Touch-Based Attribution Dashboards in Marketing Intelligence

Key Concepts

Touchpoint

An individual marketing interaction that a user has before converting, such as clicking an ad, opening an email, or visiting a landing page.

Attribution model

A method for assigning conversion credit to touchpoints across the customer journey. Different models distribute credit in different ways. Common models include First Touch, Last Touch, Linear, Time Decay, and U-Shaped.

Conversion credit

The portion of a conversion attributed to a specific touchpoint or channel, as determined by the selected attribution model.

Conversion event

The outcome is used to measure success, such as a purchase or form submission. Each conversion event generates a separate dashboard.

Lookback window

The period before a conversion event during which touchpoints are considered for attribution. Interactions outside this window aren’t included.

Journey step

A position in the sequence of touchpoints.

Path

A sequence of connected touchpoints across channels.

Assisting channel

A channel that appears before the final touchpoint in a conversion path.

Drop-off point

A transition where event volume decreases between journey steps.

What the Dashboard Shows

The dashboard has two tabs:

• Touch-Based shows how attribution models assign conversion credit across channels and campaigns.
• Path Exploration shows how customers move through marketing interactions before conversion.

Touch-Based tab

The Touch-Based tab reflects your selected conversion event, attribution model, and lookback window. Use this tab to:

• Compare attribution models: See how conversion credit shifts across models such as First Touch, Last Touch, Linear, Time Decay, and U-Shaped.
• Evaluate channel contribution: Understand how different channels influence conversions at different points in the customer journey.
• Analyze campaign performance: Compare how individual campaigns contribute to conversions under different attribution models.
• Assess efficiency: Evaluate performance relative to spend to identify which channels and campaigns deliver the strongest return.
• Track performance over time: Identify trends in conversions across channels.
• Understand the paths to conversion: Explore how users move through marketing interactions before converting and identify common conversion paths.

Path Exploration tab

The Path Exploration tab uses an interactive Sankey diagram to show how event volume moves from step to step across customer journeys. Wider bands represent more events. Use this tab to:

• Identify common paths: See the most frequent sequences of interactions that lead to conversion.
• Compare channel participation: See where each channel appears across journey steps.
• Find assisting channels and drop-off points: Identify channels that contribute earlier in the journey and steps where event volume decreases.
• Focus the analysis: Select an Anchor Campaign, a Campaign, or both to show matching paths. An anchor campaign groups related campaigns.
• Emphasize a path: Select a path to emphasize it. The other paths appear dimmed.

When to Use

Use the Touch-Based tab when:

• You want to compare how conversion credit is distributed across attribution models, such as First Touch, Last Touch, or U-Shaped.
• You want to evaluate which channels or campaigns influenced conversions, not just where users dropped off in a sequence.
• Your analysis focuses on individual interactions across the full customer journey rather than movement through defined stages.
• You want to assess channel and campaign efficiency relative to spend across multiple attribution perspectives.

Use the Path Exploration tab when:

• You want to understand the order in which customers interact with channels.
• You need to identify frequent channel transitions and drop-off points.
• You want to evaluate complete journeys instead of isolated channel totals.

Use Case

Sarah, a marketing analyst, wants to understand which channels drive conversions for a seasonal campaign. She has been allocating a budget based on Last Touch attribution but suspects that earlier touchpoints also contribute to conversions.

On the Touch-Based tab, Sarah compares how conversion credit shifts across First Touch, Linear, and U-Shaped models. Paid social receives more credit under First Touch and U-Shaped models than under Last Touch. On the Path Exploration tab, she sees that many converting journeys begin with paid social, continue through email, and end with paid search. This pattern confirms that paid social often assists conversions even when it doesn't receive Last Touch credit.

Sarah adjusts her budget allocation to reflect the role that each channel plays across the customer journey.