An introduction to attribution models

Attribution is fundamental in the world of marketing for several reasons:

• Optimizing marketing budget: By understanding which channels are driving conversions, marketers can allocate budget more efficiently to maximize ROI
• Informing strategy: Attribution provides insights into which strategies work and which ones need adjustment
• Enhanced customer understanding: Attribution offers a clearer picture of the customer journey, helping to refine the marketing approach

Fundamentally, attribution is the act of assigning a value to a channel or touchpoint. A value in this context is simply how much credit for the conversions we give each channel. The question is, how do we, in practice, assign such a value to a marketing channel?

For example, consider the journey depicted in Figure 11.1:

Figure 11.1 – An example of a customer journey

Here, we have a user who saw a search ad, then saw a Facebook...