<b>The channel that closed nothing — and everything</b>

<b>The channel that closed nothing — and everything</b>

A B2B services firm nearly cut their blog budget. Last-click reports showed it drove almost no conversions: visitors read, then left.

The clue lived in the multi-channel funnel report. The blog rarely closed deals, but it appeared as the <i>first</i> touch in 38% of all converting paths. People discovered the firm there, left, and came back weeks later through brand search to convert. Last-click handed all the credit to that final search.

Instead of cutting, they doubled blog output and tagged each post to track assisted paths.

First-touch-attributed pipeline rose from $80,000 to $210,000 over a quarter, while last-click still showed the blog 'converting' almost nothing.

The lesson: last-click rewards the closer and starves the opener. Read the path reports before you defund the top of your funnel.