Position-Based Attribution
A multi-touch attribution model that assigns the most credit to the first and last touchpoints in the customer journey (typically 40% each) while distributing the remaining credit equally among middle interactions.
Also known as: U-shaped attribution, bathtub attribution, 40/20/40 model
Why It Matters
Position-based attribution reflects a widely held marketing intuition: the touchpoint that introduces a customer to your brand and the touchpoint that finally convinces them to convert are typically the most important. Everything in between nurtures and supports, but those two bookend moments carry the most weight.
This model provides a balanced view that values both demand generation and demand capture without ignoring mid-funnel nurturing. It is more nuanced than single-touch models but simpler and more transparent than algorithmic approaches, making it a practical choice for many organizations.
Position-based attribution is particularly valuable for teams that have both awareness and conversion channels and want to fairly evaluate both. Content marketing and paid social (which tend to be first touches) receive appropriate credit alongside retargeting and email (which tend to be last touches).
Industry Applications
A outdoor recreation brand uses position-based attribution and discovers that YouTube reviews (first touch, 40% credit) and Google Shopping ads (last touch, 40% credit) are their most valuable channels. Email newsletters receive modest middle-touch credit, validating their role in keeping the brand top of mind during the consideration period.
A marketing automation platform uses position-based attribution for their 60-day average enterprise sales cycle. The model reveals that industry analyst mentions (first touch) and personalized sales outreach (last touch) are the two most credited touchpoints, with webinars and case studies playing important middle roles.
How to Track in KISSmetrics
Select position-based attribution in KISSmetrics Attribution Reports. The standard split is 40% to first touch, 40% to last touch, and 20% distributed among middle touches. Compare this against linear and time-decay models to see which middle-funnel channels gain or lose credit based on the model choice.
Common Mistakes
- -Using the standard 40/20/40 split without considering whether it matches your business - some businesses should weight first touch more heavily, others last touch
- -Applying position-based attribution to journeys with only two touchpoints, where it reduces to 50/50 and provides no additional insight over linear
- -Not considering that the "position" of a touchpoint can be misleading when journeys vary dramatically in length
- -Ignoring the middle 20% allocation, which can reveal important nurturing channels when journeys have many touchpoints
Pro Tips
- +Customize the position weights based on your business: try 50/10/40, 30/20/50, or other splits and see which aligns with incrementality testing results
- +Use position-based attribution as your primary model when you invest significantly in both awareness and conversion channels
- +Analyze the middle-touch credit allocation to identify which nurturing channels move prospects from awareness to decision
- +Compare position-based results to data-driven attribution when available - the differences highlight where your assumptions about position importance are wrong
Related Terms
Multi-Touch Attribution
An attribution approach that distributes conversion credit across multiple touchpoints in a customer's journey rather than assigning all credit to a single interaction, reflecting the reality that most conversions involve multiple marketing influences.
Linear Attribution
A multi-touch attribution model that distributes conversion credit equally across every touchpoint in the customer journey, giving the same weight to the first, middle, and last interactions.
Time-Decay Attribution
A multi-touch attribution model that assigns increasing credit to touchpoints closer to the conversion event, based on the assumption that more recent interactions had greater influence on the purchase decision.
First-Touch Attribution
An attribution model that gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the first marketing touchpoint that introduced the customer to the brand, regardless of subsequent interactions.
Last-Touch Attribution
An attribution model that gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final marketing touchpoint that occurred immediately before the conversion event.
See Position-Based Attribution in action
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