Looking to understand the difference between advertising platforms’ attribution models? You’ve come to the right place.
Understanding advertising attribution models is essential for analyzing the performance of your campaigns. Each platform has its own way of presenting conversions, based on 2 elements: the attribution model, and the attribution window.
Attribution models are rules that determine how platforms count conversions, according to the different touchpoints in the customer journey.
The attribution window identifies the number of days during which a conversion can be recorded in the platform, following an interaction with one of your ads. Possible interactions vary from platform to platform, and can be counted in terms of impressions, clicks, shares and so on.
Here’s what you need to know about each of the popular advertising platforms:
Google Analytics (GA4)
Basic attribution model: Cross-Channel-Data-Driven
Basic attribution window: 30-days
Google distributes credit based on historical events. It uses your account data to calculate the true contribution of each visit.
Meta Ads Manager
Basic attribution model: Last Click
Basic attribution window: 7-days click or 1-day view
ALL conversion credit is attributed to the last ad seen or clicked.
Google Ads
Basic attribution model: Data-driven
Basic attribution window: 30-days click or 1-day view
Google distributes credit according to historical events. It uses your account data to calculate the actual contribution of each click interaction.
LinkedIn Ads
Basic attribution model: Last Click
Basic attribution window: 30-days click or 7-days view
ALL conversion credit is attributed to the last ad seen or clicked.
Pinterest Ads
Basic attribution model: First Click
Basic attribution window: 30 days clicked – 30 days viewed
ALL conversion credit is attributed to the first ad seen or clicked.
TikTok Ads
Basic attribution model: Last Click
Basic attribution window: 7-days click or 1-day view
ALL conversion credit is attributed to the last ad seen or clicked.
X for Business (Twitter)
Basic attribution model: Last Click
Basic attribution window: 14-days click or 1-day view
ALL conversion credit is attributed to the last ad seen or clicked.
Microsoft Ads
Basic attribution model: Last Click
Basic attribution window: 30-days click or 1-day view
ALL conversion credit is attributed to the last ad seen or clicked.
Example of a customer journey:
Frédérick buys a piece of furniture, following several marketing touchpoints.
- Frédérick discovers the company on Pinterest (website visit)
- 2 days later, he is retargeted by an advertisement (2nd visit to the website)
- 2 days later, he does a google search and visits the site organically
- 2 days later, he performs a Google search, but clicks on a Search ad, and proceeds with the purchase
Pinterest attribution: 100% of the sale
Facebook attribution: 100% of the sale
Google Ads attribution: 50% of the sale
In the end, for a single transaction, the sale is counted 3 times on all advertising platforms.
When trying to analyze your campaign’s performance, it’s important to keep in mind the purpose of the platform’s attribution model. A platform like Pinterest has a very loose attribution model, and will attribute a huge number of conversions to its campaigns. In contrast, a platform like Google Analytics will be much stricter on the attribution of a conversion.
At Pertinence Media, we always recommend complementing your advertising platform analysis with your Google Analytics results. The real contribution of your campaigns will probably lie somewhere between the 2 figures presented.
