Attribution Model
In one line
An attribution model is a framework for deciding how credit for a conversion is split across the different touchpoints a customer interacted with on the way there.
Going deeper
An attribution model decides how revenue from a conversion is split across the touchpoints leading up to it — paid search, then a Facebook ad, then organic, then a direct visit. Common variants include first-click, last-click, linear, time-decay, U-shaped (position-based) and data-driven.
Relying on last-click alone systematically underrates upper-funnel channels. Awareness and consideration touchpoints rarely capture the final click, their budgets get cut, and growth quietly stalls a few quarters later.
Cookie restrictions, ITP and the GA4 transition have weakened classical deterministic attribution. The emerging norm is a hybrid stack — data-driven attribution plus media mix modelling (MMM) plus incrementality tests — rather than any single model.
Related terms
GA4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's current analytics platform for web and app, built on an event-based data model rather than the session-centric model that defined Universal Analytics.
MarketingUTM Parameter
UTM parameters are standardised query strings appended to URLs that label the source, medium and campaign so you can tell where each visit came from.
MarketingROAS
Return on ad spend (ROAS) is revenue divided by ad spend — the headline efficiency metric for performance campaigns where revenue can be tracked back to the channel.
MarketingMarketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is the staged model — usually visualised as a narrowing funnel — that tracks prospects from first awareness through to purchase and loyalty.
MarketingA/B Testing
A/B testing randomly splits users between two variants and uses statistical comparison to decide which version performs better on a defined metric.