Conversion Attribution

What Is Conversion Attribution

Conversion attribution is the process of assigning credit for a conversion to the touchpoints that played a role in influencing the sale. In other words, it’s a way of determining which interactions with your brand led to the desired outcome.

There are many different attribution models out there, and choosing the right one for your business can be tricky. But understanding how conversion attribution works is essential for any marketer who wants to optimize their campaigns and get the most ROI from their marketing spend.

Why Is Conversion Attribution Important

Conversion attribution is important for understanding which marketing activities are driving conversions and ROI. Without conversion attribution, it would be difficult to know which channels and campaigns are most effective.

Conversion attribution can help you optimize your marketing efforts by understanding which touchpoints are most important in the customer journey. This information can be used to allocate budget and resources more effectively.

Investing in the right attribution model can provide significant insights into your marketing performance and help you make better decisions about where to allocate your resources. The right attribution model will vary depending on your business goals, so it's important to choose one that aligns with your objectives.

How Does Conversion Attribution Work

There are two main types of conversions: online and offline. Online conversions are actions that take place on your website, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Offline conversions are offline actions that can be attributed to your online marketing efforts, such as making a phone call or visiting a brick-and-mortar store.

To attribute a conversion, you need to first identify the touchpoints that led up to it. A touchpoint is any interaction between a potential customer and your brand, including things like website visits, social media interactions, email clicks, and ad views. Once you’ve identified the touchpoints, you can assign a value to each one based on how likely it was to lead to a conversion.

There are many different ways to attribute value to touchpoints, but the most common method is last-click attribution. This model assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to the last touchpoint that occurred before the sale.

For example, let’s say a customer sees a Facebook ad, clicks on it, and then visits your website. But they don’t make a purchase right away. A few days later, they receive an email from you with a coupon code and decide to use it to make a purchase. In this case, the last touchpoint before the conversion was the email, so 100% of the credit would be attributed to that.

While last-click attribution is the most common method, it’s not always the most accurate. That’s because it doesn’t take into account all of the other touchpoints that may have played a role in influencing the sale.

For example, let’s say a customer sees a Facebook ad, clicks on it, and then visits your website. But they don’t make a purchase right away. A few days later, they receive an email from you with a coupon code and decide to use it to make a purchase. In this case, the last touchpoint before the conversion was the email, so 100% of the credit would be attributed to that.

But what if the customer had seen your ad multiple times before they clicked on it? And what if they visited your website more than once before they made a purchase? If you only look at the last touchpoint, you’re not taking into account all of the other interactions that may have influenced the sale.

That’s why many marketers prefer to use a model that assigns credit based on multiple touchpoints, such as first-touch attribution or linear attribution.

Here are common conversion attribution models:

Common Conversion Attribution Models

1. Last Click Attribution

When it comes to an understanding how customers interact with your brand, attribution is key. In digital marketing, attribution refers to the process of assigning credit for a conversion to the touchpoints that played a role in that conversion. There are many different attribution models out there, but last click attribution is one of the most commonly used.

Last click attribution gives 100% credit for a conversion to the last touchpoint that the customer interacted with before converting. So, if a customer clicks on an ad, visits your website, and then makes a purchase, the last click would get all the credit for that conversion.

While last click attribution is a simple way to understand how customers are interacting with your brand, it does have some limitations. For one, it doesn’t take into account all of the different touchpoints that may have played a role in that conversion. It also doesn’t give any credit to touchpoints that may have helped to create brand awareness or consideration but didn’t necessarily lead to a direct click.

Despite its limitations, last click attribution is still a valuable tool for understanding how customers interact with your brand. It can help you to identify which channels are driving the most conversions and where you should focus your marketing efforts. Additionally, last click attribution can be used in conjunction with other attribution models to get a more holistic view of the customer journey.

If you’re looking to better understand how customers interact with your brand, last click attribution is a good place to start. By understanding the limitations of this model, you can get a more accurate picture of the customer journey and make better informed marketing decisions.

2. Last Non-Direct Click Attribution

When a person clicks on an ad, they are typically taken to the advertiser's website. From there, the advertiser can track how long the person spends on their site, what pages they look at, and whether or not they make a purchase. However, if the person clicks on another ad before making a purchase, the original advertiser will not receive credit for that sale. This is known as last non-direct click attribution.

