You're spending thousands to acquire customers — and you're probably making thousands back in return. 

The question is, do you know which channels are actually driving revenue?

That's precisely what marketing attribution is meant to answer. 

In simple terms, marketing attribution is the process of identifying which marketing efforts and touchpoints actually contribute to conversions. 

Remember, modern customers are considerably harder and more expensive to acquire. And to make the most out of every marketing dollar, it's crucial to take a thorough and in-depth look at the entire customer journey. 

This will help you identify revenue leaks and find improvement opportunities to supercharge profits. 

In this post, we'll do an in-depth teardown of marketing attribution — what it is, why it's important, and how to establish an effective tracking strategy across multi-touch funnels. 

Let's get started. 

What is Marketing Attribution

In simple terms, marketing attribution is all about mapping the steps customers take toward a conversion. 

Remember, we're not just talking about which page generates conversions. 

We're looking at every marketing campaign or touchpoint that customers interact with before they complete an objective — be it signing up for an event or completing a purchase. 

Now, the word "marketing touchpoint" may seem broad. But in ecommerce, it often boils down to a handful of interactions and channels like:

• Ad clicks (including social media, paid search results, or custom display networks)
• Direct marketing opens and click-throughs (e.g., SMS and email)
• Social media interactions (e.g., follows, shares, likes, and comments)
• Website activity ("add-to-cart" clicks, page visits, blog post comments, and other page interactions)
• Referrals (e.g., social media mentions, affiliate marketing clicks, and inbound links from other websites)
• Offline channels (e.g., TV ads, print media, direct mail, and local events)

Picture this: Customer A first learned about your brand through a radio ad, which encouraged them to subscribe to your newsletter. After 28 days, they eventually caved and completed a purchase through your landing page. 

Proper marketing attribution not only looks at the landing page where the conversion actually happened. Instead, it can also identify the radio ad and newsletter as contributing factors to the customer's purchase decision — each receiving credit based on the attribution model you use.

This will sharpen your decision-making when it comes to your marketing budget and campaign strategy. 

In some cases, this will also reveal hidden contributors or top-of-funnel channels that do a great job at pulling in high-quality leads that are highly likely to convert into paying customers. 

Tip: With marketing attribution, it's easy to get skewed data if you ignore unpredictable elements like connection timeouts and unexpected drop-offs due to inconsistent website performance. To make sure you don't lose visibility on high-intent visits, use plug-and-play solutions like Nostra AI to ensure fast and reliable loading speeds. 

Common Marketing Attribution Models

Before setting up your own marketing attribution strategy, you must first gain a firm understanding of the different marketing attribution models you can use:

1. First-Click Attribution

As the name suggests, first-click attribution assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to the first channel that the customer interacted with. 

This attribution is as straightforward as you can get. By unearthing the exact moment the customer first came across your brand, you might discover underutilized demand generation and lead acquisition channels that deserve more prioritization. 

The drawback is, it oversimplifies the customer journey and completely discounts succeeding touchpoints that could've influenced the conversion. As such, first-click attribution isn't really the ideal model if you're looking for funnel-wide optimization opportunities. 

2. Last-Click Attribution

This next attribution is the exact opposite of first-click attribution.

In last-click attribution, credit goes solely to the final touchpoint before conversion. This is great for identifying your best Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and bottom-of-funnel strategies, which can be used as a model for future assets, like:

• Checkout pages
• Newsletters
• Popups
• Opt-in forms
• Cross-selling & upselling emails
• Blog article links

Of course, last-click attribution also suffers from the same weakness as first-click attribution. With the rest of the customer journey removed from the equation, it's not useful for analyzing or optimizing multi-channel marketing funnels.

3. Linear Attribution

Linear attribution solves the main issue with the previous marketing attribution models. 

Rather than focusing on the starting or end point, linear attribution assigns credit to all interactions throughout the customer journey. This is an effective way to quickly identify touchpoints that move customers toward a conversion action. 

The only problem is, linear attribution equally credits all interactions — regardless of their actual impact on the customer's decision. It's simple, but it requires further analysis on a touchpoint-level to determine which channels are truly effective. 

