attribution model

Intermediate 📣 Marketing / Advertising

Definition

A mathematical framework for assigning credit to various marketing touchpoints that led to a conversion, because apparently one person needs to get the glory even when seventeen different campaigns were involved. Think of it as the participation trophy debate of digital marketing.

Example Usage

After switching to a time-decay attribution model, we finally stopped giving all the credit to the last-click email and recognized that the initial Facebook ad actually did something.

Origin

Emerged in digital marketing analytics in the mid-2000s as multi-channel tracking became feasible

Fun Fact

Most companies use 'last-click attribution' by default, which is like giving the person who opened the car door all the credit for driving you across the country.

Source: Digital marketing analytics frameworks

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