Introduction to Attribution and Customer Journeys

Attribution helps you determine how much credit each campaign interaction deserves for achieving a specific goal on your website. To make this possible, our system uses the concept of Customer Journeys, which are sequences of campaign interactions leading up to a defined Website Goal.

1 Website Goals

Website goals are specific actions that indicate meaningful user engagement or conversion (e.g., placing an order or subscribing to a newsletter). These goals are the foundation for creating Customer Journeys and enabling attribution calculations. Without website goals, there are no Customer Journeys, and therefore no attribution is possible.

• Why are website goals important?

  A website goal tells the system what constitutes a successful user action. Once a goal is defined, our tool tracks all campaign interactions that lead up to this goal, creating a Customer Journey.

• Examples of website goals:

  • Order (activated by default)

  • Product added to the shopping cart

  • Custom Events (e.g., newsletter subscriptions, downloads)

For more information on setting up website goals, refer to our training chapter on Analysis of Goal Achievement.

2 Customer Journeys

A Customer Journey is a record of all tracked campaign interactions that occur before achieving a defined website goal. By capturing the sequence of user interactions, it provides the foundation for attribution.

Key Details about Customer Journeys:

• Only successful campaigns—those that lead to a website goal—are saved.

• A maximum of 15 campaign interactions are recorded. If more interactions occur, the first and last 14 are saved.

• The default tracking period is 30 days before the goal but can be extended to 60 days per campaign configuration.

Why Customer Journeys Matter for Attribution:
Customer Journeys provide the data needed to assign credit for a goal to one or more campaigns. Attribution models then calculate how much credit each interaction deserves.

3 How Website Goals and Customer Journeys Work Together

The image illustrates how website goals define Customer Journeys and enable attribution:

1. A user interacts with four campaigns in sequence

2. The user completes two website goals during their interaction:

   • First Order: Achieved after the SEA Campaign.

   • Second Order: Achieved after the Direct Campaign.

   • Newsletter Registration: Completed after the Direct Campaign.

3. Each time a website goal was reached, this resulted in creating a three distinct Customer Journey.

This example demonstrates how website goals trigger the creation of Customer Journeys. Each journey captures campaign interactions leading up to a specific goal, allowing attribution models to analyze and assign credit appropriately.

4 Overview of Attribution

Attribution models dictate how credit for website goals is distributed among campaigns within a Customer Journey. They allow you to analyze campaign performance and optimize your marketing strategies.

• What is Attribution?

  Attribution determines which campaign interactions within the Customer Journey receive credit for a website goal.

• Types of Attribution Models:

  • Single Assignment Models: Assign credit to one campaign per goal, focusing on a specific interaction.

  • Multiple Assignment Models: Distribute credit across multiple campaigns, providing a more comprehensive view of the Customer Journey.

Explore the detailed explanation and examples of each attribution model to decide which best suits your goals:

• Single Assignment Models

• Multiple Assignment Models