The 30,000 foot view
Understanding how every marketing channel performs is essential for making smarter investments. Extended Stay America (ESA) needed a performance analysis tool that could unify data across both paid and organic channels, giving them a full, actionable view of how their marketing efforts were truly performing. The goal was simple but ambitious: capture the complete impact of every touchpoint, whether that was a paid click, an organic search result, or even a display ad impression that never got clicked, along the entire customer journey.
To bring this vision to life, WMX built a custom, fully interactive data backend and visualization dashboard. It pulled together disparate data sources, layered in sophisticated attribution modeling, and empowered the client with a real-time, decision-ready tool.
The challenge
ESA’s biggest roadblock was fragmented data. Key insights were locked in disconnected platforms—Campaign Manager, Adobe Analytics, individual ad networks—and none of them spoke the same language. Even worse, Display and Video view-throughs were being undercounted or missed entirely, leaving major gaps in attribution. What ESA needed was clear:
- A fully connected performance view across paid and organic channels
- Accurate attribution for non-click touchpoints, especially Display and Video
- Flexible attribution modeling to support both strategic planning and day-to-day optimizations
- A fast, intuitive dashboard that turned complex data into clear, actionable insights
The solution
WMX started by building a clean data foundation. We mapped and aligned every relevant source:
- Adobe Analytics for sessions and transactions
- Campaign Manager for tracked conversions
- Plus: Display, Meta, Email, Video, Affiliate, Direct, Referral, Organic Search, and Paid Search & Social
Custom mapping tables stitched everything together, matching identifiers and reconciling inconsistencies to capture the full customer journey. Next, we built a robust ETL pipeline using Google BigQuery, Amazon S3, Alteryx, and Ads Data Hub to ingest, clean, and transform raw data. We appended view-through conversions, enriched campaign metadata, and ensured consistency across all touchpoints. Once unified, we brought the data to life in a custom Power BI dashboard. Key features included:
- Toggleable attribution models: First-touch, last-touch, linear, time decay, and position-based
- Channel-level and cross-channel comparisons
- Real-time performance snapshots and historical trend tracking
- Publisher-level insights to optimize spend with precision
This wasn’t just a prettier report—it was a strategic decision-making tool. ESA could now move beyond surface metrics and into true performance intelligence.
The results
The impact was immediate and transformational. With all channels connected, view-throughs correctly counted, and attribution done right, the client could finally see the full story behind their performance. They were finally able to:
- Access a centralized source of truth across all marketing channels
- Get accurate, consistent revenue attribution, especially for Display and Video
- Make faster, more informed decisions with real-time access to granular and high-level data
- Allocate budget with confidence, backed by reliable insights and tailored attribution models
This wasn’t just about better reporting; it was about better outcomes. WMX could now pivot campaigns mid-flight, reassign spend intelligently, and understand the compounded value of every touchpoint in the funnel. Bottom line: this solution redefined how ESA approached performance measurement. It’s a strong example of how WMX delivers smart, scalable analytics built around the unique needs of our clients.