Attribution models explained: from last-click to multi-touch

Attribution models decide which creator gets credit for a sale — and that decision quietly shapes who you pay, who you keep, and where you spend next. Last-click is the default almost everywhere, and it’s also the one most likely to mislead you. Here’s a plain-English tour.

Last-click

All the credit goes to the final touch before purchase. It’s simple and easy to defend, but it systematically starves the creators who introduced the customer in the first place. Great for clean, short buying journeys; misleading for the long, creator-driven ones.

First-click

The opposite bias — all credit to the touch that started the journey. Useful when your goal is pure discovery and you want to reward the creators bringing in fresh audiences, but it ignores everyone who helped close the sale.

Linear (equal-weight)

Every touch in the journey shares credit equally. Fairer than single-touch models and easy to explain, though it can over-credit incidental touches that didn’t really move the buyer.

Time-decay

Touches closer to the purchase get more credit, earlier ones less. A sensible middle ground for creator programs where recent content usually does the heavy lifting but earlier exposure still mattered.

Multi-touch

Credit is distributed across the whole journey using rules or data. It’s the most accurate picture of how creators actually work together — and the most demanding to set up and maintain. Worth it once your program is large enough that the payout differences are material.

How to pick one

Match the model to your buying journey and your maturity. Short journeys and small programs: last-click is fine. Long, creator-led journeys at scale: move toward time-decay or multi-touch. Whatever you choose, apply it consistently so every creator is judged on the same rules — that’s what makes the numbers trustworthy.