Last-touch attribution is an attribution model that gives 100% of the conversion credit to the final interaction before a user converts (submits a goal, purchase, signup—whatever your conversion is). It’s simple, deterministic, and frequently used in reporting where speed and clarity beat nuance.
How it works (in plain terms)
- You track each visit with campaign tags (UTM parameters) and stitch a user journey.
- When a conversion happens, you look at the last recorded channel/touch in that journey and allocate all credit there.
- Lookback window applies: only touches within your chosen attribution window are considered. Define it explicitly in your analytics spec.
Mini-formula:
For a given conversion, credit(channelᵢ) = 1 if channelᵢ == last_touch, else 0.
Total credit across channels for that conversion = 1.
Quick example
| Step | Channel | Timestamp | Credit (Last-Touch) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paid Social | Day 1 | — |
| 2 | Organic Search | Day 3 | — |
| 3 | Day 5 | 100% |
This will inflate Email’s contribution in your multi-channel funnel report. Your conversion rate reporting is unaffected, but channel performance narratives will skew toward the final touch.
Pros & limitations
Pros
- Fast to implement and explain to stakeholders.
- Stable for short sales cycles and bottom-funnel optimization.
Limitations
- Ignores awareness and consideration touches; overweights promo/retargeting.
- Heavily sensitive to tagging hygiene; missing UTMs = misplaced credit.
- “Direct” traffic handling varies by platform—decide your rule and document it.
- Not ideal for long, multi-step B2B journeys—consider multi-touch attribution or a hybrid.
When to use it
- You’re optimizing immediate activations (e.g., email/send timing, retargeting bids).
- You need a baseline before testing more nuanced models like First Touch / Last Touch / Linear Attribution.
Tip: Keep last-touch as a reference view, but compare it with a multi-touch view in your attribution report to avoid myopic budget shifts.