Introduction

In the world of digital marketing, attribution models play a crucial role in determining how credit is allocated for conversions. One such model, the Full Path Attribution Model, takes into account every touchpoint in a user’s journey, from the initial contact to the point of conversion. In this article, we’ll dive deep into understanding how the Full Path Attribution Model calculates credit and its importance in optimizing marketing campaigns.

Understanding the Full Path Attribution Model

Unlike other attribution models such as first-click or last-click, which only consider a single interaction, the Full Path Attribution Model is designed to provide a more comprehensive view of a user’s journey. In order to do so, it attributes credit to each touchpoint in the conversion path based on its significance and contribution to the conversion.

Calculating Credit in Full Path Attribution

1. Identifying Touchpoints: The first step in utilizing the Full Path Attribution Model is mapping out all the different touchpoints in a user’s journey. These can be any form of interaction with marketing efforts such as organic searches, social media clicks, display ads, or email engagements.

2. Assigning Custom Weights: Once all touchpoints have been identified and organized chronologically, it’s time to assign custom weights to each interaction. This is done based on factors such as position, goal completion value, and prior knowledge of channel effectiveness. For example, if email marketing has historically yielded high conversion rates for your business, you may assign it higher weight compared to social media interactions.

3. Calculating Conversion Value: After assigning custom weights to each touchpoint in the user’s journey, conversion values are calculated by multiplying each weight with its respective goal completion value. The conversion value highlights the degree of contribution each touchpoint made to the final conversion.

4. Summing up Conversion Values: The next step is summing up all individual touchpoint conversion values to obtain the total conversion score. This score measures the overall performance of your marketing efforts in generating conversions.

5. Distributing Credit: To determine how much credit each touchpoint should receive, their individual conversion value is divided by the total conversion score. The result is a percentage that reflects the contribution of each touchpoint in leading to the conversion.

Benefits of Full Path Attribution Model

1. Holistic View: By considering all touchpoints in a user’s journey, businesses can gain a more comprehensive understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to driving conversions.

2. Data-Driven Decisions: Having quantitative metrics on each individual touchpoint helps marketers optimize their campaigns by focusing on channels that yield higher ROI.

3. Fair Distribution: The Full Path Attribution Model eliminates any biases associated with other models such as first-click or last-click that may skew credit distribution towards specific marketing channels, providing a more accurate assessment of their impact.

Conclusion

The Full Path Attribution Model offers a sophisticated way of understanding how different marketing strategies contribute to conversions. By attributing credit fairly across all touchpoints in a user’s journey and providing actionable data, marketers can make informed decisions to optimize their campaigns for maximum ROI. While this approach may be more complex than simpler models like first-click and last-click, the insights it delivers can be invaluable to any business striving to grow in today’s digital landscape.