Marketing attribution is a critical aspect of any successful marketing strategy. It involves identifying which marketing channels and tactics drive the most value and ROI for a business. By tracking and analyzing customer interactions with various marketing channels, businesses can optimize their marketing spend and maximize their returns. There are three main marketing attribution methods: first touch, linear, and last touch. In this article, we will explore each of these methods and explain how an attribution dashboard can help businesses allocate their marketing spend more effectively.

Fist Touch Attribution

First touch attribution gives credit to the first marketing channel that a customer interacts with. This method is useful for understanding how customers initially discovered a brand or product. For example, if a customer first discovers a product through a Google search, then clicks on a Facebook ad, and finally makes a purchase after receiving an email, the first touch attribution method would give credit to Google search.

Linear Attribution

Linear attribution gives equal credit to each marketing channel that a customer interacts with on their journey to making a purchase. This method is useful for understanding how each marketing channel contributes to the overall customer journey. For example, if a customer discovers a product through a Google search, clicks on a Facebook ad, and finally makes a purchase after receiving an email, the linear attribution method would give equal credit to all three marketing channels.

Last Touch Attribution

Last touch attribution gives credit to the last marketing channel that a customer interacts with before making a purchase. This method is useful for understanding which marketing channels are most effective at driving conversions. For example, if a customer discovers a product through a Google search, clicks on a Facebook ad, and finally makes a purchase after receiving an email, the last touch attribution method would give credit to the email channel.

Ecommerce KPIs that can be tracked and attributed to various marketing channels include:

• Pageviews
• Add to cart
• Email capture
• Checkout
• Purchases
• Any other custom KPI relevant to your business

Ideally, the KPIs that you track will cover the whole user journey, from high funnel KPIs like product pageviews, to bottom of funnel KPIs like purchases. By tracking these KPIs and attributing them to various marketing channels, businesses can identify which channels are most effective at driving KPIs across the funnel.

Some channels may be bringing a large volume of high funnel users, but these users may not convert well all the way to a purchase. For these channels, the purchase attribution will be low. For other channels, you might see that the users go all the way down to purchase.

For example, if the first touch attribution method shows that Google search is the most effective at driving purchases, then the business may want to allocate more of their marketing spend towards SEO and search engine marketing.

The marketing attribution algorithm attributes each KPI to one or several channels, depending on the selected attribution logic. Customers IP addresses and first party cookies allow the algorithm to reconstitute the user's journey.