One of the questions I get asked most often by clients—whether it’s the CRM SaaS company I manage SEO for or the 20 schools and 5 colleges whose social media I run—is this:
“Which channel is actually driving my conversions?”
This is where attribution models come in. In digital marketing, attribution is the method we use to assign credit for a conversion (a sign-up, a lead, a sale) to specific marketing touchpoints. With today’s multi-channel journeys, where a customer might see a Facebook ad, click a Google Search ad, and then finally convert after an email, attribution becomes absolutely critical for making smart budget decisions.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through the most common attribution models—from the old last-click to the advanced data-driven approaches—and share insights from my own work on when to use each.
1. Last-Click Attribution
- How it works: 100% of the credit for a conversion goes to the last channel the customer interacted with before converting.
- Example: A student clicks on a Google Search ad for a college after previously engaging with an Instagram ad. In this model, Google Search gets all the credit.
👉 My Take: Last-click is simple, but it’s outdated. It ignores the role of upper-funnel channels like social and display. For schools, I’ve often seen students first discover a brand on Instagram, but last-click makes it look like only search is working.
2. First-Click Attribution
- How it works: The very first touchpoint gets all the credit.
- Example: Someone discovers a SaaS product via a blog post, then later clicks on multiple retargeting ads before signing up. The blog gets 100% credit.
👉 My Take: First-click is useful for measuring awareness campaigns. For colleges running outreach campaigns to new regions, this model shows which channels are best at sparking initial interest.
3. Linear Attribution
- How it works: Credit is distributed evenly across all touchpoints.
- Example: A prospect interacts with an Instagram ad, a Google Display ad, and an email before converting. Each gets one-third of the credit.
👉 My Take: Linear models are great when you want to value all steps in the funnel. For schools, it makes sense when the journey is long and involves multiple touchpoints. But the downside is it doesn’t distinguish which channels are stronger drivers.
4. Time-Decay Attribution
- How it works: Touchpoints closer to the conversion get more credit.
- Example: A student sees a Facebook ad, reads a blog, and then clicks a Google Search ad right before filling out an application. In this model, search gets the most weight, but Facebook and the blog still get partial credit.
👉 My Take: This model mirrors real behavior for short decision cycles. I’ve used it successfully for SaaS free trials, where early awareness matters but the last few touches (like retargeting ads) are often the real drivers of sign-ups.
5. Position-Based (U-Shaped) Attribution
- How it works: The first and last touchpoints each get 40% of the credit, and the remaining 20% is divided among the middle touchpoints.
- Example: An applicant first finds a college on Instagram, interacts with 3 blog posts, and finally converts on a search ad. Instagram and search would each get 40%, while the blogs share the remaining 20%.
👉 My Take: This is my favorite model for education campaigns. The first impression is critical, but so is the last step that drives the action. It gives you the best of both worlds while still acknowledging the middle journey.
6. Data-Driven Attribution (DDA)
- How it works: Uses machine learning to assign credit based on the actual role each channel plays in conversions. It looks at real paths, probabilities, and historical data to allocate credit.
- Example: If the model sees that users who engage with Instagram ads and email are far more likely to convert than those who skip email, it will assign more credit to email.
👉 My Take: This is the gold standard. Platforms like Google Ads and GA4 are now prioritizing data-driven attribution. I use it for most of my SaaS and education campaigns because it reflects real behavior. The only catch? It requires a decent volume of conversions to work well.
7. Why Attribution Models Matter for Marketers
When you’re managing multiple accounts, like I do, the model you choose can completely change how you allocate budget.
For example:
- A college client saw that under last-click, search ads looked like the sole driver of conversions. But when we switched to position-based, Instagram suddenly appeared much more valuable. That led us to invest more in Instagram ads, which eventually increased applications by 25%.
- For the SaaS company, data-driven attribution revealed that content marketing played a much larger role in the funnel than we initially thought, helping justify further investment in blog production.
8. Choosing the Right Model
Here’s a quick cheat sheet I use with clients:
- Last-click: Use for simple funnels or when you just want to track the final step.
- First-click: Use when you’re testing awareness campaigns.
- Linear: Use for long customer journeys where every step matters.
- Time-decay: Use when later steps drive more weight in short cycles.
- Position-based: Use when both first impressions and final actions are equally important.
- Data-driven: Use when you have enough data and want the most accurate picture.
9. The Shift Toward Data-Driven Attribution
Google Ads has already announced that data-driven attribution is now the default for new campaigns. This shows where the industry is heading: away from static, one-size-fits-all models and toward machine learning approaches that reflect reality more closely.
As a marketer, this means we need to get comfortable with DDA while still knowing when to use simpler models.
10. Final Thoughts
Attribution is not just a reporting tool—it’s a decision-making framework. The model you choose can completely reshape how you view your marketing performance and where you invest your budget.
For me, working across SaaS, schools, and colleges, attribution is the difference between guessing and knowing. Guessing leads to wasted spend. Knowing leads to smarter campaigns, better ROI, and growth that scales.
If you want to refine your marketing strategy, start by looking at your attribution model. It might reveal insights you’ve been overlooking all along.
✨ Amit’s Tip: Don’t get locked into one model. Experiment, compare, and find the model that best matches your customer journey. Data-driven may be the future, but the best attribution model is the one that answers your business questions today.