Quick answer
Attribution assigns credit for a conversion to the touchpoints — channels, campaigns, landing pages — that led to it. The attribution model is the rule for splitting that credit.
Why attribution is needed
Few people buy on their first visit. A typical path might be: finds you through a search, comes back from a newsletter, clicks a retargeting ad, then buys. Four touches, one conversion. Which channel "made" the sale?
There is no true answer — each touch did something. An attribution model is a convention for splitting the credit, and each convention answers a different question. Choosing one is less important than knowing which one a report uses.
The common models
- First touch — 100% to the first touch. Answers "what brings new people in?"
- Last touch — 100% to the touch right before conversion. Answers "what closes?" Most ad platforms report this way, for their own clicks.
- Linear — equal shares to every touch.
- U-shaped (position-based) — 40% to the first touch, 40% to the last, 20% shared among the ones in between.
- Time decay — more credit to touches closer to the conversion, halving every N days (the half-life).
One conversion, five answers
A $100 order came after four touches: organic search → email → paid social → direct.
- First touch: organic search $100.
- Last touch: direct $100.
- Linear: $25 each.
- U-shaped: organic search $40, direct $40, email $10, paid social $10.
- Time decay: most to direct and paid social, least to organic search; the exact split depends on the days between touches.
Each is "correct". If a team only looks at last touch, search engine optimisation will look worthless; if only at first touch, email will.
How TapCub handles attribution
TapCub's attribution analysis lets you pick a conversion event, a touchpoint dimension (channel, referrer channel, utm_source, utm_campaign, referrer domain or landing page) and a lookback window, then compare several models side by side: first touch, last touch, linear, U-shaped (40-20-40) and time decay with an adjustable half-life. It also shows converting paths and how many conversions had no touchpoint at all.
Separately, every identified user keeps a first-touch acquisition record — channel, campaign, landing page, ad platform — so growth and ROI reports can group users by where they first came from. Channel ROI reports let you switch between last session, first touch, last non-direct and linear credit.
Common mistakes
- Adding up platform reports. Each ad platform claims last-touch credit for its own clicks, so the sum is larger than your real conversions.
- Arguing about the "right" model. Use first touch for acquisition questions and last touch for closing questions; look at both.
- A window that is too short. For products with long consideration, a 7-day window drops the touches that started the journey.
- Ignoring direct. A large "no touchpoint" or direct share usually means links are not tagged, not that people found you by magic.
Related guides: Conversion Tracking, Lead Tracking and Marketing KPIs. See also marketing campaign analysis.
See also: Multi-touch attribution: models compared on one customer journey.
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Growth Strategist
Explores acquisition channels, activation, and conversion experiments, turning data insights into actionable growth hypotheses and evaluation methods.