What Is an Attribution Model?

An attribution model is a rule set that determines which marketing touchpoint, or combination of touchpoints, gets credit for a conversion when a visitor interacted with multiple channels before converting.

Example

A customer might first discover a brand through an organic search result, later click a retargeting ad, then finally convert after clicking an email link. A last-click attribution model would give all the credit to email, while a linear model would split it across all three.

Why it matters

Choosing the right attribution model changes how marketing budget appears to perform across channels, since a channel that looks weak under one model might actually be playing a significant supporting role earlier in the customer journey.