Glossary
First-touch attribution

First-touch attribution

First-touch attribution is a way of measuring marketing performance that gives full credit for a conversion (like a sign-up or purchase) to the user’s very first interaction with your business.

What is first-touch attribution?

First-touch attribution is a marketing measurement model that assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to a potential customer’s first digital interaction with your brand. (A conversion can be any action you want the user to complete, like a download, a purchase, or a sign-up.)

This model overlooks other touchpoints that might have contributed to closing the deal, even the one where the actual conversion took place.

Let’s break it down with an example scenario.

Initial interaction: Jane sees a Facebook ad for your mobile app and clicks on it. This is her first encounter with your brand.
Subsequent interactions: Jane then explores your app store page, reads reviews, downloads a free trial of the app, and eventually makes an in-app purchase after receiving a push notification.

In first touch, the Facebook ad is given all the credit for Jane’s purchase because it’s the first interaction that introduced her to your brand.

Marketers use this marketing attribution model to understand the early stages of the customer journey. First touch helps identify which channels are most effective at attracting new leads and driving early-stage engagement. However, this approach has its limitations, as it doesn’t consider the impact of subsequent interactions in the conversion process.

How does first-touch attribution work?

First-touch attribution works on a simple idea: the first interaction is crucial in sparking a customer’s journey.

Here’s how it plays out:

Identify the first interaction: The process starts with identifying and tracking the first touchpoint a customer engages with. This could be through various channels — a paid ad, a social media post, an organic search result, or a direct landing page visit.
Assign credit: Once the first interaction is identified, any subsequent conversion (such as a purchase, sign-up, or inquiry) is fully credited to this initial touchpoint. This means that regardless of the number of interactions or the influence of later touchpoints, the first touchpoint is deemed the most important in initiating the customer journey.
Analyze performance: Marketers then analyze the data to determine which channels or campaigns are most effective at generating initial interest. They use this insight to allocate budgets, optimize campaigns, and refine marketing strategies to attract new customers.

Benefits and limitations of first-touch attribution

Like any other attribution model, first-touch measurement has both strengths and weaknesses. In short, the simplicity that makes it appealing also limits the insights it can provide.

Benefits

Makes it easy to identify effective marketing channels: When you attribute the entire conversion credit to the first touchpoint, it’s easier to spot the marketing channels or campaigns that spark initial interest. This helps you fine-tune your marketing campaigns and allocate resources to channels attracting quality leads.

Increases awareness and brand exposure: First touch highlights the impact of early touchpoints, such as ads or content, that create brand awareness and initiate user engagement. For example, if a user finds your app’s blog post through a search engine and later downloads the app, the search engine touchpoint gets full credit for introducing the user.

Simple and accessible: Unlike more complex models, such as multi-touch or position-based attribution, first touch requires minimal data collection and analysis. This simplicity makes it appealing if you have limited resources or are new to attribution models. It’s also quick to adopt and integrate into existing marketing strategies and tech stacks.

Validates TOFU ROI: First touch gives you clear evidence of how your top-of-funnel (TOFU) content and brand initiatives are performing. With this information, you can confidently invest in TOFU strategies that boost brand recognition and engage potential users. Think of it as a data-driven approach that highlights each channel’s contribution to overall marketing success and ROI.

Limitations

Oversimplification: First-touch attribution assumes every user follows a linear path from initial contact to conversion, which isn’t often the case. This approach misses the mark, especially for repeat users or those interacting with multiple touchpoints before purchasing.

Ignores the involvement of offline touchpoints: First touch zeroes in on digital touchpoints, overlooking offline interactions like in-store visits, phone calls, or printed ads. This funneled focus can paint an incomplete picture of user behavior, leading to decisions based on partial insights.

Limited insight into the full user journey: Relying solely on the first touchpoint for attribution gives you a limited perspective. In reality, user interactions often involve multiple touchpoints across various channels.

For example, a user might discover your app through a search engine, engage with content on social media, and then download the app through a paid ad. First-touch attribution would credit the search engine alone, ignoring the impact of subsequent touchpoints that nurtured the user’s interest and led to the final conversion.

Challenges in accurate identification: Sometimes, it’s difficult to determine which specific touchpoint initiated the user’s journey. This is especially true for user journeys involving user referrals, community recommendations, podcasts, and dark social. For this reason, many revenue teams prefer using the last-touch attribution model, which credits the last, most easily tracked touchpoint.

First touch attribution - challenges in accurate identification

Unsuitable for complex journeys: For businesses with long and complex sales cycles, relying on first-touch attribution is like trying to judge a movie by its opening scene. It misses the rich story that unfolds over multiple interactions and touchpoints.

Successful conversions often come from the collective impact of many channels working together. By focusing only on the first touch, you risk undervaluing the full scope and effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

First touch vs other attribution models

Knowing how first-touch attribution stacks up against other models helps you choose the best fit for your needs. Let’s break down how it compares to last-touch and multi-touch attribution.

Last-touch attribution

Last-touch attribution is the flip side of first touch. Here, all the credit for a conversion goes to the final interaction a user has with your brand before completing a desired action.

