Track · 2:30 · Liner note
Where the Credit Lands
Marketing attribution assigns credit for a conversion to the touchpoints that preceded it, using rules such as first touch, last touch or a weighted model, and each rule tells a different story.
Five touchpoints, one purchase: an ad, an email, a search, a review, a direct visit. Attribution decides which of them gets the credit. Where the Credit Lands is the question, and the model you choose, first touch, last touch, linear or weighted by position, quietly decides whose budget grows.
No model is neutral. Last touch favors the closers, first touch favors the openers, and none sees the people who would have bought anyway. Compare two models side by side and treat experiments, such as holdout tests, as the closest thing to ground truth.