From the course: Marketing Attribution and Mix Modeling

Last-click attribution: The default model

From the course: Marketing Attribution and Mix Modeling

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Last-click attribution: The default model

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- [Instructor] Last click attribution is the default model for digital marketing, but that doesn't make it perfect. It's a good enough solution that's easy to understand, which is why it's popular. However, it's important to know the flaws in the last click model. If we take a simple example where a user clicks on an ad and then immediately purchases, that's simple. We know that that ad deserves 100% of the credit. However, if the user has a slightly more complex user journey, and more realistic user journey, where they click on an ad and then visit a blog, under the last click model, the blog would get 100% of the credit for the purchase because it was the last thing that happened or the last click before the purchase. In this third example, we could see the roles reversed. If the blog came first, and then we retargeted the user with an ad, then the ad would get 100% of the credit, even though it was potentially the blog that got them interested in purchasing in the first place. So when should you use last click? Well, if you're just getting started with ads and you don't really have any strong opinions on attribution model, then last click actually is a pretty good default. If you're mostly relying on paid ads to new customers, last click tends to be the model that those paid ad platforms default to. And if your product has a short purchase cycle, then last click can be a valid choice for your business. When you shouldn't use last click is when you're starting to spend more than 50k a month on ads. That's when your attribution needs start to get a little bit more complex and you tend to be advertising on more than one channel. If you have an established brand with lots of organic traffic, last click can also give too much credit to the ads. Well, so if your product has a long purchase cycle, then your user journey is going to be a little bit more complex. The user's going to experience lots of different marketing channels before they finally purchase, so last click can be left a little bit wanting here. You can't ignore the popularity of last click attribution, but now you know how to explain the issues you can run into when using this model.

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