Last-Touch Attribution
Also known as: last-click attribution
Last-touch attribution credits the entire value of a conversion to the final marketing interaction before it happened, highlighting which channels close.
Last-touch attribution assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to the last touchpoint before it occurred. It is the default in many ad platforms because it is easy to measure and directly tied to the action, including the campaign a caller came from on the call that converted.
Its simplicity is also its flaw: it ignores the earlier touches that warmed the prospect up. For a fuller view, see first-touch and multi-touch attribution.
Frequently asked questions
What is the weakness of last-touch attribution?
It gives all the credit to the closing channel and none to the campaigns that created awareness and consideration earlier, so it tends to overvalue bottom-of-funnel channels like branded search and undervalue everything upstream.
What does last-touch attribution mean?
Last-touch attribution assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final marketing interaction before it happened. If a caller's last step was clicking a branded-search ad and then dialing, that ad gets full credit even if earlier touches did the real persuading.
What is the difference between last-touch and multi-touch attribution?
Last-touch hands all the credit to the final interaction; multi-touch spreads credit across every interaction in the journey. Last-touch is simpler but overvalues closing channels, while multi-touch is fairer but needs more complete tracking, including the phone calls.
Related terms
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