Attribution basics

First-touch vs last-touch attribution

The two simplest attribution models answer opposite questions. Use both.

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First-touch attribution gives all the credit to the first interaction a customer had with you. It tells you which channels introduce new people. Last-touch attribution gives all the credit to the final interaction before the conversion. It tells you which channels close.

Looking at only one of them leads to predictable mistakes. Last-touch alone makes prospecting look unprofitable and retargeting and branded search look heroic. First-touch alone ignores the work that turned interest into a sale. Comparing both on the same report, campaign by campaign, shows which campaigns open journeys and which finish them.

The problem

Why this matters for your ad budget

Arguing about first touch vs last touch in the abstract goes nowhere. The useful question is where they disagree on your own campaigns, because that's where budget is being misallocated.

Doing that comparison by hand means exporting data from several tools and rebuilding journeys in a spreadsheet.

See first and last touch side by side on your own sales

Create your account, install one snippet and see it on your own leads and sales.

Flat monthly price, no revenue tax
No annual contract
Tracking starts the minute the snippet is live

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Key takeaways

First touch: demand creation

Best for judging prospecting and new-audience campaigns.

Last touch: closing

Best for retargeting, email and conversion-focused campaigns.

Last non-direct: a fair default

Skips bookmarks and typed URLs that would otherwise take the last touch.

All of this is built in, ready on day one.

Try it on your own data

Use cases

How marketers use this

Find disagreements

Spot campaigns that look great under one model and poor under the other.

Balance the funnel

Fund both the ads that introduce and the ads that close.

Report honestly

Show stakeholders both views instead of picking one.

Try it on your own data

Flat monthly price, no revenue tax
No annual contract
Tracking starts the minute the snippet is live

Why BrainyMetrics

From theory to your own numbers

Everything in this guide is built into BrainyMetrics, working on your real ads, leads and sales.

Without BrainyMetrics

With BrainyMetrics

Meta, Google and TikTok each claim the same sale, so platform totals add up to more than your bank account.

Each sale is counted once, from your own checkout data, and reconciled against what each platform claims.

Analytics gives the last click all the credit, so the ads that start journeys look like they lose money.

Seven attribution models are computed for every conversion, so you can compare first click, last click and everything between.

Phone calls and booked calls are a black box. You know they happened, not which ad caused them.

Calls and bookings are matched to the visitor's session and the ad behind it, then tracked through qualified and closed.

Ad blockers, Safari and cross-domain checkouts quietly break your data.

A first-party tracking subdomain, server-set cookies and cross-domain linking keep journeys intact.

Spend lives in one tab, revenue in another, and ROAS is a spreadsheet you rebuild every Monday.

Spend syncs hourly and sits next to attributed revenue, so ROAS, CPA and profit are on every row, down to the ad.

Ad algorithms optimise on the few conversions their pixel happens to see.

Real purchases and leads are sent back to the ad platforms' conversion APIs, deduplicated against the pixel.

Stop guessing which marketing pays.

Try it on your own data

Getting started

Put this guide into practice in four steps

No migration project and no agency retainer. Here is the whole path from sign-up to your first attributed sale.

1
Create your account
Sign up, name your workspace and pick the plan that fits. Your tracking snippet is waiting under Settings → Install.
2
Install tracko.js
Paste one snippet into your site's head, or add it with Google Tag Manager, WordPress or your funnel builder's tracking code box.
3
Connect revenue and ads
Connect Stripe, Shopify, your funnel builder or calendar, then Meta, Google or TikTok for hourly spend. Most connections take a click.
4
Watch the first sale land
The setup checklist ticks itself off as data arrives. Your next lead or sale shows up with its full journey and the ad that earned it.

Create your account

Flat monthly price, no revenue tax
No annual contract
Tracking starts the minute the snippet is live

One account

Everything else that comes with it

Tracking, attribution, calls, spend and revenue analytics share one data model, so each feature makes the others more accurate.

Multi-touch attribution

Seven models side by side, down to the ad.

First-party tracking

Your own subdomain and server-set cookies.

Call tracking

Dynamic numbers matched to the click behind each call.

ROAS and profit

Hourly spend sync joined with real revenue.

Conversion APIs

Feed real sales back to nine ad platforms.

Customer journeys

Every visit, ad, order and call per person.

LTV and cohorts

Lifetime value by the channel that acquired them.

Funnels

Drop-offs and cost per step, by ad.

Create your account and start tracking today.

Create your account

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about First touch vs last touch, setup and pricing.

The fastest answer is your own data

Create an account, install the snippet and see how BrainyMetrics handles your real traffic.

Get started

Which is more common?

Last-touch, because it is the default in many analytics and ad tools.

What about long sales cycles?

Consider a model that credits the first paid ad within a window, such as BrainyMetrics' scientific model, so a weeks-later sale still credits the ad that started it.

How long does setup take?

The basics take minutes: paste the snippet, connect your checkout or funnel builder, and connect your ad accounts. The setup checklist in your dashboard ticks each step off as data arrives, so you always know what's left.

Do I need a developer?

Usually not. The snippet can go in through Google Tag Manager, WordPress or your funnel builder's tracking code settings, and most revenue sources connect with a click or a webhook URL you paste. The developer guide covers the JavaScript and server API if you do have a developer.

Does the price go up as I grow?

No. Plans are a flat monthly or yearly price. We never bill a percentage of revenue or ad spend, and you can switch, pause or cancel from the Billing page without a call.

Does tracking stop if I hit a plan limit?

No. Plans limit dashboard modules and things like integrations or workspaces; tracko.js, webhooks and syncs keep collecting data, so nothing is lost if you upgrade later.

Is it privacy friendly?

Yes. BrainyMetrics supports consent modes, works with your consent banner, respects Global Privacy Control and handles sensitive form fields strictly. Data is first-party: it belongs to your workspace, not an ad network.