Measurement
Attribution
Attribution is the process of assigning credit for a conversion, such as a sale, sign-up or install, to the ads, channels or touchpoints that a customer encountered beforehand.
A customer might see a video ad, click a social post, search the brand and then buy. Attribution decides which of those touchpoints "caused" the sale, and how much credit each one gets. That decision guides budgets and often determines who gets paid, especially in affiliate and app-install marketing.
There are several approaches. Last-click attribution gives all credit to the final click; multi-touch attribution spreads it across touchpoints; view-through rules credit ads that were seen but not clicked; and statistical methods like marketing mix modeling and incrementality testing estimate causal impact at an aggregate level. In mobile, MMPs and Apple's SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit perform attribution for app installs.
Attribution is not the same as causation. Rules-based models reward whoever was present, not necessarily who made a difference, which is exactly what attribution fraud exploits. Privacy changes such as App Tracking Transparency and signal loss have made user-level attribution harder, pushing marketers towards aggregated and modelled measurement.
Think of it like this
Attribution is like deciding who gets credit for a goal: the striker who scored, the midfielder who passed, or the defender who started the move.
An example
An online fashion store in Brazil finds that last-click attribution gives search ads 70% of sales credit, while a data-driven model gives them 45% and shifts more credit to video and social ads earlier in the path.
Related terms
Last-click attribution
Last-click attribution gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final ad a customer clicked before converting, ignoring every earlier ad or touchpoint.
Multi-touch attribution (MTA)
Multi-touch attribution (MTA) splits credit for a conversion across several ads and touchpoints a customer encountered, using rules or statistical models, instead of giving it all to one.
Incrementality
Incrementality is the extra result, such as sales, installs or visits, caused by advertising that would not have happened without it, usually measured by comparing exposed and unexposed groups.
Marketing mix modeling (MMM)
Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is a statistical method that estimates how much each marketing channel, plus factors like price and seasonality, contributed to sales, using aggregate historical data.
MMP (mobile measurement partner)
An MMP (mobile measurement partner) is an independent company that attributes app installs and in-app events to the ads and ad networks that drove them, and detects mobile install fraud.
Attribution fraud
Attribution fraud is manipulating how conversions are credited, so a fraudster claims payment for installs, sales or leads it did not actually cause, often by faking or timing clicks.
Sources: Apple Developer: SKAdNetwork, Apple Developer: AdAttributionKit