4. Time-Decay Attribution

Time-decay attribution is a more advanced marketing attribution model that gives more weight to touchpoints closer to conversion. 

The more recent the interaction, the more credit it gets for the customer's conversion action. 

This conforms to the idea that bottom-of-funnel assets, like pricing pages, comparison posts, and discount offers, hold the most influence over the customer's purchase decision. This is perfect if your ecommerce products have shorter sales cycles. 

The downside is, time-decay attribution may undermine the value of top-of-funnel channels that may have played a big part in driving conversions. 

5. Position-Based (U-Shaped) Attribution

The best way to understand position-based attribution is to think of the letter "U." 

It starts off high, dips dead at the center, and rises back up at the end. That's how position-based attribution distributes credit across touchpoints — putting more weight on the beginning and end of the customer journey. 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Top-of-Funnel (First Interaction) — 40% of credit
• Middle-of-Funnel (Middle Interactions) — 20% of credit
• Bottom-of-Funnel (Last Interaction) — 40% of credit

Despite the structure of position-based attribution, it can still be an oversimplification of the customer journey, which can be problematic for ecommerce businesses that rely on omnichannel marketing.

6. Data-Driven Attribution (Recommend)

Lastly, we have data-driven attribution — a marketing attribution model that relies on data rather than presumptions.

Data-driven attribution uses Machine Learning (ML), predictive analytics, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), and other data-centric technologies to more accurately evaluate the customer journey. 

The process usually involves consolidating historical customer data across touchpoints, developing "path maps" that track entire interaction sequences, and analyzing patterns to determine the impact of specific steps on conversions. 

To make this possible, data-driven attribution requires data collection and analytics platforms like:

• Google Analytics 4
• Adobe Analytics
• Ruler Analytics
• HubSpot

You may also need first-party data from the channel-specific platforms, like Google Ads, Salesforce, and Hotjar. To consolidate and standardize data from multiple sources, you can use data visualization and Business Intelligence (BI) platforms like Tableau or Looker. 

Challenges of Ecommerce Attribution in 2025

Recent and upcoming changes in the industry require ecommerce businesses to rethink their marketing attribution strategy. 

Here are the challenges you should watch out for:

• Cookieless future — Google is set to phase out third-party cookies by the end of 2025, requiring brands to tap into alternative tracking methods, like predictive analytics, server-side tracking, and first-party data.
• Multi-device shopping — Cross-platform marketing attribution is more challenging than ever in the prevalence of omnichannel marketing (e.g., customer journeys involving mobile, desktop, and even in-store kiosk interactions). 
• Walled Gardens (Meta, Google, and TikTok) — A walled garden is a figurative description for a closed platform (e.g., TikTok, Amazon, and Apple) that safeguards customer data for privacy reasons, which complicates the compilation and standardization of data for marketing attribution. 
• Poor Website Performance — To meet customer expectations in terms of personalization, plenty of ecommerce brands resort to digital bloat, which negatively impacts website performance and hurts the user experience.

With these challenges in mind, it's clear that a traditional approach to marketing attribution is no longer an option. 

This takes us to the next section…

How to Build an Effective Marketing Attribution Strategy

Without further ado, here is a step-by-step guide on how to create an effective marketing attribution strategy tailored to your business:

Step 1: Align on Goals

The usefulness of marketing attribution is tied to the target outcomes you want to achieve. 

These outcomes are best represented by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), especially if you're looking for a data-driven route to accomplish them. 

Ask yourself, are you aiming for: 

• Ramping up customer acquisition? 
• Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?
• Reducing bloat in your marketing funnels? 

Defining your underlying objectives will not only help you pick the right KPIs to target. This will also let you identify the data sources or platforms you need to conduct marketing attribution. 

Step 2: Centralize Data Sources

At this point, you probably already have a lineup of tools generating useful first-party customer data as we speak. 

An optional (but highly effective) step is to pool all this data into a centralized platform, which standardizes information and streamlines analysis through data visualizations. Tools like Looker Studio, for example, can seamlessly pull data from 1,000+ sources through plug-and-play connectors. 

This enables you to import data even from closed ecosystems, like TikTok, Meta, and Amazon Ads.

