not hunches or internal politics.

• Keep the feedback loop tight between creative, media, and strategy.

This rhythm keeps your team aligned.

It separates noise from signal, and it helps you act fast even when your attribution model is dragging its feet.

Example Scenario: Smarter Scaling Without Attribution Overload

Let’s say you’re in the home goods space, and you’re stuck.

Meta performance is inconsistent, Google looks fine on the surface, but new customer revenue has plateaued and your team can’t agree on what’s actually working.

Instead of obsessing over attribution dashboards, here’s how you’d apply the framework:

• You track the 4 core signals: Blended CAC + MER, branded search lift, post-purchase survey responses, and new customer revenue by channel.

• You implement a weekly reporting cadence: Every Monday, you review performance trends, align on what’s moving the needle, and decide what gets scaled or paused.

• You notice a pattern: Surveys keep mentioning “YouTube video” as the first touch. Branded search volume rises right after those ads run even though platform ROAS looks weak.

• You adjust accordingly: Instead of pulling back, you refresh the creative with a stronger hook and keep spend steady.

Within a few weeks, things shift:

• Branded search volume increases

• Blended CAC improves

• New customer revenue starts climbing again

You didn’t need a perfect attribution model. You just needed the right signals and a system to act on them:

Final Thoughts

Attribution will always have blind spots, but that doesn’t mean you need to fly blind. Here are 4 bonus takeaways to keep in mind:

• Triangulation > Trusting a Single Source
  No one metric tells the full story. Look for overlap between signals before making calls.

• Attribution Is a Compass, Not a GPS
  You don’t need a perfect route, just enough direction to know which way is north.

• Lagging Metrics Kill Momentum
  Waiting for perfect data means you’ll always be late. Use leading signals like branded lift to move earlier.

• Simplify the Debrief
  If your weekly report can’t be explained in 5 minutes or less, it’s not built to guide action.

Want to learn more? Connect with me on social 👇
LinkedIn • Instagram • Twitter 

Thank you for reading! I appreciate you.

Sincerely,
Kody

Disclaimer: Special thanks to eCom Email Certified & Uptick for sponsoring today’s newsletter.