Here are the key similarities and differences:

Focus: First-touch attribution emphasizes the initial engagement, whereas last-touch attribution focuses on the final touchpoint that led to the conversion.
Insight: Last-touch attribution helps you understand which touchpoints are most effective at closing sales and converting leads.
Limitation: Similar to first-touch attribution, last touch tends to oversimplify the customer journey by ignoring earlier touchpoints.

Multi-touch attribution

Multi-touch attribution spreads credit across multiple touchpoints, recognizing the contribution of each interaction.

Here’s an overview:

Holistic view: Unlike single-touch models, multi-touch attribution offers a comprehensive view of the customer journey by considering all interactions.
Types: This attribution model has three types. Linear attribution distributes credit equally across all touchpoints, while time-decay attribution gives more credit to interactions closer to the conversion. Finally, position-based attribution assigns the most credit to the first and last touchpoints, with the remaining credit spread among the middle interactions.
Complexity: Compared to first touch, multi-touch models are more complex to implement and analyze. However, they provide deeper insights into how different touchpoints drive conversions.

Example

Imagine a potential user interacts with your mobile app in the following way:

Facebook ad: User first sees a Facebook ad for your app and clicks on it (initial touchpoint).
App store page: User visits your app store page but doesn’t download the app immediately.
Email campaign: A few days later, user receives an email campaign reminder about the app, clicks the link but still doesn’t download.
Google search ad: Finally, user sees a Google search ad, clicks on it, and decides to download the app.

Under first-touch attribution, all credit goes to the Facebook ad because it was the first interaction. This highlights Facebook’s role in generating initial interest.

Under last-touch attribution, all credit goes to the Google search ad because it was the final interaction before the conversion. This shows Google ads’ effectiveness in closing the deal.

Under multi-touch attribution, credit is distributed across all interactions depending on your chosen model. For example, you might assign 40% to the Facebook ad, 20% to the email campaign, and 40% to the Google ad. This balanced view shows how each touchpoint contributed to the user’s decision to download and purchase the app.

First-touch vs Last-touch vs Multi-touch attribution: At a glance

	First-touch attribution	Last-touch attribution	Multi-touch attribution
Focus	Initial customer interaction	Final customer interaction	All customer interactions
Credit assignment	100% to the first touchpoint	100% to the last touchpoint	Distributed across multiple touchpoints
Complexity	Simple and easy to implement	Simple and easy to implement	More complex, requires detailed tracking and analysis
Use case	Best for understanding top-of-funnel activities	Best for understanding bottom-of-funnel activities	Best for understanding the full impact of all touchpoints
Limitation	Ignores subsequent interactions	Ignores prior interactions	Requires more sophisticated data analysis and is resource-intensive

Does first-touch attribution still matter?

The short answer is yes, but there’s a catch: first touch is useful, but not on its own.

Why is that? First-touch attribution is great for pinpointing which initial marketing efforts are pulling in new leads and boosting brand awareness. Knowing the first point of contact helps you fine-tune your top-of-funnel activities and use your resources strategically.

However, using first touch alone means you risk missing out on the big picture, as it ignores the influence of later interactions in a user’s journey. Instead, consider combining first touch with multi-touch models to better understand how all your touchpoints drive conversions.

This will give you a more accurate analysis of your marketing efforts, leading to more effective optimization throughout your entire funnel.

Who should use first-touch attribution?

First-touch attribution is particularly relevant for the following types of companies and marketing strategies:

Brand awareness builders: If you’re a new company aiming to build brand awareness, identifying which initial touchpoints attract potential customers can guide your marketing investments effectively.
High-conversion, low-sales companies: If your company enjoys high conversion rates but struggles with low total sales, understanding which channels generate the most initial interest can drive more traffic into your sales funnel.
Short sales cycle organizations: For businesses with short sales cycles, first-touch attribution helps quickly identify the most effective marketing efforts — those that spark immediate interest and drive swift conversions.
Demand generation-focused companies: If your organization is focused solely on creating demand, pinpointing which initial interactions capture potential customers’ attention is crucial.
Budget-conscious marketers: For companies with tight marketing budgets, first touch helps optimize spending by identifying the most cost-effective channels for generating initial engagement.
TOFU-focused businesses: If you’re focused on top-of-funnel activities, such as content marketing or social media engagement, first-touch attribution can help attract new leads.
Simple strategy executors: Smaller companies or those with straightforward marketing strategies, where the customer journey is less complex, may find first-touch attribution sufficient for their needs.
Data-limited businesses: If your business lacks sophisticated data analysis capabilities, first-touch attribution offers simple but valuable insights without the need for complex analytics.

Key takeaways

First-touch attribution gives full credit for a conversion to the very first digital interaction a user had with a business.
This model is great for highlighting how initial interest and engagement are generated. It’s simple and easy to implement, making it a good fit for businesses with limited resources or those new to attribution models.
While useful, first-touch attribution oversimplifies the customer journey by ignoring subsequent interactions that contribute to the final conversion. This limitation means it provides only a partial view of the user journey, which can be especially problematic for complex or long sales cycles.
It’s best not to use first-touch attribution in isolation. Combining it with multi-touch attribution models offers a clearer, more accurate analysis of how all touchpoints contribute to conversions, so you can optimize your marketing funnel and allocate resources efficiently.