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What Are Some Common Attribution Models & What Do They Mean?
Here’s All the GOOD Bits:
- Data without direction is messy – tracking every click means nothing if you don’t know what it’s telling you. Attribution models turn chaos into clarity by showing which touchpoints matter most.
- No one model rules them all – each attribution model offers something different. The best choice depends on your sales cycle, goals, and each channel’s role.
- Small wins scale fast – you don’t need sophisticated analytics to see results. Start with a simple model, learn from it, and refine it as your business and data grow.
- Insight drives spending – when you know which channels close sales, you can stop wasting budget and focus on what works.
It’s Monday morning, and your phone pings with a sale notification. You haven’t launched a new ad in weeks, and no email campaign has gone out. So where did this customer come from?
You can vaguely recall chatting to someone on Instagram last Tuesday. Or maybe it was the Facebook ad they saw a month ago? Or could it have been that Google search you showed up for six weeks back?
That’s the problem with sales. They rarely come with a tag telling exactly which marketing effort made them happen. And that’s where attribution modelling comes in. They’re your way of solving that mystery.
By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly which attribution model fits your business, and more importantly, how to use that knowledge to make better marketing decisions.
What is an Attribution Model?
Attribution is like giving credit for a group project. When your team gets an A, who deserves the credit?
The person who did the research?
The one who wrote it?
The person who presented it?
Your customers don’t usually buy on their first visit. They might see your Facebook ad, visit your website, and finally purchase after clicking your Google ad three weeks later. Attribution models help determine which marketing efforts deserve credit for the sale.
For small businesses, this matters because:
- You don’t have an unlimited budget to throw at every channel.
- You want to spend more on what’s working and less on what’s not.
- You want to stop wasting time on marketing that just isn’t delivering.
Attribution Models Every Business Should Know
Let’s review the main attribution models in marketing and provide honest insights about when each works (and doesn’t).
Linear
Linear attribution is like splitting the bill equally. Everyone pays the same amount, regardless of whether they drank the wine.
Each touchpoint gets some credit if someone interacts with your brand five times before buying. Think of it like this: Someone sees your Facebook ad, visits from Google, reads your blog, downloads your guide, and buys from an email. Each touchpoint gets 20% credit.
Linear attribution works well when you have longer sales cycles where every touchpoint matters equally. Though it might sound fair in theory, some touchpoints are more critical than others. That Facebook ad introducing them to your brand deserves more credit than the blog post they probably skimmed through.
First-Touch
First-touch attribution gives 100% credit to the first marketing touchpoint, whether a Google search, Facebook ad, or Instagram post. This works well when you focus on brand awareness and getting new people into your funnel. First-touch makes sense if you’re a newer business trying to understand which channels are best at introducing you to potential customers.
For example, someone finds you through a Google search, sees your Facebook ads for weeks, and finally buys from an email campaign. Google gets all the credit.
A limitation is that it completely ignores what convinced them to buy. Your email might be heavy lifting, but first-touch attribution would tell you Google is your star performer.
Last-Touch
You most likely use last-touch attribution without realising it. This method gives 100% credit to whatever marketing touchpoint happened right before the purchase. It works well when you want to understand what’s driving immediate conversions.
The limitation might make you think your awareness campaigns aren’t working when they’re doing crucial work. But if someone’s ready to buy and you need to know which channel best captures that final moment of intent, last-touch attribution modelling offers that insight.
Time-Decay
The time-decay attribution model recognises that interactions closer to the conversion are typically more influential in the buying decision.
This works well when you have shorter sales cycles where that final push matters. eCommerce businesses often see good results with time decay because people usually decide to buy relatively quickly.
To smaller businesses, it makes intuitive sense. When someone compares your product to a competitor’s, the thing that converts them probably deserves more credit.
Position-Based
Position-based (also called U-shaped) attribution typically credits 40% of the first touchpoint and 40% of the last touchpoint and splits the remaining 20% among everything in between.
It recognises that finding new customers matters, but so does closing them. Point-based attribution works well when you want to value both discovery and conversion.
This model acknowledges that awareness and conversion campaigns play essential roles. It’s not really about picking sides, but more about giving credit where credit’s due.
So, What To Do Next?
Attribution isn’t about finding the “perfect” model; it’s about making better decisions with the data you have. As your business grows and your marketing gets more sophisticated, you can constantly evolve your approach.
Choosing the right attribution model is one thing, but implementing it is another. That’s where having an experienced partner makes all the difference.
At The Good Marketer, we work with small businesses like yours to turn messy marketing data into clear, confident decisions. Get in touch today, and we’ll help you track the numbers that matter, understand what’s driving sales, and make every pound you spend count.