What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Barbara Galiza, Growth and Marketing Analytics Consultant. Summary: Attribution is a bit like navigating Amsterdam’s canals: mesmerizing but full of hidden turns that don’t always make sense. You don’t need to chart every twist—just focus on finding the direction that moves you forward. Instead of obsessing over every click, use attribution like a compass, not a GPS. Multi-touch attribution (MTA) gives you some of the story, but often misses those quiet yet powerful nudges that drive real decisions. Layering in rule-based or incrementality testing can fill the gaps, giving a clearer picture of what’s driving your wins. For startups, it’s even simpler: stick to what’s working and forget complex attribution—qualitative feedback is often the best guide in the early days. Data doesn’t need to be perfect, just practical, and sometimes trusting that a strategy is working is enough to keep pushing it. About Barbara Barbara was an early employee at Her (YC), the biggest platform for LGBTQ women where she would eventually become Head of GrowthShe was also Head of Growth at different startups like Pariti and HomerunShe worked at an agency where she led data and analytics for Microsoft EMEABarbara then went out on her own as a GTM and Analytics consultant for various companies like Gitpod, WeTransfer, Sidekick and dbt LabsShe has a newsletter on marketing data: 021 newsletter.She produces content for data brands (dbt, Mixpanel, Amplitude) like case studies and webinarsBuilding Data Literacy Through SQL Data literacy is essential for modern marketers, but it doesn't have to be intimidating. Barbara’s advice is simple: learn SQL. While marketers today are surrounded by user-friendly tools and drag-and-drop interfaces, those who want to truly grasp their data should get comfortable with SQL. It’s not about becoming a data engineer but about understanding how the numbers you rely on every day are built. SQL helps you see how data connects, how it’s organized, and how you can group it to make sense of what’s happening in your campaigns. What’s great is that you don’t need to dive into formal classes or certifications. Start where you are. Most companies are sitting on a goldmine of structured marketing data, whether it’s Google Analytics data in BigQuery or Amplitude events stored in a data warehouse. The next time you’re building a report, try using SQL for a small part of the process. It’s a skill that compounds over time. Once you get familiar with the basics, you’ll start to see data in a different way, and you’ll be able to spot insights faster. Barbara also points out a crucial, often overlooked skill: understanding why your tools give credit to certain campaigns. Why does one Facebook ad outperform others in your reports? Why does Google Analytics attribute more conversions to certain sources? Getting to the bottom of these questions puts you in a much stronger position as a marketer. If you can explain how attribution models work and why certain data points appear, you're already ahead of most. At the end of the day, it’s about making smarter decisions. Barbara believes that marketers who can confidently say, “I know why these numbers look the way they do,” are in the top 10% of data-driven marketers. It’s not just about collecting data; it’s about making sense of it and using it to steer your strategies. Key takeaway: Learning SQL gives marketers the power to truly understand their data. Starting small, even with basic queries, can unlock a deeper understanding of how marketing data is structured and why campaigns perform the way they do. The key is to build practical skills that help you make more informed decisions. Rethinking Attribution and Understanding Its Role in Measurement Barbara brings clarity to two commonly conflated concepts: attribution and measurement. While many marketers default to thinking of a