Generic search terms are being undervalued by 15%, factoring towards a potential £175 million in spend that’s been incorrectly attributed, according to research by Qubit.

The research, based on data from Qubit’s behavioural attribution service, aims to find out what channels are most effected by brands not measuring and attributing spend across the entire, and increasingly more complicated, path to conversion.

According to the research, at least 50% of brands are using a last-click attribution model, instead of attributing to other channels further down the funnel. The undervaluing of generic search terms was one of the most significant cases found by Qubit, with it being undervalued by as much as 15% because it tends to factor into a path to conversion earlier in the process.

Ian McCaig, co-founder and director of Qubit, said The biggest insight that came from the research was that search was being undervalued. And search is so large that it really needs to be understood.”

McCaig said that over the past 18 months brands had been dipping their toes into attribution modelling but that most had used the last-click model because it is the easiest to get going.

He added that brands tend to struggle with having accurate and granular enough data as well as issues getting all the shareholders and agencies together to make it work.

Earlier this week brands such as Office and Thomas Cook (pictured) said they’d started to look at how they could implement attribution beyond the last click but, speaking at the sae round table, Agenda21 managing partner Pete Robins said it may be a while before it is adopted widely by brands (nma.co.uk 5 September 2012).