Attribution Model

An attribution model is the rule that decides which marketing touchpoints get credit for a conversion when a buyer interacted with several before purchasing. First-touch credits the channel that first found them; last-touch credits the final click; linear splits credit evenly; time-decay weights recent touches more; position-based rewards the first and last. Each model tells a different story about what's "working," so the model you choose directly shapes budget decisions. For SaaS builders with long, multi-session buying journeys, single-touch models badly misprice channels — last-touch overpays retargeting and search, starving the content and social that started the journey. Why it matters: attribution errors compound into misallocated spend. Practical note: no model is objectively correct; pick one that matches your sales cycle, and cross-check against holdout tests or incrementality experiments when a channel's budget is large. Treat attribution as a directional guide, not accounting truth.