Beyond the last click: the new era of marketing attribution

Practically, tracking attribution looks different for every marketer, depending on the tech stack and systems they have available. For the most part, they take one of the following approaches to find out what they should be attributing credit to: 

• Use attribution models and reports (linear multi-touch, etc.).
• Track conversions tied to messages and flows.
• Compare performance over time and by segment.
• Cross-reference data points manually or with help from tools.

It’s common for marketers to set UTM parameters or unique campaign identifiers on emails, ads, and social links, then track those tags all the way through to conversion. 

Marketing isn’t getting any cheaper. According to Klaviyo’s 2025 state of B2C marketing report, 73% of marketers are reporting rising customer acquisition costs (CACs). Meanwhile, customer attention is down, and you’re probably being asked to do more with less.

This is why attribution is so powerful. When you know exactly what’s working across platforms, channels, content, and timing, you can put your dollars where they make a difference. 

Last-click attribution is the default for a lot of tools. It assigns 100% of the credit to the last interaction that took place before someone buys.

For example, if a customer clicks an email and places an order, the email gets all the credit, even if they previously saw an Instagram ad, browsed the site, or added the product to their cart days earlier.

• Simple to implement
• Majority of third-party analytics platforms can easily track it

• Ignores everything that came before the final click
• Overvalues “closer” channels like email or retargeting
• Not great for understanding top- or mid-funnel influence

First-touch attribution is the opposite of last-click attribution in that it assigns all credit to the first time someone interacted with your brand.

For example, if a shopper finds you via a Facebook ad but doesn’t buy until two weeks later after getting a product review email, the Facebook ad gets all the credit.

• Helpful for measuring brand awareness campaigns
• Good for understanding what sparks interest

• Discounts everything that nudged the customer along the way
• Doesn’t reflect the complexity of real B2C buyer journeys 

Time-decay attribution splits credit across multiple touchpoints, but it assigns more weight to those closer to the conversion.

For example, if a customer interacts with 5 touchpoints, the last 2–3 will get the most credit.

• Recognises multi-step journeys
• Great for longer buying cycles

• Can still undervalue early discovery or brand-building campaigns
• Assumes later touchpoints are always more important, which is not always true

With position-based attribution, most of the credit goes to the first and last interactions, and the rest gets split in between.

For example, a TikTok ad (first touch) and a product email (last touch) each get 40% of the credit, and the rest is divided among other touchpoints. 

• Provides a more balanced view than first- or last-click
• Good for brands with clear start and end stages in their funnel

• Still a bit arbitrary—why 40/20/40?
• Doesn’t reflect what actually influenced the customer most

Instead of over-crediting the last interaction, omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution spreads the credit evenly across all meaningful touchpoints, paid or owned.

Imagine this journey:

1. A customer clicks on a Facebook ad.
2. They browse your site, sign up for your email list, and download your mobile app.
3. They get a welcome flow and click through a product highlight email.
4. A few days later, they receive a reminder SMS.
5. They don’t buy just yet, but a push notification a week later finally nudges them to complete their purchase.

In a last-click model, only the push notification would get the credit. With omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution, all 5 of those touchpoints share the credit because they all played a role.

B2C purchases are rarely made in a vacuum. Unlike B2B, where a single salesperson or demo might close the deal, B2C buyers need multiple moments of reassurance, inspiration, and reminders before they’re ready to part with their cash. 

Think about how your customers interact with your brand:

• They discover you through a social ad or influencer.
• They browse your site, maybe signing up for email or SMS.
• They’re reminded by retargeting, seasonal campaigns, or a well-timed product recommendation.
• They finally buy after getting a discount code or seeing an item back in stock.

It’s not one thing. It’s the blend of email, SMS, push, paid, and organic that seals the deal, and omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution captures that.

The tl;dr: last-click is easy, but it’s incomplete.

Omnichannel, linear multi-touch is more accurate, more useful, and more aligned with how B2C buyers actually behave. It gives you the full picture so you can build better marketing campaigns, stronger relationships, and more revenue.

Omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution helps you spot which touchpoints have the biggest impact on the customer journey. Start by asking yourself: 

• Which emails consistently lead to conversions? 
• Which SMS messages re-engage lapsed customers?
• Are push notifications driving that final nudge to buy? 

