Is Last-Click Attribution Model Effective At Measuring Marketing Nowadays?
Last-Click attribution model was used by many marketers to measure the effectiveness or ROI of marketing strategies. But in a world where marketing takes place across multiple channels, does this model still work?
Probably not.
According to Clickz, customers in fact interact with a brand 4.3 times over a two-day period before they finally make a purchase. In addition, the average U.S. shopper will be in contact with a total of 10.4 new and traditional media sources prior to purchasing. Therefore, if we were only to look at the last-click and credit the last source, then what about all other engagement customers had taken with brands? If we only count the last-click as valuable, then it is probably over valued.
Imagine a female customer who purchased a facial cream from Origins. She did not know which brand to purchase at first, but she did know that she wants to find a hydrating cream that is specially friendly fir sensitive skin. Therefore, she searched on Google, “best hydrating cream for sensitive skin”. The first result she saw was a beauty blog writing about the “Top 10 Best Cream for Sensitive Skin.” In this blog, the customer saw that Origins cream ranked first. Therefore, she decided to directly search for the brand on Google and visited the official website to view product details. However, she did not make a purchase at this stage.
A few days later, she saw a poster about the brand Origins on subway, on her way to work. When she got off the subway, she saw another poster positioned in front of an Origins physical store. But she still did not take any actions. Later, on her way back to home, she was using Instagram and saw an Origins ad. So she clicked on the link and viewed the product detail again. After she arrived home, she was doing some research for work, and saw an banner ad, and she clicked on the ad which redirects to Origins website. She found that the cream was on sale, so she decided to make a purchase.
As we can see from this example, it is unreasonable to only count the banner ad that showed up at the end of a consumer journey. In fact, every touch point contributed to the final purchase. Maybe the discount incentivized the customer making a purchase more than the banner itself. Or maybe the blog that customer viewed helped generate great first impression of Origins cream.
Therefore, if we only consider the final interaction that happens before a purchase, we might miss some of the most important engagement events with the brand that led to a purchase. Last-click attribution model ignores the supporting elements, which undervalues the overall integrated marketing effort, and therefore considered the least effective at measuring multichannel influence.












