Overview table
The overview table shows how different models attribute a conversion journey with four different (non-direct) touchpoints.
* The Time decay and Inverse time decay models consider the time between touchpoints, which isn’t shown in the simplified table above.
Read more about the Time decay model here.
All attribution models ignore direct touchpoints—unless the customer journey only contains direct touchpoints.For example, in this customer journey: Facebook > Direct > Google > Direct > Conversion, the last touch model attributes the entire conversion to Google,
while a linear model attributes 50% to Facebook and 50% to Google.
Attribution window
Converge uses a fixed attribution window of 30 days.
Attribution models
Direct
Description: All credit goes to the channel of the session where the conversion occurred.
Use case: Understand which channel drove the conversion session.
The direct model attributes conversions to the channel of the conversion session, while the last touch model attributes conversions to the last touchpoint (non-direct if available) of the customer journey.For example, with this customer journey:
Facebook-session > Google-session > Direct-session with conversion
The direct model attributes the conversion to Direct, while the last touch model attributes it to Google. First touch
Description: All credit goes to the first touchpoint Converge observed in this customer journey.
This touchpoint can be either a paid channel (e.g. Facebook) or a non-paid channel (e.g. Organic Search).
Use case: Check how channels contribute to acquiring prospective customers.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
First touch paid only
If no paid touchpoint can be found, then the conversion will be attributed to No web touchpoint.
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Last touch
Description: All credit goes to the last touchpoint Converge observed in this customer journey.
This touchpoint can be either a paid channel (e.g. Facebook) or a non-paid channel (e.g. Organic Search).
Use case: Check how channels contribute to converting prospects into customers.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
Last touch paid only
If no paid touchpoint can be found, then the conversion will be attributed to No web touchpoint.
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
Linear
Description: Conversions are evenly attributed to all touchpoints in this customer journey.
For example with 2 touchpoints each would receive 50% credit and with 3 touchpoints each would receive 33.3%.
Use case: Check how channels contribute to the complete customer journey to conversion.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
Participation
It is normal for a participation model to show more attributed conversions than there are actual conversions because it will attribute the same conversion to multiple channels
It is possible for a single conversion to be attributed twice to the same channel if the customer has multiple touchpoints from different ads or campaigns within that channel
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
J-shaped
Description: Conversions are attributed across all touchpoints but bias more towards the last touch.
For 3 or more touchpoints, 60% of the credit is attributed to the last touch, 20% to the first touch, the remaining 20% is evenly distributed between the remaining touchpoints.
For 2 touchpoints, 75% is credited to the last touch and 25% to the first touch.
Use case: Use as your main model if you prefer Last touch attribution but want other touchpoints (especially first touch) to contribute.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 20% | 10% | 10% | 60% |
Inverse J-shaped
Description: Conversions are attributed across all touchpoints but bias more towards the first touch.
For 3 or more touchpoints, 60% of the credit is attributed to the first touch, 20% to the last touch, the remaining 20% is evenly distributed between the remaining touchpoints.
For 2 touchpoints, 75% is credited to the first touch and 25% to the last touch.
Use case: Use as your main model if you prefer first touch attribution but want other touchpoints (especially last touch) to contribute.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 60% | 10% | 10% | 20% |
U-shaped
Description: Conversions are attributed across all touchpoints but bias more towards the first and last touches. Also known as Position-based.
For 3 or more touchpoints, 40% of the credit is attributed to the first and last touchpoints. The remaining 20% is evenly distributed between the remaining touchpoints.
For 2 touchpoints, 50% of the credit is attributed to both the first and last touchpoints.
Use case: Check how channels contribute to the complete customer journey if you believe first and last touches are more important than other touches.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| 40% | 10% | 10% | 40% |
Time decay
Description: Conversions are attributed across all touchpoints using exponential decay with a 7-day half-life, normalized to 100% across all touchpoints.
Each touchpoint’s weight depends on the time elapsed between the touchpoint and conversion.
The closer the touchpoint is to the conversion, the more credit it receives.
For example, a touchpoint 7 days before conversion receives half the credit of a touchpoint on the same day as conversion.
Use case: Check how channels contribute to the complete customer journey if you believe channels are less important when further from conversion.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| Days ago | 21 | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| Weight | 0.125 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 1 |
| Attribution | 6.7% | 13.3% | 26.7% | 53.3% |
Inverse time decay
Description: Conversions are attributed across all touchpoints using an inverse exponential decay with a 7-day half-life, normalized to 100% across all touchpoints.
Each touchpoint’s weight depends on the time elapsed between the touchpoint and conversion.
The earlier the touchpoint happened, the more credit it receives.
For example, a touchpoint 7 days before conversion receives double the credit of a touchpoint on the same day as the conversion.
Use case: Check how channels contribute to the complete customer journey if you believe that channels are more important if they are earlier in the buying journey.
Example for 4 touchpoints:
| First Touch | Middle Touch 1 | Middle Touch 2 | Last Touch |
|---|
| Days ago | 21 | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| Weight | 1 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.125 |
| Attribution | 53.3% | 26.7% | 13.3% | 6.7% |