Then, take it a step further. Tie those insights back to key performance metrics like:

• Revenue per recipient: Which flows or campaigns are generating the most per email sent? 
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Are your paid channels actually contributing to conversions, or just grabbing credit at the last second?
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Are you seeing real ROI when all touchpoints are considered?

B2C marketers are juggling a lot of channels. At any given time, you might have email, SMS, paid social, organic, influencer, and referral campaigns on the go. It’s a lot. But multi-touch attribution helps you see what’s pulling its weight. 

With these insights, you can:

• Shift spend away from underperforming tactics, even if they look good in last-click reports.
• Double down on campaigns that support conversion, even if they play a mid-funnel role.
• Justify investment in new ideas or platforms, because you’ll have the data to prove their value.

Every shopper is different, and the touchpoints that had the biggest impact on one might not be the same for another.

This is why it can be helpful to layer attribution insights by audience segment. You might find that:

• New customers respond best to educational welcome flows and retargeting ads.
• Returning customers convert faster with loyalty reminders or back-in-stock SMS messages.
• VIPs engage most with curated product drops via email and early-access push.

💡Marketing attribution tip: Klaviyo lets you map attribution data directly to your segments, so you can build smarter, more tailored experiences based on what actually drives action for each group. 

Before you change anything, get clear on what you’re working with. 

If you’re using last-click attribution by default, it means only the final interaction is getting credit for a purchase and everything that led up to that moment is ignored. That can lead to:

• Misleading reports
• Over-investment in “closer” channels
• Missed opportunities in early-funnel campaigns that are working quietly in the background

Knowing your current model helps you understand the gaps, and makes the case for switching to something more accurate.

To make the switch:

1. Head to “Settings” → “Attribution model” in your Klaviyo account.
2. Select “Linear” from the dropdown menu as your default.
3. Apply common customisation options, like:
   • Excluding transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates, etc.)
   • Filtering out bot clicks to keep your data clean
   • Adjusting your attribution window (e.g., only crediting interactions that happened within 5–7 days before a purchase)
4. Implement omnichannel attribution to capture and connect interactions across email, SMS, paid ads, and on-site behaviour.

💡 Marketing attribution tip: Make changes in a staging environment or test account first if you want to compare models side by side before fully switching over.

Note: Omnichannel and linear multi-touch attribution are available for Klaviyo Marketing Analytics and Advanced Klaviyo Data Platform customers.

Use Klaviyo’s reporting dashboards to:

• Monitor channel performance over time (not just campaigns, but the entire journey).
• See how different segments engage across touchpoints.
• Identify shifts in what’s influencing conversions.

Marketing moves fast, so it’s important to review your attribution settings regularly (quarterly is a good start). At this point, you should revisit your attribution windows, what channels are included, segment behaviour, and new campaign types or features.

If you’ve ever felt like your attribution data doesn’t quite match your gut instincts, you’re not alone. Most tools either oversimplify customer journeys (hi, last-click) or make it nearly impossible to actually use the data.

Klaviyo’s approach is built to reflect how B2C brands really sell and how real people actually shop. It gives you a unified, real-time view across all channels so you’re not stitching together siloed reports or second-guessing your metrics.

With omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution as the default, every meaningful interaction gets credit, not just the last one. That means you get a more accurate, balanced picture of what’s working and where you should double down. 

And because Klaviyo’s approach is rooted in omnichannel attribution (a feature that’s only available in Marketing Analytics or Advanced KDP), you can actually see how Facebook ads, emails, SMS, and on-site behaviours collectively influence the path to purchase. 

Klaviyo lets you customise your attribution model to match your goals:

• Exclude transactional messages (like order confirmations) so they don’t skew performance data.
• Set your own attribution windows, so if you want to credit conversions within 5 days of a touchpoint instead of 24 hours, you can.
• Apply retroactive updates. If you change your settings later, your reports update automatically. 

Soon, you’ll also be able to track how third-party ads and off-platform sources (like Meta, Google, or TikTok) contribute to your customer journey right alongside your owned channel data. This upcoming omnichannel view will give you end-to-end clarity, connecting paid and organic touchpoints with the channels you already control in Klaviyo.

Attribution has a reputation for being overly technical, overly complex, and, honestly, kind of a pain. But it doesn’t have to be.