What Is Attribution?

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Attribution at Coveo
On-site multi-touch attribution strategy

The Coveo commerce dashboards rely on data attribution to provide insight on the key metrics that affect the performance of your commerce site. Attribution is the process of identifying the value of each touchpoint throughout the customer journey. This process is two-fold, as it first analyzes each touchpoint within the customer journey and determines how they led to a conversion. Afterward, it considers the entirety of the customer journey and determines which touchpoints should be credited for the total revenue.

In other words, conversion attribution underlines the weight of the events that led to a transaction, while revenue attribution connects those events to determine how they impacted the total revenue of the transaction.

Attribution at Coveo

A conversion doesn’t always occur during the first visit. Instead, it occurs through a series of events that map the customer journey. There are different types of attribution, such as last-touch and multi-touch attribution. While last-touch attribution bases the entirety of the conversion on the last click event, at Coveo, we rely on the more precise on-site multi-touch attribution for our commerce dashboards.

On-site multi-touch attribution determines the value of each event touchpoint that leads to a conversion, and is achieved by combining last-touch attribution with the product component. The touchpoints include search, recommendation, and product listing.

Example

A customer wants to purchase a laptop with a 12.4" display, as well as a 4k monitor, so they visit the store site for Acme Electronics:

They first type laptop with 12.4 display in the search bar. From the search results, they select a laptop priced at $500 and add it to their cart.
Afterward, the customer views the listed items in the Monitors category of the site until they find a 4k monitor priced at $250 and add it their cart.
Lastly, when the customer is viewing their cart, they notice a suggestion for a laptop bag priced at $50. They add the bag to the cart as well, and then proceed to the payment and complete the transaction.

If we analyze this customer journey through the on-site multi-touch attribution lens, the conversion is attributed to three events:

One-third of the conversion is attributed to the search event that occurred when the customer initially searched for the laptop.
Another third is attributed to the product listing event that occurred when the customer selected the 4k monitor from the product listing.
The final third is attributed to the recommendation event that occurred when the laptop bag was clicked from a suggestion within the cart.

While the conversion is equally attributed between each event, the revenue is attributed by the price of each item. The total of the transaction is $800, therefore:

$500 is attributed to the search event.
$250 is attributed to the product listing event.
$50 is attributed to the recommendation event.

On-site multi-touch attribution strategy

Coveo’s on-site multi-touch attribution strategy is further refined by the end result of the customer journey:

If a conversion with a purchase event including one product occurred, the last touchpoint before the add-to-cart (which in the example below is a search event) defines the attribution.

Example

In the following customer journey where one product was purchased, the last touchpoint before the add-to-cart is a search event. Therefore, the entirety of the conversion is attributed to the search event.
If a conversion with a purchase event of more than one product occurred, the last touchpoint before each add-to-cart defines the attribution. This means that each product is attributed to the last touchpoint before it was added to the cart.

Example

In the following customer journey where more than one product is purchased, the last touchpoints before each product is added to the cart are different. The first product’s touchpoint is a search event and the second product’s touchpoint is a recommendation event. Therefore, the attribution is divided between these touchpoints.