The term “ Attribution,” in marketing, refers to the process by which the various actions taken by a user to achieve a given goal, usually a sale, are identified.
It is then usual to attribute a certain value to each action.
The analysis of this process is to be considered fundamental as it allows to detect the most effective touchpoints, messages, and channels on which to invest in order to optimise each stage of the funnel.
Speaking of attribution, it is also interesting to take a brief look at the concept of “attribution models” which is particularly used in data analysis on Google Analytics.
To do so, let’s start right from the definition offered by Google:
“An attribution model is the rule or set of rules that determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touchpoints in conversion paths. For example, the Last Interaction model in Analytics assigns 100 percent of the credit to the final touchpoints (i.e., clicks) that immediately precede sales or conversions. In contrast, the First Interaction model assigns 100% credit to touchpoints that initiate conversion paths.”
In the presence of a nonlinear customer journey model, attribution models play a key role in understanding the value of each touchpoint.
In this regard, we recall that there are several attribution models:
- last interaction – 100% of the value is attributed to the last channel the user interacted with;
- last non-direct click – 100% of the value is attributed to the last channel, but direct traffic is excluded;
- last click Google ADS – conversion value is attributed 100% to ADS and, in particular, to the last click on one of them;
- first interaction: 100% of the conversion value is attributed to the first channel the user interacts with;
- linear attribution: the same value for conversion is attributed to each channel in the funnel;
- time decay: a higher value is assigned to the last channels used for conversion;
- based on location: higher conversion values are assigned to the first and last interaction (typically 40 percent for each channel) and intermediate touchpoints are given the remaining value (thus typically 20 percent to each).
