Overview
By default, Everflow attributes a conversion to the last click or impression to come into the system. Depending on your program preference or an Advertiser request, you may select First Touch Attribution at the Advertiser or Offer level.
Please note that the industry standard is typically last touch attribution, not first.
How It Works
The First Touch Attribution Method uses cookie-based tracking. When the first click (or impression) happens, a cookie is set and will remain active for up to 90 days (the lifetime of the cookie), or until it is cleared from the browser. If the cookie is still present at the time a conversion takes place, we will identify the originating Partner (via the cookie), and attribute the conversion to that Partner. This happens even if the most recent click or impression was delivered by a different Partner.
With Last Touch Attribution (default), the conversion will be attributed to the last Partner to drive the consumer to your site or Offer (via click or impression). It assumes that last exposure was the deciding factor that drove the conversion. This is best used when you have shorter sales cycles or believe the final touchpoints correlate most to driving conversions, so you can optimize towards placements, ads, keywords, etc. that directly preceded purchases or sign-ups. However, it fails to account for assisting factors earlier in the buyer's journey and risks only optimizing bottom-funnel tactics.
Location
IMPORTANT NOTE
When implementing our conversion tracking scripts, you must pass either an aid= parameter or an oid= parameter.
The parameter you decide to pass determines which configuration setting we will use for conversion value calculations:
If you pass oid=, the conversion value setting configured at the Offer level will be used.
If you pass aid=, the conversion value setting configured at the Advertiser level will be used.
So for example:
If you pass aid=123, we will calculate conversion values using the settings set up specifically for Advertiser ID 123.
If you instead pass oid=456, we will calculate conversion values using the settings set up at the Offer level that Offer 456 belongs to.
Advertiser Level
When adding or editing an Advertiser, you will find this setting on the General tab.
Offer Level
When adding or editing an Offer, you will find this setting on the Attribution tab.
Please note that you must have selected Cookie Based or Javascript as the Conversion Method on the Tracking & Controls tab in order to save First Touch as the Attribution Method.
Pro Tip: Server-to-server tracking does not directly support configuring first touch attribution since it uses transaction IDs rather than cookies for tracking. S2S attribution is based solely on whichever transaction ID gets passed, most often the most recent. However, if the initial transaction ID for each click was stored on a user, Everflow can honor first touch or any other variation depending on which ID you send - first, last or any exposure in between.