Touch Based Attribution
See the touch-based attribution methods available and how each one assigns credit for a conversion.
Touch-based attribution gives credit for a conversion to the marketing touchpoints a customer interacted with before converting. A touchpoint can be an ad click, an ad view, an email, or a website visit from any channel.
Each method answers the same question in a different way: which touchpoints should get credit, and how much?
The right choice depends on your sales cycle, the channels you run, and the decisions you need to make.
Attribution methods
| Method | How credit is assigned | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Single-Touch Attribution | 100% to the first or last touchpoint | Quick, simple reads on what starts or closes journeys |
| Multi-Touch Attribution | Shared across all touchpoints, using Time Decay, U-Shaped, or Linear models | Understanding how channels work together across the journey |
| View Through Attribution | To ad impressions that led to direct or organic visits without a click | Measuring the impact of video, display, and other view-heavy channels |
| Algorithmic Attribution | Based on patterns in your data rather than fixed rules | Data-driven credit allocation across complex journeys |
Choosing a method
- Short, simple journeys: Single-Touch Attribution is easy to set up and read.
- Several touchpoints before conversion: Multi-Touch Attribution shows how each channel contributes.
- Large spend on impressions: View Through Attribution captures impact that click-based methods miss.
- Complex journeys across many channels: Algorithmic Attribution lets your data decide how credit is shared.
You can use more than one method side by side to compare how channel credit shifts.
Things to keep in mind
Touch-based attribution shows which touchpoints were present before a conversion. It does not on its own prove that a touchpoint caused the conversion. To measure true incremental impact, pair these methods with Casual Attribution and Incrementality Testing.
Updated 2 days ago