Step 3: Choose the Right Attribution Model

With your goals and data sources accounted for, the next step is to choose the perfect attribution model that matches your sales cycle length and customer journey complexity.

Let's say you want to supercharge brand awareness with impressions, website traffic, and social media followers as your primary KPIs. The first-click attribution model works here by ensuring every top-of-funnel interaction is accounted for — opening the doors to more in-depth analysis on a touchpoint-level.

If you have the budget and infrastructure, use data-driven attribution to get more reliable data regardless of how complex your customer journey is. Otherwise, focus on attribution models specifically designed for channels that are relevant to your goals (e.g., first-click attribution for top-of-funnel and last-click attribution for bottom-of-funnel). 

Of course, you can also use time-decay attribution if you're curious about high-performance campaigns that are strongly linked to conversions. 

Remember, no one is restricting you to just one marketing attribution model at a time. 

Step 4: Test, Learn, and Adjust

Using your attribution model and data analytics platform of choice, you should now be able to identify key components of the customer journey that have a huge impact on conversions.

At the same time, you may identify holes in your marketing that demand your attention. These are low-performing campaigns that you can either adjust or put on hold, at least temporarily, until you formulate a more suitable plan of action.

Here's a tip: Instead of testing one change at a time, consider multivariate testing or A/B testing with tools like VWO. 

A/B testing works by running multiple versions of your marketing assets (e.g., landing page, newsletter, or ad copy) at the same time. Once you've gathered sufficient data, you simply need to compare the results to identify and permanently implement the winning variation. 

Step 5: Ensure Site Speed to Support Data Collection

Website performance is more important to marketing attribution than you think.

The better the performance, the faster customer interactions pan out. 

Ensuring consistent loading speeds, stability, and uptime also prevents your marketing attribution data from being skewed by website issues. This includes premature exits due to slow loading, website crashes, and other errors that cut customer journeys short. 

Although website performance optimization is a multi-faceted strategy that can stretch into weeks, there are turnkey solutions that can provide high stability and huge website performance boosts within hours. 

For example, with Nostra AI's Edge Delivery Engine, you're only a minimum of 30 minutes away from unlocking near-instantaneous loading speeds regardless of where your customers live. 

Tools for Ecommerce Marketing Attribution

Before we wrap up this post, let's go over some of the top tools you can use for marketing attribution:

• Nostra Identity Extension — Uses server-side tracking to move third-party data into your first-party domain. This lets you hold on to customer behavior data for up to two years, allowing more comprehensive and accurate attribution for omnichannel ecommerce brands. 
• Google Analytics 4 — A free website analytics tool that actively tracks essential engagement metrics (e.g., bounce rate, session duration, and page views) as well as identifies your top-performing content. You can also use "Explorations" to monitor how your customers navigate through your pages, where they leave, and how they reach conversion actions. 
• Triple Whale — An advanced, AI-powered customer intelligence solution designed specifically for ecommerce businesses. Not only is it capable of multi-touch attribution, Triple Whale also has tools for techniques like MMM, forecasting, CRO, and self-service analytics. 
• Northbeam — Another AI-powered platform developed and fine-tuned specifically for multi-touch attribution. What makes it stand out is the "Creative Analytics" feature, which lets you visualize omnichannel customer journeys through custom dashboards.

If you're building or operating your own advanced analytics stack, consider powering up your efforts with Nostra AI's Identity Extension tool as well as our industry-leading Edge Delivery Engine. By preemptively addressing website performance concerns, you can focus on analyzing and optimizing on-page and content elements, from your Product Detail Pages (PDPs) to your ad CTA buttons. 

Conclusion

In a nutshell, marketing attribution helps ecommerce brands understand what works, what doesn't, and where to spend smarter — regardless of how long and complex the customer journey is. 

Remember, implementing ecommerce marketing attribution is a non-negotiable in 2025. And in a privacy-first landscape, it's important to get creative. 

You need the right attribution model, the right tools, and a fast website performance that can stay consistent no matter what. 

Want to maximize every marketing dollar? Nostra AI can help you improve website performance while ensuring accurate, first-party data collection and attribution. 

Click here to book a demo today!

‍