Attribution: Who Gets the Credit?
When a customer touches several channels before buying, attribution decides which channel gets the credit for the sale.
What you will learn
- Explain the attribution problem
- Compare first-touch, last-touch and linear models
- Pick a sensible model for a situation
The journey is rarely one click
Customers do not usually see one ad and buy instantly. A real journey for the clothing store might look like this:
- Riya sees an Instagram post about the Diwali sale.
- Two days later she clicks a Google ad while searching.
- A day after that she opens your email and finally buys.
Three channels helped make that sale. So which one gets the credit? That question is attribution. It matters because credit decides where you spend your budget next.
Three simple attribution models
| Model | Who gets the credit | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| First-touch | The first channel (Instagram) | You care about awareness |
| Last-touch | The last channel (Email) | You care about closing the sale |
| Linear | Split equally across all three | You value the whole journey |
Watch how the same ₹1,000 sale gets credited completely differently depending on the model:
Sale value: ₹1,000 Journey: Instagram -> Google -> Email
First-touch: Instagram ₹1,000 | Google ₹0 | Email ₹0
Last-touch: Instagram ₹0 | Google ₹0 | Email ₹1,000
Linear: Instagram ₹333 | Google ₹333 | Email ₹334Note: Under last-touch, Instagram looks worthless even though it started the whole journey. Under first-touch, email looks worthless even though it closed the sale. Linear shares the credit. None is perfectly right — each tells a different story.
Why does this matter in real money? Imagine 100 such sales in a month and you use last-touch to decide your budget. Instagram would get credited ₹0, so you might cut it entirely — and next month every journey that used to start on Instagram disappears, taking the Google and Email sales with it. The "weak" channel was quietly feeding the strong ones.
Which model should you use?
- New brand trying to get noticed? First-touch highlights what creates awareness.
- Mature brand focused on sales? Last-touch shows what closes deals.
- Want a balanced view? Linear (or a position-based model) credits the whole journey.
Tip: Most analytics tools default to last-touch (or a "data-driven" model). Just knowing which model your numbers use prevents big mistakes, like cutting a channel that quietly starts most journeys.
Watch out: Last-touch attribution can fool you into killing top-of-funnel channels like social or display, because they rarely get the final click. Always check whether a "weak" channel is actually starting journeys.
Q. A customer journey is Facebook then Google then Email. Under last-touch attribution, which channel gets full credit?
✍️ Practice
- A ₹3,000 sale had the journey Google then Instagram then Direct. Split the credit under the linear model.
- Explain in one sentence why a brand-new business might prefer first-touch attribution.
🏠 Homework
- Describe your own most recent online purchase. List every touchpoint you remember, then say which channel each attribution model would credit.