First-Click Attribution

First-click attribution is an attribution model that gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the first touchpoint in the customer journey. All later contacts get nothing – no matter how many there were.

How the model works

Your tracking remembers the source through which a user first arrived on your website. When that user converts later, exactly this source gets credit for the conversion and the revenue. The idea: without the first contact, the rest of the journey would never have happened.

Example

A prospect sees a Meta ad and clicks it. A week later they search for your offer on Google, click a Google Ads ad and sign up as a lead. Three weeks later, the lead turns into a $6,000 deal.

• First click: Meta gets the lead and the $6,000.
• Last click: Google Ads gets the lead and the $6,000.

At 200 leads a month, this can completely flip how you rate a channel: a Meta campaign that barely produces leads under last click can be your most important source of new contacts under first click.

First-click attribution for lead generation

With longer buying decisions – recruiting, real estate, financial products, high-ticket coaching – there are often days or weeks between the first click and the lead. If you only look at last click, you can easily cut the campaigns that bring new prospects into the funnel in the first place.

LeadMetrics supports exactly two attribution models: first click and last click. You can switch between them to see which channels start journeys and which ones close them. Leads are matched to their session up to 90 days back. Learn more about lead tracking and dashboards.

Limits of the model

• Later contacts don’t count: Retargeting and branded search that prepare the deal look worthless in this model.
• The first contact has to be captured: Without consent, or if the first contact lies outside the attribution window, a later contact is treated as the “first” one.
• Device and browser switches: If someone clicks on their phone first and converts on their laptop, the real first contact is invisible unless it is matched via email or phone number.

You learn the most when you compare first click and last-click attribution side by side.