What is attribution modeling?

Attribution modeling is the method advertisers use to determine the value of different channels for their marketing efforts and helps advertisers determine which channels provide the most benefit to their marketing campaign.

Types of attribution models 

• First Touch Attribution — Awards credit for an advertising interaction to the first point of contact a user has with a campaign.
• Last Touch Attribution — Awards credit for an advertising interaction to the final point of contact a user has with a campaign.
• Multi-Touch Attribution — Assigns varying weights to different traffic sources for an advertising interaction, which benefits multiple channels when a user interacts with a campaign.
• View-Through Attribution — Attributes specific impressions to installs, attributing value delivered by campaigns to ads that don’t directly lead to an install but feature along the conversion path.

Types of attribution methods

• Single Source Attribution — First and last-click attribution are single source attribution methods, meaning a conversion is attributed to the user’s first or final click. For example, if the final click before conversion was in a Google ad, then Google receives 100% of the credit. 
• Multi-Touch Attribution — Aims to acknowledge every touchpoint that influenced a user to install

Attribution methods (single/multi-touch) can contain elements taken from all four of the attribution models (first touch, last touch, multi-touch, and view-through). For example, a multi-touch attribution model might assign greater weight to the final touch point. 

Why is attribution modeling important?

Attribution modeling is how advertisers determine which of their traffic sources are delivering value and which are the best performing. Attribution models help advertisers know where traffic is coming from and how much, as well as how much it costs and whether or not it delivers a return in the long run.