Marketing teams use attribution for answering questions regarding media spend and digital campaigns. Operations departments use account-based attribution, which is better for B2B companies with longer sales cycles. Product managers use attribution to fine-tune digital products. Marketing and operations use attribution for product development, including the optimization of media spend. The following are some common uses for attribution. They are explained in this article. Choosing the right attribution model for your business depends on the goals of your marketing department.

Singular combines web attribution with mobile attribution

With Singular, you can get a complete picture of your marketing ROI. You can measure all of your marketing channels, from web to mobile, and track user behavior across the entire funnel. Singular also protects you from fraud by monitoring a single managed pipeline. Its advanced fraud prevention and heuristic rules allow you to identify fraudulent publishers. With Singular, you can track every step of your customers’ journey and prevent fraudulent behaviors.

Singular collects data from its SDKs, in-app SDKs, and 2000 API connectors. This data enables it to break down customer journeys by campaign, creative, and publisher. Singular claims its attribution is 95 percent deterministic while the remaining 5 percent is probabilistic. Considering that the modern customer journey is rarely straightforward, Singular’s attribution methodology is deterministic and combines data from web and mobile.

Time-decay attribution model

In the time-decay attribution model, the closest interaction to a conversion gets the most credit, while interactions further away get less credit. Time decay is an effective method for determining the importance of individual interactions. Digital analytics is key to online business success. In fact, digital analytics is the number-one reason most marketers are unable to scale their advertising budgets or increase sales. And while digital analytics is essential to understanding attribution, it is often overlooked.

The Time-decay attribution model distributes credit to all marketing touchpoints and gives a higher percentage of credit to the touchpoints that occur closer to a conversion. For example, the first touchpoint gets only 10% of the total credit, while the last two or three get 30% or 40%. The logic behind this model is that the drive toward purchase builds up momentum as the customer approaches the final touchpoint. As the last interaction takes place, the customer’s decision is made clear.

External attribution

External attribution is the process by which we attribute events outside of our control to other factors. It may also be referred to as social attribution or external locus of control. If you believe that someone or something is responsible for your failure or success, you are likely to attribute it to factors outside of your control. External attribution is very common and may be present in many different contexts. It is important to understand how to distinguish between a situation and an event to avoid falling victim to the external attribution.

A person’s internal attributions include a person’s personality characteristics, while an external attribution focuses on situational factors. An example of an internal attribution is when someone aced a test, while an external attribution might be that they got extra help or the test was too easy. To understand why attribution happens in everyday life, you need to understand that we assign different meanings to different events and circumstances.


Damon Nelson
Damon Nelson

Entrepreneur, business consultant, software developer, and marketing professional. Many hats with one simple goal... help you make more money with simple automation, proven strategies, and a little common sense. Want to learn more? Check out what I've been reading lately.