In order to receive credit for sales that occur after someone clicks on an ad, advertisers need to use a tracking system that can attribute those sales to the original ad click. There are various methods of doing this, but one common method is to use cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored on a person's computer when they visit a website. These cookies can then be used to track the person's activity on other websites that use the same cookies.

Another method of tracking last non-direct click attribution is through the use of promo codes. Promo codes are unique codes that are given to people who click on an ad. When these people make a purchase on the advertiser's website, they can enter the promo code at checkout to receive credit for their purchase.

Last non-direct click attribution is important for advertisers because it allows them to track the effectiveness of their ads. By knowing which ads resulted in sales, they can adjust their campaigns to focus on those ads that are more effective. Additionally, last non-direct click attribution can help advertisers to identify which keywords and placements are most effective at generating sales.

3. Last Ads Click Attribution

In online marketing, last ads click attribution is the practice of attributing credit for a conversion to the final ad that was clicked before the conversion occurred. This attribution model is often used by advertisers who are interested in identifying which of their ads are most effective at driving conversions.

Last ads click attribution can be a useful metric for evaluating the performance of an advertising campaign. However, it is important to keep in mind that this attribution model does not necessarily reflect the true value of each ad in the campaign. For example, an ad that is clicked on early in the customer journey may not get credit for a conversion if the customer clicks on another ad before finally converting. Similarly, an ad that is clicked on just before a conversion may get credit for the conversion even if the customer would have converted without clicking on that ad.

Despite its limitations, last ads click attribution can be a useful tool for understanding which ads are driving conversions. Advertisers who want to maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns should track this metric and use it to inform their media buying decisions.

4. First Click Attribution

First click attribution is the process of assigning credit for a conversion to the first touchpoint that a customer has with your brand. In other words, it's the practice of giving credit for a sale or lead to the advertising channel that initially drove the customer to your website or app.

With first click attribution, 100% of the credit for a conversion is given to the very first touchpoint that a customer has with your brand. This could be an ad they saw on Facebook, a blog post they read, or an email they received.

First click attribution can be a useful metric for understanding which channels are driving the most valuable traffic to your website. It can also help you identify which touchpoints are most likely to result in a conversion.

However, it's important to keep in mind that first click attribution is just one way of measuring the customer journey. There are other methods that may give you a more complete picture of how each touchpoint contributes to a sale or lead.

No matter which method you choose, it's important to remember that Attribution is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding your customers. There are other factors that can influence a sale or lead, such as timing, budget, and messaging.

5. Linear Attribution

The linear attribution model is the simplest way to distribute credit among multiple channels. With this model, each touch point gets the same amount of credit.

While this may seem like the fairest approach, it doesn't necessarily reflect the reality of how customers interact with businesses. In many cases, certain touch points are more important than others in influencing a purchase decision.

As a result, businesses should consider using a more sophisticated attribution model that takes into account the relative importance of each touch point. By doing so, they can more accurately allocate resources and measure the performance of their marketing campaigns.

6. Time Decay Attribution

Time decay attribution is the process of allocating credit for sales or conversions that occur over time. This is typically done by dividing the total value of a sale or conversion by the number of days between the initial interaction and the purchase.

The benefits of time decay attribution are that it can help marketers understand which touchpoints are most important in the sales funnel, and it can help them allocate budget to the most effective channels.

The downside of time decay attribution is that it can sometimes over-credit later touchpoints in the funnel, such as a website visit, and under-credit earlier touchpoints, such as an ad click.

To combat this, some marketers use other types of attribution models, such as first-touch or last-touch attribution. Others use a hybrid approach, combining multiple attribution models.

No matter which attribution model you use, it's important to test and experiment to see what works best for your business. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to attribution.

7. Position-Based Attribution

This model, sometimes known as the “bathtub model,” assigns greater weights to the interactions that occur first and last. In other words, it places more importance on the initial introduction and the final conclusion than on the interactions that occur in between.

What Is Custom Attribution Modeling

Custom attribution allows you to assign weights to different touchpoints in order to more accurately attribute conversions. For example, you could give more weight to touchpoints that occur earlier in the customer journey, or you could give more weight to touchpoints that are most likely to influence conversion.

There is no one right way to do custom attribution. The best way to do it will vary depending on your business and your customers. However, custom attribution can be a powerful tool for understanding how your marketing efforts are performing and for making better decisions about where to allocate your resources.