What is attribution?

Attribution refers to the practice of determining the role that any given channel plays in informing and influencing the customer journey. Traditionally in affiliate marketing it is the last click that’s credited with the sale.

But where did the ‘last click’ attribution model come from?

A potential customer finds interesting content about an online retailer or a product, clicks on a tracked link to the online retailer and makes a purchase. The content responsible for driving a user receives a commission for the purchase. This “click, track, pay commission back” model is the basis of affiliate marketing.

The internet was supposed to make content monetization easier, more trackable and performance-driven. However, as technology continues to evolve, the path a consumer takes along the way has become more convoluted. The source of the last click before purchase gets the credit and financial reward for driving a purchase.

Content publishers play a vital role in directing consumers to a particular product and/or online retailer, yet sometimes can lose out on their reward to other sources due to the business model that rewards only the last click.