5 Types of Marketing Attribution Models: Fast Facts

With the advent of digital, attribution in both sales and marketing has become more challenging. With the wide array of online channels available, attribution has become complex. How do you measure where your customers come from? Can you directly correlate a conversion to a specific marketing activity, or is it always a mix of marketing activities over time? How will you know which of your communications are working? How will you determine what touchpoints in your customer journey contribute to your sales?

These are just a few of the questions one has to ask when it comes to marketing attribution. In CDM’s Performance Marketing Masterclass, we discuss the five (5) most commonly used Attribution Models. Take a look and see which one is best for you.

This chart takes into account the brand conversion funnel or your marketing funnel. The top may pertain to awareness or consideration touchpoints down to actual sales. The rule of thumb is your choice of attribution model will be based on your funnel marketing goals.

• First Touch

The first touchpoint gets all the credit in the first touch attribution model. If your objective is on growth and acquisition, then using the first-click model is advisable. An example would be Facebook Advertising. However, a con of this model is that it can be inefficient because it favors highly competitive terms.

• U-Shaped

In the U-shaped attribution model, the credit is distributed at 40% at the first and last click and 20% evenly in the middle. It emphasizes key touchpoints while still giving credit to early efforts. Unfortunately, the middle touchpoints might be undervalued especially for long buying cycles.

• Linear (Even)

All the touchpoints are assigned equal credits in this marketing attribution model making each considered in the linear attribution model. This also means that the key touchpoints might be undervalued while the minor ones might be overvalued.

• Time Decay

A time decay attribution model is a model that distributes the credits the least at the start and slowly increases up to the last click. Visualize it like a flight of stairs. Given this, it’s highly efficient and distributes credits to all levels. It might overvalue last-touch efforts, though, and that might not cause you to disregard the other touchpoints.

• Last Touch

The last click, also known as last-touch attribution is the default attribution model used by Google. In terms of efficiency, it’s at the very top, but it overvalues brand terms, remarketing, and customer recycling. It’s the most conservative in terms of growth strategy as it gives all its credits at the last click.

Isn’t that interesting? Elevate your insighting skills and learn more about these marketing attribution models to determine which ones work best for your business. Join our Performance Marketing Masterclass to learn more about how to leverage your marketing data.