As part of my preparing to take my second AdWords certification exam for the year, I am studying all of Google’s AdWords documentation. I came across information on attribution models that I thought might be interesting to review.
There are 6 attribution models you can select in the AdWords control panel under Tools and in Conversions. See if your current model should be changed.
Last Click
This one is pretty self explanatory. AdWords attributes the conversion in your reporting to the keyword that generates the last click in the conversion path.
First Click
This one is pretty self explanatory. AdWords attributes the conversion in your reporting to the keyword that generates the first click in the conversion path.
Linear
In this attribution model, Google spreads the credit for the conversion equally across all keywords clicked in the conversion path. For newly running AdWords accounts this is my preferred attribution model.
Time Decay
In this attribution model, Google weights credit to the click closest in time to the conversion over a 7-day half life. So a click 8 days before conversion will get 50% of the credit versus a click 1 day before conversion.
Position Based
In this attribution model, 40% of the credit for the conversion goes to both the first and last clicks with the remaining 20% spread over the other clicks in the conversion path.
Data-Driven
If your AdWords program has been running for a while, Google has data on your conversion activity by keyword and will credit the keywords clicked in the conversion page based on your own historical data. This is my preferred model for mature accounts.
Most advertisers will choose by default the last click conversion model. But, when you change your conversion model in your conversion actions to data-driven or time decay, you will start to see that keywords that were not the last click start to see conversion data.
Knowing what is driving conversions is particularly important as inadvertently pausing keywords that you did not know were important to the conversion path may lower your own conversion numbers expectantly.
