Understanding Attribution in SegMetrics
Determining the first and last touch attribution points helps paint the picture of the last actions your contacts and customers took before their first visit with your brand, when they opted in and provided their email address, and when the contact ultimately purchases something from you. In this article, you’ll learn about all of the available attribution models used in your SegMetrics reports, as well as how to filter your reports to show data around those various touch points.
Please Note: SegMetrics is only able to track attribution for as long as the SegMetrics tracking pixel has been installed. To install your tracking, head over to your account setup guide for further information on how to get your pixel installed.
Linear Distributed Attribution
When looking at a report in SegMetrics, the attribution displayed by default is a linear attribution model. This means that we’ll give equal attribution credit to each touchpoint a contact makes, such as if the contact clicks multiple ads over a given time period.
In the following example, there are a number of different ads shown in the table data. By default, the table data is displayed in a linear attribution model:
As is, the example above can include contacts who clicked multiple ads and can be represented in the Leads, Customers, and other related KPI’s for the multiple touch points.
Let’s take hypothetical contact with an email address of jon@example.com. Jon has clicked both the “registration” and “happy-days” ad within the reports set date range. Jon will be included in the metrics for both ads.
First Visit, Optin, and Purchase Touchpoint Explained
If you’d like to view your report metrics on a first click, optin click, or purchase click, you can apply filters to modify your reports to display the contacts who have data for those specific touchpoints.
Aside from linear attribution, SegMetrics offers the following attribution models:
- First Visit
- Optin
- Purchase
First Visit
This touchpoint represents the contact’s very first touchpoint tracked by your SegMetrics tracking pixel.
Optin
This touchpoint represents the contact's last click before opting in and providing their email address to you. This touchpoint has a 90-minute attribution window. If the contact opts in and provides their email address within 90 minutes of a click, that click is considered the “Optin” touchpoint.
Purchase
This touchpoint represents the last click the contact made before making a purchase. The purchase touchpoint has an attribution window of 24 hours. This means that if the contact makes a purchase within 24-hours of their last click, that click is considered the “Purchase” touchpoint.
Applying the First Visit, Optin, and Purchase Touchpoint Filters
It’s simple to modify your reports to display the first visit, optin and purchase touchpoints. In fact, there are a couple of different ways to filter your reports.
Report Table View
The first way is via the table view using any one of the “Events” filter category, including: Channel, UTM Campaign, Source, Medium, Term, or Contact, as well as Page URL, Referrer, and Domain.
Take note that in that example above, the table is filtered with the Channel view and set to “Any Page View.” When set to any page view, the table is displayed in a linear attribution model. To change that, use the drop down to change that view to First Visit, Optin, or Purchase touchpoints:
Top Line Report Filters
Another way you can filter your reports to show First Visit, Optin, or Purchase touchpoints is via the filters available at the very top of the report. Just as with the table view, the first, optin, and purchase touchpoints are available in the “Page View” filter category, including: Channel, UTM Campaign, Source, Medium, Term, or Contact, as well as Page URL, Referrer, and Domain.
Once you’ve selected any of the available filter parameters under the Page View category, such as “Campaign,” change the filter’s setting to filter by either First, Optin, or Purchase:
Once you click “Add Filter,” the report is filtered down by the specified utm campaign and specified touchpoint.
For example, this report is filtered down at the top level to show only data related to contacts who clicked a link with a utm parameter of “marketing-start” and who opted in (submitted their email address) within 90 minutes of clicking the link:
