Multi-touch attribution is a method for measuring which marketing channels actually drive revenue by distributing credit across every touchpoint in the buyer journey. Unlike last-touch or first-touch models, it reveals how discovery channels, nurture content, and closing interactions work together to produce conversions.
How do you choose the right attribution model?
Most businesses use last-touch attribution by default. The last thing a visitor clicked before converting gets all the credit. This is simple but misleading. It ignores every touchpoint that built trust along the way.
First-touch attribution goes the other direction. It credits the channel that originally brought the visitor in. This helps you understand discovery but tells you nothing about what convinced them to convert.
Linear attribution splits credit evenly across every touchpoint. A visitor who saw an Instagram post, then clicked a Google ad, then came directly — each gets one-third of the credit.
Time-decay attribution is what we recommend for most service businesses. It gives more credit to touchpoints closer to the conversion event. The Instagram post that started the journey gets some credit, but the pricing page revisit that happened right before booking gets the most.
The key insight is that no single model is perfect. What matters is choosing one consistently, measuring against it, and using the data to make better allocation decisions. Stop guessing which channels work. Start measuring.