The way you decide which ad, channel or click deserves the credit when a customer finally buys.
Most customers don't buy the first time they see you. They might click a Google ad on Monday, scroll past an Instagram post on Thursday, then come back and purchase a week later. Attribution is the rule you use to share the "credit" for that sale across those touchpoints — so you know which marketing actually worked.
Different rules give different answers, which is why two reports can disagree about the same sale.
You run an online furniture shop. A customer spends €1,200 on a sofa. Their journey was: a Google search ad, then an Instagram retargeting ad, then a direct visit. "Last-click" attribution gives all €1,200 of credit to that final direct visit — making your ads look worthless. A fairer "data-driven" model might split it: €600 to Google, €450 to Instagram, €150 to direct. Same sale, very different story about where your €1,200 came from — and where your next ad euro should go.
Attribution decides which campaigns you keep funding and which you cut. Get it wrong and you'll switch off the very ads that quietly start customer journeys, while overpaying for the channels that just catch people at the finish line. Good attribution — paired with sending real sales back to the platforms — means your budget follows what genuinely drives revenue, not whatever happened to be clicked last.
PipeValue sends the real value of every lead to Meta, Google, LinkedIn & TikTok — no data team.
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