Attribution: the questions we get asked most

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. The questions about attribution that come up most often on our calls.

Data you do not trust is worse than no data, because it gets quoted anyway. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.

Do we need to care about this?

Last-click attribution overvalues the final touch. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it.

How do we know it is working?

Use it to allocate budget, not to settle arguments. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

In practice

Measurement is only useful when someone has agreed in advance what they would do differently. Three things worth confirming about attribution before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Use it to allocate budget, not to settle arguments — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Most of the value here comes from doing the first two things, not all of them.